Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico

Mapping AI uses and perceptions in fact-checking organisations in Mediterranean Europe

Roger Cuartielles — 2026-05-08

This study maps the uses and perceptions of AI among fact-checking organisations accredited by Duke Reporters' Lab, the International Fact-Checking Network, and the European Digital Media Observatory in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece. These countries were selected as they are among the most populous territories in the Mediterranean European region and host the majority of fact-checking entities. A qualitative approach is used based on 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews with representatives from each organisation. The interviews were conducted between May and July 2024. The findings reveal that AI tools are primarily employed during the gathering, monitoring, and detection phase, where they help increase speed and expand the scope of disinformation tracking. There is also a growing use of Large Language Models (LLMs) as tools for compiling information and conducting preliminary searches. Generally, organisations interviewed report feeling adequately prepared to use AI, largely due to the accessibility and intuitive design of current tools. Nevertheless, factors such as lack of funding and job precarity, as well as staff composition, affect their implementation, with only seven organisations (36.8%) having developed proprietary tools. Although AI is viewed as a valuable resource for automating repetitive tasks such as transcription, translation, and monitoring, it also raises concerns. Organisations warn that AI could contribute to more sophisticated disinformation and even foster a Liar’s Dividend effect, undermining public trust and the credibility of fact-checkers themselves.

Data journalism in the contemporary political sphere between 2015 and 2025: scoping review

Carlos Rodríguez-Urra — 2026-05-08

Data journalism has emerged as a specialisation associated with strong democratic potential. Newsrooms increasingly rely on data visualisation to show social and political trends, drawing on public information from state institutions and private companies. This process has been accelerated worldwide by information and communication technologies. his article presents a scoping review of the relationship between data journalism and politics over the past decade. Using the SALSA methodology (Search, Appraisal, Synthesis and Analysis), it maps 101 academic sources to examine how data journalism contributes to political communication, transparency and democratic accountability. The analysis delineates seven research fronts: democracy; disinformation and social media; visualisation and political race; investigative and collaborative journalism; automation and objectivity; open data and literacy; and studies from the MENA region. The concept of democracy emerges as the central axis, with data journalism being positioned as both a methodological innovation and a democratic watchdog. The findings reveal geographical asymmetries, with Western scholarship prevailing while research from Asia, Africa and Latin America remains limited. The study also highlights the ethical tensions between algorithmic dependence, political influence and objectivity. Data journalism functions as a technological and political praxis, engendering transparency, civic engagement and democratic renewal.

Informational Profiles and Incidental Consumption Pathways: A model to analyze the relationship of young people with the news

Rocío Gómez Astudillo — 2026-05-08

In the context of news consumption on social media, incidental exposure has been identified as one of the predominant practices for encountering news, especially among young people. Despite the exploration of its characteristics in existing studies, there is a need to understand its development in greater depth and to examine the differences that emerge according to audiences' news reports. This research proposes a model that links news profiles of young people aged 18 to 24 living in the Metropolitan Region of Chile with the type of pathway of incidental consumption. The model is based on a mixed-methods approach, which included 40 interviews and 385 surveys. Incidental consumption refers to the activities that people engage in when they come across news in this way. The results of the study indicate that the consumption habits of young people regarding news can be classified into three distinct profiles. The following categories are proposed for consideration: "social media news users", "minimalists" and "digital traditionalists". Moreover, three potential courses of action have been identified in the aftermath of incidental encounters: the scrolling of content due to a lack of interest or to avoid news updates; the partial review of content by reading headlines or descriptions; and the development of four intentional search strategies. These findings offer a more profound comprehension of informational practices that have the potential to inform new research directions and be of use to industry decision-makers seeking to enhance their engagement with their audiences.

Work precarity and gender in Argentine journalism: A double crisis for female journalists

Carme Ferré-Pavia — 2026-05-08

The present study examines the perception of work precarity and compares gender dynamics in this regard, drawing insights from a survey of journalists in Argentina. The analysis of the 672 response questionnaires indicates a gender disparity, particularly for women, in terms of job instability, as they are more likely to hold temporary and part-time positions. Furthermore, a discrepancy has been observed in their capacity to influence work organization, as they frequently occupy lower-level positions and prioritize family well-being. Motherhood and the care of dependent beings are significant impediments to women's professional development, as they are often compelled to postpone projects or modify their working conditions. However, this is not the only factor to be considered. A significant number of participants have articulated sentiments of underestimation, largely attributable to their gender. The prevailing sentiment among both genders is that male journalists are the beneficiaries of a greater range of opportunities, enhanced prospects for professional advancement, and more favorable working conditions. The sexism that still exists in the sector is also seen as a key constraint, as many women feel undervalued in their workplaces simply for being women, regardless of whether they have children or not. This study makes a significant contribution to a more comprehensive understanding of the gender gap in journalism on a global scale. In this context, the regulation of work-life balance and the implementation of gender quotas are ongoing processes in most regions worldwide.

