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Designing personalisation of European public service media (PSM): trends on algorithms and artificial intelligence for content distribution

César Fieiras-Ceide — 2023-05-24

The migration of audiences to digital environments has motivated the media to develop a content distribution strategy that has a presence in these new spaces. In the case of European public broadcasters, they have strengthened their digital news services and have built video-on-demand platforms where they organise and screen their products. Even so, the overload of information and content reaching users forces corporations to look for new mechanisms to present an adequate, interesting and diverse offering to each of their followers. This research project analyses the use of artificial intelligence in the recommendation systems implemented by 14 European public broadcasters in Germany (ARD and ZDF), Belgium (VRT and RTBF), Denmark (DR), Spain (RTVE), Finland (YLE), France (France TV), Great Britain (BBC), the Netherlands (NPO), Ireland (RTÉ), Italy (RAI), Sweden (SVT) and Switzerland (RTS). The results reveal that there is no unanimity among the corporations with regard to the operation and origin of these systems, which vary between home-made developments, acquired from third parties, or collaborative solutions. Operators differentiate between news recommendation processes and those executed on their VoD platforms and aim to distance their systems from those of commercial media, for which they have already started working on a public service media (PSM) algorithm that includes traditional public media values, avoids filter bubbles, and pays special attention to the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Constructing counter-hegemony on Twitter: Discourse of Ibero-American political women of “change” in the digital environment

Romina Pepe-Oliva — 2023-05-09

Women are occupying more and more space in the public sphere, not only through pressure on the streets, but increasingly in digital spaces. It is at this intersection that different ways of engaging in politics coalesce with the presence of women who demand their own voice and visibility beyond the mechanisms of traditional politics. Those requiring a transformation of the current political reality are the political women “of change.” One of their main attributes is that they generate and spread counter-hegemonic narratives as a form of empowerment and a way to question the dominant political discourse through digital media. Our objective herein is to analyze, in a comparative way, the use of this communicative strategy to understand its articulation and mechanisms. To do this, we study the discourse of ten Ibero-American political women on Twitter who are linked to social change. The methodology is based on the application of the content analysis technique that combines a quantitative dimension with another of a qualitative nature focused on critical discourse analysis. The results show that criticism and denunciation, to give voice to the voiceless and make social problems visible, are the main components of these political actors’ counter-hegemonic discourse on Twitter. Likewise, they display a practical and constructive counter-hegemony oriented in applied and positive terms. Finally, the institutional position in the government–opposition axis sharpens or minimizes the use of these types of communication strategies.

Blood donors wanted: narrative innovation on TikTok to enable mobilization

Raquel Martínez-Sanz — 2023-05-09

The explosive success of TikTok is one of a long list of phenomena that are transforming audiovisual relationships, creation, and consumption (Gómez-García; Vicent-Ibáñez, 2022). At the same time, social networks are demonstrating a capacity for outreach, awareness, and activism through innovative narratives that impact the audience. Therefore, we ask if and how, in addition to entertaining and being a place to find the latest trends, TikTok can help promote health activism linked to blood donation –an act of social responsibility– the collection of which has been in sharp decline for years (Carter et al., 2011; Huis-in ‘t-Veld et al., 2019). Through multimodal discourse analysis (Kress, 2012), we determine the characteristics, significance, and communicative resources of the tiktoks that the platform grouped under the hashtag #donasangre [#DonateBlood], ultimately comparing them with the perception and relationship that a large group of young university students expressed in focus groups. Among the results, we highlight how content on TikTok is reinterpreted and appropriated, as well as the false myths perpetuated among young people that keep them from donating and reinforce the importance of health institutions taking an active role in the online conversation and integrating narrative innovation into their content creation dynamics. Qualitative analysis of comments (6,215) revealed that there is an audience that “comes together” (Juris, 2012) and whose members reaffirm their status as donors and whose experience tempers the idea of donating being stressful and scary.

Political conversations and regret: A qualitative evaluation on the aftermath of political discussions on social media

Manuel Goyanes — 2023-05-09

The fundamental role of political discussions in democracy has been frequently highlighted by quantitative and qualitative literature at the intersection of political communication and media effects. Most research has revolved around whether, and if so under what conditions, social media platforms constitute public spaces where democracy can be nurtured and promoted. Building on this literature and underscoring the importance of individuals’ self-effects theories, this qualitative study, based on 42 in-depth interviews, clarifies how social media users navigate political discussions and their ulterior affective and cognitive processes, introducing the notion of political discussion regret. Specifically, this concept fundamentally emphasizes the sterility of partaking in political discussions as the main motivation for users’ cognitive lamentation, which indirectly cancels the presumed muscle of social media as the sphere of public and private political discussion and deliberations. Implications of the study’s findings and main theoretical consequences for the political discussion literature are also provided.

