Área Abierta. Revista de comunicación audiovisual y publicitaria
Área Abierta. Revista de comunicación audiovisual y publicitaria is a journal devoted to audiovisual communication and advertising. It accepts academic articles from the fields of photography, cinema, television, new media, audiovisual journalism and audiovisual advertising. In an attempt to be interdisciplinary, it considers technological, industrial, historical, social, aesthetic and cultural approaches. It is intended for communication researchers, professors and doctoral candidates. Área Abierta publishes original and unpublished blind peer-reviewed articles. It accepts texts in Spanish, English and Portuguese.
In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Área Abierta. Revista de comunicación audiovisul y publicitaria is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence. Área Abierta. Revista de Comunicación Audiovisual y Publicitaria is an open access journal that does not charge authors for article processing (submission, review or editing) or publication.
Barbenheimer: A Disruptive Film Promotion Strategy
This study aims to analyze how the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon has innovated traditional advertising strategies in the contemporary film industry. This phenomenon arose from the convergence of the releases of ‘Barbie’ and “Oppenheimer,” which gained relevance by combining two seemingly opposite films. Its phenomenological design focuses on capturing the essence of how participants experience a specific phenomenon. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals in the fields of advertising and film. As a result, the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon has influenced traditional promotional strategies by attracting diverse audiences and highlighting the importance of creativity and innovation in unconventional advertising campaigns. Active audience participation, facilitated by social media, has been key to the success of these strategies, underscoring the need to include audience interaction in contemporary film advertising.
Copyright (c) 2026 Área Abierta. Revista de comunicación audiovisual y publicitaria
Images in Juan José Millás’ Photocolumns. A Study of People, Shots, and Textual Anchoring
This research examines the photocolumn as a vanguardist opinion journalism genre characterized by its inherent hybridity between image and text. The study focuses on the specific case of the “La Imagen” section in the supplement El País Semanal, authored by Juan José Millás, a renowned writer and journalist known for creating the articuento (a hybrid of a literary short story and a journalistic article). The methodology employed is a quantitative and qualitative content analysis, utilizing an originally designed analytical matrix to investigate the selection and treatment of the images. The findings demonstrate Millás’ strong commitment to the human element, consistently prioritizing people over locations and inanimate objects. Analysis of the photographic shots highlights a clear interest in visualizing the informative “who”, their action, and immediate context. Finally, the study confirms the crucial role of textual anchoring: the accompanying text does not merely complement the image but actively interprets it, imbuing it with new meaning. This discursive mechanism solidifies the photocolumn as an essential tool for providing the reader with other eyes to see reality.
Horror, Witches, and Feminism in American Popular Culture: An Intertextual Analysis of TV Series Agatha All Along (Disney+, 2024)
In the contemporary television industry, fiction series must compete in a saturated market with attractive and innovative proposals. The Marvel universe series Agatha All Along (Disney+, 2025) is a prime example of this scenario due to its metatelevision component. The aim of this study is to determine the intertextual references of this fiction from a feminist and queer perspective. Using a qualitative methodology, a textual analysis of the series is applied to identify and classify these elements. The results show numerous references to the audiovisual medium, with allusions to films and series in the fantasy and horror genres, as well as to the Marvel universe itself, but especially to other elements of popular culture and witches. The series demonstrates a motivation to move away from superheroes and includes diverse women and queer characters who, through popular culture, offers a feminist vision of the figure of the witch.
From Ritual to Stereotype: Voodoo as a Filmic Discourse of Colonialism. A Systematic Analysis of its Representation
Cinematic representations of Voodoo and other Afro-descendant syncretisms have historically operated as a device of alterity, constructing a distorted colonial imaginary removed from its anthropological reality. This research examines the evolution of such stereotypes through a mixed-sequential methodological design, integrating a systematic mapping of 294 feature films with an in-depth qualitative analysis of 20 strategic works. The results evidence an overwhelming US hegemony that standardizes its representation linked to horror, yet reveal a growing tension between commercial trivialization and certain narratives of cultural reappropriation. A structural shift is identified wherein Voodoo transitions from exotic context to narrative motor, geographically shifting toward Hoodoo as an ambivalent vector of historical memory. It is concluded that, despite the emergence of resistance discourses, cinema primarily instrumentalizes Afro-descendant spirituality to channel racial anxieties, transforming the ritual into a monstrous spectacle that reaffirms, by contrast, Western cultural supremacy.