An overview of the organizational model and structure of local radio in Catalonia

Elaine Aparecida Lopes-da Silva — 2026-05-08

This research examines the organizational structure and human resources of local radio in Catalonia, including public, private, and community stations, in the context of technological transformation and digitalization of the sector. The main objective is to describe the internal organization of these stations, analyze the evolution of their staff over the last fifteen years, and determine the profile of the people in charge, paying special attention to the gender gap. To this end, a questionnaire was designed for managers of 227 Catalan radio stations, obtaining 155 valid responses (68.3 %). The questionnaire collected information on general data, hired and volunteer staff, programming, financing, organization, and future challenges. The results show that half of the stations have between one and four employees, while 27.1 % have no staff. Only 20.6 % have five or more employees. Volunteering plays a fundamental role: 86.5% of stations have at least five volunteers and 42.6 % have more than twenty, with this dependence being especially high in community stations. 68.4% of stations have not increased their staff in the last fifteen years, especially in public and community stations. Regarding management, 64.5̴ % of managers are men, and women, although better trained, occupy only 32.9 % of management positions, with greater inequality in private and community stations. The study concludes that Catalan local radio stations operate with very limited human resources and a heavy dependence on volunteers, which poses challenges of sustainability and professionalization, in addition to a persistent gender gap in management.

Indicators for transparency in the planning and implementation of state advertising campaigns

Guadalupe Aguado-Guadalupe — 2026-05-08

This study analyzes the extent to which indicators that allow monitoring the configuration of the planning and implementation of institutional advertising campaigns by the General State Administration are published, to guarantee transparency, in accordance with Law 29/2005 on Institutional Advertising and Communication. Thus, the study examines which indicators must be taken into account to be in line with the requirements of European Media Freedom Act and the Democracy Action Plan. To this end, the plans and reports of the Commission on Institutional Advertising and Communication published during 2015-2024 are analyzed. In relation to the planning of the campaigns, information is published on their distribution, with consistency observed in the objectives, the targeted recipient, and the area of coverage. However, the media plan does not achieve the level of transparency it should, as it does not provide information on the campaigns and budgets allocated to specific media outlets. The ex-post evaluation is in no way representative, nor does it provide performance indicators, thus their efficiency and effectiveness cannot be ascertained. The lack of disclosure in these aspects requires adaptations to comply with the transparency that allows appreciation of the pluralism, proportionality and non-discrimination established in Regulation (EU) 2024/1083 and the Democracy Action Plan.

The impact of statistical applications on sports journalism: comparative study between algorithmic and human evaluations in elite football

Rubén J. García-Fernández — 2026-05-08

This study compares journalistic and algorithmic evaluations of elite football players’ performance in a context of growing influence of platforms such as Sofascore and Flashscore. Using a cross-sectional observational design, a purposive sample of 60 players across 10 high-profile matches (2024–2025 season) was analyzed. For each player, ratings were collected from both algorithms and two European media outlets, selected from a total of 13 (7 traditional and 6 digital native). Descriptive and inferential analyses were applied to examine central tendencies and dispersion, convergence between systems, the impact of match outcome, variation by player position and role, divergences by media type and country, patterns by specific outlet, and paradigmatic qualitative cases. Results show that media assign significantly lower ratings (mean 6.76; p < 0.001) and with greater variability (CV = 26.4 %) compared to algorithms (Sofascore: 7.53, CV = 11.8 %; Flashscore: 7.33, CV = 12.4 %). The correlation between algorithms is very high (r = 0.858) and higher than between media and algorithms (r ≈ 0.72). All systems display statistically significant sensitivity to match outcome (p ≤ 0.01), but the magnitude of bias is markedly greater in media (-2.01 points between win and loss) than in algorithms (-0.75/-0.96). Convergence is significantly stronger for standout players (d > 0.90). No significant differences were found by position or media type. Exploratory analyses suggest that each outlet’s editorial culture is more decisive than its country or media type. It is concluded that both systems are epistemologically complementary, and their integration—not substitution—enriches sports performance evaluation.