“As a rule, I don’t have sex on the first date”: Gender and age differences in motivations, perceptions, and experiences on Tinder

Carles Roca-Cuberes — 2023-05-10

This research explores the impact that gender and age have on motivations, experiences, and perceptions regarding the use of Tinder. Based on an inductive analysis of 37 semi-structured interviews with heterosexual Tinder users, we specifically examine gender and age differences in motivations, match selection, and communication management on this mobile dating app. The findings show that age differences have a more significant effect on motivations than gender differences do, whereby older adults use the app to find a stable partner, and young adults use it for sex. Women are more selective when picking matches than men, and when they make these selections, they pay special attention to male attributes that are typically associated with maintaining stable relationships. In contrast, men tend to focus almost exclusively on physical appearance. Between the match and the first date, users need to deal with a considerable volume of communication, which involves the use of different communication media in a series of consecutive stages, toward which matches normatively orient themselves. This transition to new media and stages, in which men tend to take the initiative and women assume the sanctioning role, marks a kind of incremental passage to intimacy. We conclude that, in their courting conduct, Tinder users perform conventional gender scripts that are typical of the heteronormative model of intimate relationships.

Spanish research on Communication in WoS: thematic, methodological, and intellectual comparison between SSCI and ESCI

Francisco Segado-Boj — 2023-05-11

This study analyses the thematic and conceptual structure of the Spanish scientific production published in Emerging Sources Citation Index (Web of Science) journals. In this way, the aim is to identify the closest links between concepts and terms based on the co-occurrence of keywords used by the authors of the papers analysed, and also to point out the theoretical foundations that exist in the discipline through the co-citation relationships of articles in the bibliography of the documents in the sample. Finally, these results were compared with those obtained from the analysis of Spanish scientific production in Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). To achieve these objectives, a network analysis of the co-occurrence of keywords and co-citation of references in articles published in Communication journals between 2015 and 2021 in ESCI (N = 3,559) and SSCI (N = 1,738) with at least one author linked to a Spanish institution was carried out. The results point to similar structural cohesion values and to a thematic and methodological similarity between both sets observed. There is a marked tendency towards quantitative studies on new technologies. While in SSCI there is an almost absolute dominance of Journalism studies, in ESCI there is a greater diversity of other disciplines such as Audiovisual Communication or Advertising. However, the intellectual structure of the production in SSCI reflects a more specialised character than in ESCI.

Public health communication and the Covid-19: A review of the literature during the first wave

Alfonso Méndiz-Noguero — 2023-05-29

The expansion of the Covid-19 virus in early 2020 grew in parallel with the spread of rumours, false or unverified news and even contradictions between information sources and health sources. It has been the first pandemic to be broadcast live on social media and has generated disinformation which was described by the WHO as an “infodemic”, a pandemic as serious as the virus itself. The aim was to identify and analyse the impact generated by the first wave of Covid-19 (January-June 2020) on public health communication. The review was carried out under the Prisma guidelines. A systematic search was performed in PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases, which yielded a figure of 1.157 papers. Using seven keywords as a filter a corpus of 193 articles was reached. Four main themes were identified: 1) Need for massive public health literacy; 2) Social networks as an information and disinformation during pandemic; (3) The uncertain response of institutional communication; and (4) Media coverage of the pandemic. The authors propose large-scale health literacy and point out the need to work on health information together -governments, health institutions and the media-.

Data-driven scientific research based on public statistics: a bibliometric perspective

Jorge-Eusebio Velasco-López — 2023-05-30

Official statistics provide information on different areas of citizens’ lives and are widely used in scientific research as a source of data due to their open data nature and quality assurance. In this context, a bibliometric analysis is carried out using all Scopus publications from 1960 to 2020 that use official statistics as data sources. Thus, 10,777 publications are analyzed using the SciMAT bibliometric analysis software, providing a complete conceptual analysis of the main research topics in the literature through the quantification of the main bibliometric performance indicators, identifying the most important authors, organizations, countries, sources, and intellectual structures corresponding to the main fields of research and bringing classification by subject area as an innovation to the methodology.

Peer review: the attitudes and behaviours of Covid-19 pandemic-era early career researchers

David Nicholas — 2023-05-22

Explores science and social science early career researchers’ (ECRs) perceptions and experiences of peer review, seeking also to identify their views of any pandemic-associated changes that have taken place. Data are drawn from the Harbingers-2 project, which investigated the impact of the pandemic on scholarly communications. Peer review, one of the activities covered, is singled out as it proved to be the activity of greatest concern to ECRs. Findings are obtained from interviews, which covered around 167 ECRs from China, France, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, Spain, UK and US, supplemented by an international survey that took the data out to a bigger and wider audience for confirmation and generalisation. Results obtained are enhanced by comparisons with pre-pandemic evidence yielded by Harbingers-1, the forerunner of the present study, and anchored in an extensive review of the literature. Main findings are: 1) most ECRs were experienced in peer review, both as reviewers and authors, but few had formal training; 2) half the ECRs had a lot or some reservations as to whether peer review vouches for the trustworthiness of research; 3) inadequate reviewers and slow processes were the main peer review associated problems; 4) there was a strong feeling that some kind of compensation, whether monetary or reputational, could help in dealing with these problems; 5) the pandemic impacted most on the speed of processing, with the majority of ECRs saying it had slowed the process; 6) nearly everyone thought that any pandemic-induced impacts would be temporary.