La producción del documental transmedia en el Perú. El análisis de las hipermediaciones en tres documentales emblemáticos
This research paper analyzes the characteristics of the production of the first transmedia documentaries in Peru made between 2015 and 2019. The transmedia documentaries Proyecto Quipu, La vida no vale un cobre and Ruta de Fuga, made by three Peruvian female directors (Rosemarie Lerner, Maga Zevallos and Francesca Dasso) narrate social and political issues of special interest to public opinion. They have multimedia platforms on the web and a digital media network that allows the expansion of the franchise. Carlos Scolari's theory of hypermedia allows the description of five aspects required to achieve communication in digital environments (digitalization, hypertextuality, reticularity, interactivity and multimedia) and serves as a basis for analyzing the particularities of the production of the three transmedia documentaries. The results of the study show that transmedia documentaries enjoy remarkable interactive interfaces and a high density of hyperlinks, although the generation of convergence that fosters interaction and co-creation to build strong communities and generate truly immersive experiences is still pending.
Outdoor Advertising in the Digital Environment: The Media Evolve, but the Creative Guidelines Remain the Same
This study updates a research conducted 16 years ago on the perception of creatives regarding outdoor advertising. Given the rise of digitalization, it has been deemed appropriate to analyze whether this change has modified the creative process, both in digital and traditional formats. At the same time, the perspective of this profile on sustainability in this medium is explored. Through a qualitative methodology, 30 advertising creatives were surveyed, with both open and closed questions, and it was observed that these professionals still see outdoor advertising as a challenge and a medium full of possibilities with significant room for growth. In conclusion, it is stated that new technologies represent a strong tool for innovation and the impact that characterizes this medium, but sustainability remains an unresolved issue in terms of creativity.
The Practice of Microcelebrity as a Strategy for the Development of a Musical Career through the Case of Gio Bermejo
This article analyzes the case of Gio Bermejo as an example of an artist who moves away from traditional methods of musical creation and promotion, opting for strategies typical of the digital environment, specifically, for the practice of musical microcelebrity. For this purpose, we examine, on the one hand, the strategic elements in the communication that Gio Bermejo uses to develop his musical career. On the other hand, the use he makes of the potentialities and strategies of digital platforms is observed. An exploratory methodology that combines bibliographic analysis, structured interview with the artist and a qualitative analysis in social networks is carried out. Bermejo creates a recognizable brand associated with the fifties and carries out a strategy based on the discourse of authenticity that emphasizes the self-revelation of the private and the creation of parasocial relationships with his fandom.
Podcasts in corporate communication: a qualitative approach from the receiver’s perspective
Digital innovation in companies is advancing significantly in the Broadband Society. During the pandemic, at a forced pace, operations were rethought to adapt them to the needs of the moment in each department and business area: telematic meetings, teleworking and new forms of communication. This research focuses on an innovative digital tool in the internal communication of companies: the podcast. Using a qualitative methodology (in-depth interviews with specialized business profiles), an analysis is carried out on the implications of the implementation of the podcast in the internal communication of companies to discuss issues with employees. It is observed that companies and organizations are progressing in the development of digital tools to adapt their processes and improve internal communication.
The 2017 Declaration of Independence of Catalonia in French Documentary Cinema: Strategies Employed by the Public Audiovisual System to Minimise its Impact in France
This article focuses on two documentaries produced by French public television following the declaration of independence of Catalonia by the President of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, on 10 October 2017: Catalogne, la bataille des mots and Catalogne, l'Espagne au bord de la crise de nerfs. We adopt a comparative and pragmatic perspective on both documentaries, focusing on the audiovisual discourse strategies they employ to reach the same implicit conclusion by different means: to suggest (without saying so explicitly and even seeking a certain balance) that the independence project in Catalonia will fail and that it would not be positive for either France or the European Union if it were to succeed.
Once Upon a Time I Went to the Movies: A Thousand and One First Times. Cinema Memories and the Construction of Heritage
Drawing on extensive and previously unpublished fieldwork concerning the first cinematic experiences of audiences between 1930 and 1970, this study raises a series of critical issues and questions regarding both the content and aims of national cinema narratives, as well as the complex interplay and hierarchical tensions between oral and written cultural forms. The evocative force of these pieces invites a reconsideration of the relationship between materials and the aims of heritage-making processes within the broader memorial continuum: from testimonial to agential, encompassing documentary, archival, historical, and museological dimensions. The critical perspective adopted here, rooted in academic discourse, proposes an alternative epistemological and methodological approach in which the re-embodiment and reactivation of these materials enable a renewed articulation of the relationship between History and Praxis.