Female irruption and digital narratives alternative in alternative sports journalism: the case of ecuavóley

Cristián Londoño-Proaño — 2026-05-08

In the Ecuadorian context, ecuavóley is a popular sports practice with a strong territorial presence, but historically excluded from traditional media. Its female version, in particular, has been doubly invisible: because of its condition as a non-institutionalized sport and because it is reproduced in a masculinized media field. This article takes as its object of study a sample of 40 videos selected from more than 1,539 audiovisual content available on YouTube about ecuavóley, all with female participation, published between 2022 and 2024 on three specialized channels. The objective is to analyze how specialized digital narratives configure alternative forms of media representation of sport, with emphasis on the visibility of women. Based on a qualitative methodology, which combines content analysis and critical discourse analysis, and with technical support from artificial intelligence tools for the organization of the corpus, six categories were defined: visibility of female athletes, narrative language, visual resources, audience interaction, contextualization of the event and audiovisual production. The results show a tension between the growing presence of women in these spaces and the persistence of gender stereotypes in discourses. However, emerging practices of alternative sports journalism are also identified, characterized by self-management, community narrative and the resignification of popular sport from the digital margins.

The Walking Concepts: Zombie Categories in Communication Theories

Carlos A. Scolari — 2026-05-08

This article offers a critical reflection on the life cycle of concepts in the social sciences and communication theories. It focuses on the figure of the ‘zombie concept,’ understood as an analytical category that, despite having lost its explanatory power, continues to circulate in academic discourse. Drawing on the interventions of scholars such as Ulrich Beck, Elihu Katz, Klaus Krippendorff, Bruno Latour, and Eliseo Verón, the text also examines how certain concepts -from neoliberalism to imperialism- become nominalized forms that simplify the understanding of ongoing processes and operate as single-cause explanations. The problem is not ontological but discursive: the ritualized and uncritical use of many concepts produces theoretical blindness and impoverishes scientific understanding. In response to this drift, the article advocates a reflexive practice aimed at revising, retiring, or revitalizing concepts to reopen debate and renew the vocabulary of the social sciences and communication theories.

Zayani, M. y Khalil, J. F. (2024). The Digital Double Bind: Change and Stasis in the Middle East. Oxford University Press

João Carlos Sousa — 2026-05-08

Ramírez-Alvarado, María del Mar [Coord.] (2025). Sexo e Historia de la Comunicación. Tirant Humanidades/Tirant lo Blanch.

Francisco Cabezuelo-Lorenzo — 2026-05-08

Presentación monográfico

Eva Campos Domínguez — 2026-05-08

Presentación monográfico

Depoliticization, Body, and Subordination: Media Narratives on Sheinbaum and Gálvez during the Presidential Campaigns

Edrei Álvarez-Monsiváis — 2026-05-08

In Mexico’s 2024 presidential election, Claudia Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Gálvez concentrated the electoral contest within a context of institutional advances in gender parity. This article aimed to identify how news coverage constructed discursive representations around (a) body and attire, (b) personality attributes, (c) narratives of depoliticization through trivialization and dehumanization, and (d) co-responsibility or subordination in relation to other figures, primarily male. Methodologically, the study employed a qualitative discourse analysis inspired by van Dijk and Fairclough. The corpus consisted of N = 196 statements broadcast in news programs between March 1 and May 29, 2024: N = 134 drawn from the Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE) monitoring of the most-watched radio and television news programs at the local, regional, and national levels; and N = 62 extracted from five native YouTube news programs selected based on engagement and editorial orientation. The material was systematized in NVivo and inductively coded, resulting in a system of four categories and twelve emergent subcategories. The findings reveal the persistence of mechanisms of symbolic violence, such as body shaming and aesthetic judgment, suspicion of artificiality, contradictory demands of communion and agency (double bind), infantilization, and ridicule, as well as frames of tutelage, obedience, and hierarchical control that suppress political agency. It is concluded that, despite the unprecedented scenario of competition between women, news discourses continued to reproduce gender stereotypes with delegitimizing effects on the political leadership of Sheinbaum and Gálvez

Economic and identity populism on digital platforms. Milei and Abascal on TikTok

Ramiro Díaz-Maroto Oro — 2026-05-08

In a context where social media and digital platforms have come key spaces for ideological expression and civic mobilization, TikTok emerges as a central space for the dissemination of political discourses that are polarizing, emotionally charged and aesthetically crafted for virality. This study examines the communicative strategies of two leaders commonly regarded as populists Javier Milei (Argentina) and Santiago Abascal (Spain) on TikTok, with the aim of analyzing how the employ this platform in discursive and rhetorical terms and how their engagement operates. The research adopts a mixed-methods approach with an explanatory sequential design, combining quantitative techniques (descriptive and inferential statistics) and qualitative analysis. The period under review spans 43 months (February 2022-October 2025). All videos published by Milei were analyzed, while in Abascal´s case a systematic probabilistic sampling was applied to cover the entire period. The final sample consisted of 194 videos. Both leaders use TikTok to construct populist leadership through emotional and aesthetic narratives tailored to the logic of virality, although they diverge in thematic focus. Milei emphasizes an economic populism with a disruptive and aggressive tone, whereas Abascal reinforces a nationalist identity with an epic and institutional aesthetic. Both exploit rhetorical and visual resources that intensify affective polarization (the use of “us versus them”), which generates the highest levels of interaction. Consequently, TikTok functions more as a space for emotional adhesion than for democratic deliberation, prompting a critical perspective on the platform’s role as a technopolitical space.