The emerging phenomenon of L2 vlogging on Bilibili: characteristics, engagement, and informal language learning

Leticia-Tian Zhang — 2023-05-09

The rise of digital technology has provided new opportunities for language learning, extending beyond traditional classroom instruction. Video projects have emerged as an effective tool in foreign language education, yet research on self-initiated and regulated video production for language learning is scarce. This study investigates the phenomenon of vlogging in Spanish as a second language on the Chinese video sharing platform Bilibili, by analyzing 134 Chinese-produced Spanish-language vlogs. The study aims to understand the vlogs’ characteristics, the vloggers’ profile, and the ways they utilize the genre for learning Spanish. Through qualitative virtual ethnography, the study uncovers the presence and learning engagement of Spanish L2 vlogs on Bilibili. The results reveal a diverse range of vlogs, including daily life experiences and adaptations of popular YouTube trends, primarily produced by university students with advanced editing skills. Vloggers incorporate knowledge from both formal education (e.g., the Spanish textbook widely used in China, Español Moderno) and informal contexts. In addition to practicing oral Spanish, L2 vloggers use various forms of writing, including Spanish subtitles and Chinese translation, and mobilize multimodal resources, such as danmu comments for overlaying corrections. Vloggers also adopt discursive strategies for community interaction, such as self-deprecating metalanguage, feedback solicitation, and metalinguistic reflections. The study highlights the potential of video-sharing platforms like Bilibili as tools for language learning, reveals different learning styles in digital environments (self-supervised and interaction-oriented learning), and indicates the direction of integrating daily vlogs and multilingual subtitles into language curricula, emphasizing students’ agency, self-directed digital learning, and transmedia literacy development.

Voice search optimization in digital media: challenges, use and training

Carlos Lopezosa — 2023-05-09

In view of the widespread use of virtual voice assistants and/or voice searches on smartphones to find all kinds of information, this article explores voice search optimisation (VSO) and its application in the journalistic sector. To this end, 32 semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts representing different professional profiles in the fields of journalism, search engine optimisation (SEO) and academic research. On the basis of the data, eight semantic categories were created and the experts’ perceptions were correlated to identify response patterns. The results confirm the existence of various degrees of convergence and divergence between these three professional profiles in relation to different dimensions of VSO, such as its definition, its techniques, its current and future strategic role in digital media, and its application in journalistic writing. This study confirms that although the use of VSO in digital news media is still in its embryonic stages, it will be useful in the medium and long term to train journalists in basic aspects of voice searches. In addition, internal SEO departments should be prepared to optimise the visibility of news for virtual voice assistants when they become widespread and when the technology companies that develop these assistants define a viable business model.

Proposal for an index measuring the reputation of open data portals: The Odapri

Marta Ortiz-de-Urbina-Criado — 2023-05-26

The demand for open data has led to the creation and the availability of numerous portals releasing data. However, a large percentage of them are not properly designed for professional use. One way to analyze the value that a portal delivers is through its reputation, but this is a concept that has not yet been well defined or measured. This work will focus on the reputation of open data portals with two objectives. The first objective is to delimit the concept of reputation for open data portals, therefore leading to the first proposed research question: How can the reputation of open data portals be defined? The second objective is to propose criteria for measuring reputation and to create a reputation index for open data portals, with the second research question: How can the reputation of open data portals be assessed? This work is conceptual and descriptive and proposes a multidimensional definition of this concept, which includes whether it is known, being known for something, and its generalized favorability. In addition, a proposal is made for a reputation index identifying its dimensions and measurements, and finally, an analysis of its usefulness is presented. To this end, a figure has been created that summarizes the dimensions and benefits for creators and developers of open data portals and for the different application sectors (public, private, academic, and third sector). This research can help public administrations and other sectors to have a reference of good practices when offering open data to citizens and organizations oriented towards creating value in society.

Evolution of digital activism on social media: opportunities and challenges

Antonio Castillo-Esparcia — 2023-05-09

The social media revolution has affected all areas, including activism. However, there is scepticism about its emancipatory capacity, and it is considered by some to be a distorted form of activism. This article presents a review of the existing literature on digital activism, starting with the concept itself, and examines its impact on the organisation of activists and citizen participation. Likewise, based on the platformisation of these spaces and the evolution of their affordances, we observe a growth in individual, strategic and low-commitment participation, the accentuation of the role of emotions in media that promote virality, and the assumption of playful forms of politainment by activists –especially on TikTok–. On the other hand, the strategies carried out by organisations to promote activism in relation to their causes are investigated, such as the generation of arguments provided by the interest group and the involvement in an action of dissemination, co-creation and replication of activists. Finally, the main challenges of digital activism are indicated: the growing inequality in terms of access to algorithmic visibility between activists and brands, influencers and interest groups; the desirability of complementing playful activism with work in alternative digital media that allows for more stable forms of collaboration; and the need to protect activists against the growth of hate speech on these platforms.