Copyright (c) 2025 Área Abierta. Revista de comunicación audiovisual y publicitaria
Orality and Cinema in Angola and Mozambique
The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the presence of orality in the cinemas of Angola and Mozambique since independence. We will question the very scarce presence of adaptations of traditional stories, and attempt to provide an explanation, and we will pay special attention to some works which, at the end of the seventies, appear to consciously reflect tensions between orality and writing, Portuguese and local languages, modernity and tradition.
What’s up, dude? Class-Based Orality in Youth Slangs during the Spanish Transition, between the Madrid Comedy and Cine Quinqui (1977-1982).
This paper examines the divergent representations of authenticity and transgression in the orality of cine quinqui and “Madrid comedy” during a double transitional period: Spain’s democratization and the advent of direct sound recording. Through a qualitative, comparative approach—situated between discourse analysis and cultural studies—the paper analyzes the youth slangs used in Tigres de papel (Fernando Colomo, 1977), Ópera prima (Fernando Trueba, 1980), and Colegas (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1982). The contrast between these films reveals an underexplored divide shaped by social class, linguistic agency, and differential access to the means of oral representation. We argue that these slangs are not merely instances of secondary orality in a technical sense, but also serve as repositories of youth identity in an era when freedom of expression in Spain remained nascent and precarious
Word versus Image. Notes on Oral Narrative on the Film Screen
This paper reflects on the importance of sound elements in cinema, often overshadowed by the prominence of images. It addresses issues such as the incorporation of speech into the cinematic narrative (during its silent period through intertitles and later through the actors’ voices), the introduction of a narrative voice (internal or external) in certain films, the cases in which the latter appears personified, and the existence of a recipient (explicit or implicit in the film’s narrative). It also includes a section considering two extreme cases related to the voice on screen: its absolute prominence or its irrelevant nature. Finally, it refers to the innovative lines of research proposed in this field by audionarratology studies.
Ranch Comedy and Reply Couplets. The Imprint of Oral Culture
The traditional and oral culture of the glosa en décima, and its musical version of the huapango arribeño or the valona, appeared reinterpreted in the beginnings of Mexican sound cinema and, with greater emphasis, in the ranch comedy, its musical and nationalist genre. The article presents the folkloric and specular roots of this oral and musical tradition and takes a look at several of its appearances in the classic era of this film genre.
Echoes and Resonances from the Movie Theater: The Disembodied Voices in Ojo Guareña (Edurne Rubio, 2018)
The article proposes an approach to the “disembodied voices” (Doane, 1980) present in the documentary feature film Ojo Guareña (2018), by visual artist Edurne Rubio. From a review of the theoretical debates that, so far, have addressed the issue of disembodied voices in documentary film and in parallel to issues related to the technological development of sound capture and emission (up to the “relocation of cinema” [Casetti, 2012]), an analysis of the proposed case is carried out. The case is especially interesting if we consider the spatial and resonant use of disembodied voices, arranged on black screen and chiseled as text on it. These voices are the main means by which a certain spectatorial experience is achieved, which is rooted in the analogy between cinema and cave and, therefore, makes the film preferably conceived for its projection in the movie theatre.
Cinema from Ears: Orality, Memory and Identity in Lusophone African Cinemas
Orality, whether in the form of tales, oral tradition stories, or songs, is an aspect present in several African cultures and will be considered here based on film productions made in Portuguese-speaking African countries, namely Angola (O ritmo do N’Gola Ritmos, 1978; Nelisita, 1982; Kuduro: fogo no Museke, 2007), Guinea-Bissau (Po di Sangui, 1996; Kadjike, 2013; Memória/Calling Cabral, 2022) e Mozambique (Canta meu irmão e ajuda-me a cantar, 1982). The aim of this article is to understand how expressions of oral tradition, transmitted intergenerationally, when incorporated into audiovisual works, operate a “presentification” of traditions (Hampâté Bâ, 2010) and transmit a collective memory whose values ​​serve as a subsidy for weaving criticisms about dilemmas that are contemporary to the period in which the film was made (Gama, 2020). Through film analysis and the historical contextualization of the works, it is noted that orality goes beyond words and impacts the very aesthetics of the film by generating narratives marked by the intrinsic relationship between factual and figurative, past and present.
Colonial Policies in Japanese Non-Sound Cinema: Narrators and National Spirit
The use of cinema as a means of ideological propaganda and a tool for cultural expansion and export in Japan began after its victory in the war against Tsarist Russia between 1904 and 1905. A conflict that marked not only a turning point in the country's expansionist policies, but also the development of internal film infrastructures that favoured and encouraged the war spirit in Japanese society, as well as external ones in order to strengthen imperialist expansion and colonial propaganda in the occupied territories. One of the most interesting case studies is the development of the Japanese film industry in Taiwan by the silent film narrator Takamatsu Toyojirô, a trade unionist agitator in Tokyo who put himself at the service of the expansionist government in order to propagate national ideology.
The Female Voice as Echo in Pedro Almodóvar’s The Human Voice (2020)
Pedro Almodóvar’s The Human Voice / La voz humana (2020) can be seen as a meditation on the paradoxes of the female voice in cinema. The fact that it was filmed during the pandemic only serves to intensify the paradoxical nature of the voice: at once spectral and intimate. In this article, I use Almodóvar’s adaptation of Cocteau’s play La voix humaine to explore the extent to which Tilda Swinton’s voice in the role of the protagonist animates vocal apparitions of the other actresses who have held the role before her in an intertextual acoustic network. Drawing on the figure of the mythological Echo, I view Swinton’s performance as an example of vocal singularity and reflect on the ways that this film offers up the female voice as a corrective to the notion of the authority and mastery of the male voice.
Orality in Cinema: Presences On and Off the Screen
Nostalgia and the Survival of Mythical Stories in the Society of Interactive Spectacle. Videogames’ Relationship with their Past through Remakes
This paper analyzes the appearance of video game remakes, questions the anthropological motivations for their current abundance and tests the validity of Guy Debord's theories on the society of the spectacle by applying them to this new context. Jean Baudrillard's theories are also used to propose the hypothesis that video games and their remakes overlap each other in an attempt to update their hyperreality. As examples, both aesthetic and playable changes in different videogames are analyzed.
The TV Set (1974, 2022) as Intracultural Remake: From the Society of Spectacle to Surveillance Capitalism
This paper explores the potential and artistic relevance of the contemporary remake through the specific case of The TV Set (1974), a piece included in the Tales to Keep You Awake (1966-1982), currently updated in the year 2022. It is proposed that the new version directed by Jaume Balagueró is an intracultural remake, in which a heterodiegetic appropriation is carried out to rearticulate Ibáñez Serrador’s findings and insert them in a contemporary context whose paradigm implies the surpassing of the original. Starting from the thought-provoking allegorization of the ideas on the role of the society of spectacle in the late Francoist period, the remake updates its socio-cultural dialogue, now oriented to the role of multi-screen mediatization in surveillance capitalism. In this sense, there is suggestive proof of the continuing relevance of certain narratives, which can be periodically revisited through the transformative dynamics of the remake.
Tailor-made Playful Nostalgia: A Methodological Proposal for the Analysis of Videogame Remakes from a Social Point of View
This article aims to offer a methodology to address the study of video game remakes in relation to nostalgia and society. It is based on the hypothesis that remakes are reconstructions of video games that generate nostalgia in certain audiences and social groups, and that one of the main reasons for making them is to satisfy it. Therefore, they are remade to measure, softening the pain “algia” of the return “nostos”. This issue will be analyzed and a methodology will be offered to analyze video game remakes under this approach.
The Legacy of his Name: Self-allusion and Remake in Holy Motors and C’est pas moi, de Leos Carax
This article consists of an analysis of the films Holy Motors (2012) and C’est pas moi (2024) by Leos Carax. In these works, the French filmmaker composes a cinematic testament through a fantastical metafiction and a Godardian film diary, respectively. Throughout both tales, we can identify a melancholic, nostalgic, and critical exercise of rewriting certain earlier works by the director himself, as well as some iconic narratives and images from the history of cinema. The theoretical-philosophical framework and the film and narrative analysis allow for the decoding of the meaning of the stories and the ideas they convey: artistic and vital affiliations, cultural heritage, and metamodernity.
Uchronia and Nostalgia in the Narratives of Fallout, Bioshock, and Wolf-enstein
The research establishes a link between dystopias and nostalgic intertextualities that manifest in the narrative representation of uchronia within the video game. To explore this intertextual relationship, the sagas Fallout, Bioshock, and Wolfenstein are analyzed through the lens of game studies, in dialogue with the fundamental characteristics of literary dystopias and the philosophical dimensions of nostalgia. Among the key findings, convergent elements such as Derrida’s hauntology, historical manipulation, the figure of the rebel hero, and the rewriting of the past emerge. Regarding the link with nostalgia, while the idealization of the past serves as a central theme, its treatment varies: in Wolfenstein, nostalgia functions as a symbol of hope; in Bioshock, it is used to reinterpret the present; and in Fallout, beyond its retro aesthetic, it is commercialized through products and brands that evoke a pragmatic melancholy.
The Impact of Interior Design on the Perception of Remakes: How Spaces Define the Identity of New Versions
The rise of remakes in cinema, which recreate classic stories for new audiences, has intensified in recent decades, standing out for their ability to reinterpret narratives from contemporary perspectives. This analysis examines how changes in the interior design of remakes influence the identity and narrative of films. Through a visual and theoretical approach, key elements such as lighting, materials, spatial arrangement, and furniture are analyzed to evaluate their contribution to the atmosphere and emotional impact of these productions. The findings reveal that interior design not only updates the aesthetics but also reconfigures the narrative, striking a balance between the nostalgia of the original work and innovations reflecting cultural and technological shifts. By modifying spaces, remakes provide viewers with a renewed experience that preserves the story's essence while adapting its visual language to resonate with modern audiences, bridging the past and present effectively.
From Terror to Trauma. The Remake as a Container of Narrative Motifs in Alone in the Dark (1992, 2024)
Remakes are a common strategy in video games, a cultural industry heavily dependent on intellectual property. Often motivated by technological changes and the dependence on closed platforms, these new versions range from an update (the so-called remasters) to reinventions that take the original and, keeping the name, offer a new product. This is the case of Alone in the Dark (Pieces Interactive, 2024), a new version of the eponymous horror pioneer (Infogrames, 1992), in which the central ludonarrative elements of the original are maintained, adapting them to current trends. Here we analyze the new version (from now on, AITD2024) from the prism of myth-criticism, studying those motifs or mythemes (ideas that, following Barthes, naturalize a vision of the world through repetition) that are added to the originals, specifically the cultural obsessions with trauma as a determining vector of its protagonists’ identity and interiority.
Netflix, the New Seriality and the Transcendental Style. Analysis of the Third Season of Master of None
With the advent of platforms like Netflix, the television medium has undergone significant transformations. This study aims to analyze how the third season of Master of None challenges traditional norms of television seriality through the use of elements characteristic of auteur cinema, narrative catalysis, and the transcendental style. The research employs a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative and quantitative analysis, using specific tools to evaluate the syntactic and semantic dimensions of the season. The findings reveal that this season departs from the fundamental principles of television seriality by presenting intermittent central characters and settings, focusing on a single storyline, and predominantly employing narrative catalysis. Moreover, it prioritizes everyday life and transcendental themes, aligning more closely with auteur cinema than conventional television fiction. Thus, Master of None introduces an innovative narrative model that diverges from established conventions.
Rape and Revenge in Remake’s Era: From I Spit On Your Grave (Meir Zarchi, 1978) to I Spit on Your Grave (Steven R. Monroe, 2010)
This research studies the relationship between I Spit On Your Grave (Meir Zarchi, 1978), and its remake of the same title, directed by Steven R. Monroe in 2010, examining the evolution of rape revenge and how social, technological and cinematic contexts influence the original and the remake. Through a comparative filmic analysis focusing on contextual, narrative and formal parameters, the similarities and differences between the two films are pointed out. This analysis allows us to trace the evolution of rape revenge in the context of the remake, showing that there are few changes with respect to the feminist perspective, the vision of sexual violence and punitivism, although there is a graphic increase in on-screen violence, both sexual violence and the revenge carried out by the protagonist.
From Nostalgia to the Remastered Age of Mythology: Portrayals of Gods and Goddesses in Video Games
When Age of Mythology was released, it became one of the most interesting titles in real-time strategy video games by introducing a mythological universe. Covering a variety of cultures, it featured deities from different pantheons, presenting them through both imagery and descriptions. With the arrival of its remaster in 2024, Age of Mythology: Retold, the opportunity arose to update these figures. However, the initial versions disappointed the community, not so much due to the changes, but because of the potential use of AI in their designs. The final effigies were based on the beta versions and updated, resulting in up to three distinct portraits of gods. This article aims to highlight, through a comparative analysis of these three representations of gods and goddesses, how visual culture and constant exposure to images have enabled their figures to be refined with more complex attributes, which nonetheless do not hinder their identification.
Dialectics between Text and Visual: Ekphrasis in Video Game Remakes
The history of video games can be traced from a literary point of view according to its gradual advance from written text to cinematic and audiovisual techniques. A clear example of this advance can be found in the study of the rhetorical mechanism of ekphrasis or literary description within the video game. With this in mind, several typologies of current video games will be considered according to the degree of text that they decide to keep inside them. The role of remakes and nostalgia in demonstrating the survival or expiration of text within the video game will also be examined as a case study through the case study of Colossal Cave Adventure