Incivility on Facebook during 8M: comments on posts by five Spanish-language media outlets

Rafael Alexis Robles Olivos — 2026-05-08

The present study analyzes the incivility present in Facebook user comments made on the posts of five Spanish-speaking media outlets with the highest digital reputation – El País (Spain), El Mundo (Spain), El Comercio (Peru), ABC (Spain), and La Nación (Argentina) – during the coverage of International Women's Day (8M) between 2021 and 2025. Based on a mixed content analysis applied to 550 comments/responses selected by volume of interaction (110 textual contents for each medium), the research classifies the levels and types of uncivil behavior according to typologies by Rosenberg (2018) and Bentivegna and Rega (2024). The results obtained show that verbal hostility is widespread across all studied media outlets, with a predominance of high and moderate incivility, characterized by vulgar language, identity-based name-calling/disqualification, sarcasm, and mutual reinforcement among users. Likewise, aggressive interaction was manifested towards both figures mentioned in the news and other users, with discriminatory expressions frequently directed at women, sexual minorities, or ideological groups. The study, therefore, confirms patterns described in previous literature, including the defensive effect, polarization, the impunity fostered by anonymity, and the degradation of debate in contexts of political discussion. Finally, the need to extend the analysis to other platforms and explore the role of non-textual interactions in the construction of the digital deliberative climate is raised

Youth and political trust in the European Parliament: the potential of social media communication

Andrea Moreno-Cabanillas — 2026-05-08

The crisis of political trust among young citizens in the institutions of the European Union is one of the main challenges that must be addressed in order to guarantee the future legitimacy of the EU project. This research aims to find solutions to this problem through communication on social media and has two objectives: to analyze the influence of sociodemographic variables on young citizens' political trust in the European Parliament and to identify the types of communication on the European Parliament's social media that they perceive as having the greatest potential to improve political trust in the institution. The study adopts a quantitative methodological approach. Data collection includes N=470 questionnaires completed by young citizens aged 18 to 26 living in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland. The data analysis is carried out using statistical procedures such as descriptive analyses, a binary logistic regression model, an analysis of the model's B regression coefficients, an ordinal regression, a Kruskal-Wallis test, and a Dunn post-hoc test with Bonferroni correction. The results indicate that the influential sociodemographic variables are socioeconomic status, employment status, and educational level. In addition, it is observed that the types of social media communications with the greatest perceived potential are those that involve bidirectionality. These findings are useful for designing communication strategies on the European Parliament's social media aimed at improving its trust among European youth, both in terms of audience and content.

English From Message to Vibe: TikTok and Hybrid Political Communication in the 2024 UK Election

Sara García Santamaría — 2026-05-08

The 2024 UK general election has been widely described as the country’s first “TikTok election”, reflecting the platform’s growing role in political campaigning, particularly among younger audiences. This article examines how Labour and the Conservative Party adapted political communication to TikTok’s platform affordances through the use of popular culture, pop culture, and digital vernaculars. Empirically, the article draws on a content analysis of 175 videos posted by both parties between 30 May and 4 July 2024. Analytically, it conceptualises these practices through the lens of cultural vernacularisation and affective orientation, focusing on the hybridisation of symbolic (message-first) and pre-symbolic (vibe-first) communication. The findings show that while both campaigns relied on cultural mediation, Labour more consistently employed humour-driven, transgressive, vibe-oriented formats, whereas Conservative content more often combined cultural framing with explicit claims, warnings, and evaluative judgements. The article argues that TikTok campaigning does not signal the erosion of political meaning, but its reconfiguration through hybrid communicative architectures in which affective orientation and symbolic articulation operate together. More broadly, the study highlights how platform-native campaigning reshapes the conditions under which political communication reaches electorates who are increasingly disengaged from traditional political channels, such as young voters

From “Fucking Panza Mileurista to Millionaire”: Work, Discipline, and Success in the Manosphere

Lucía Márquez Martínez — 2026-05-08

In contemporary contexts, work is often presented not only as a means of subsistence but also as a life project that demands total dedication, continuous improvement, and personal sacrifice. This study analyses how this ethic of effort is constructed and legitimised through Instagram videos posted by content creator Amadeo Llados from January to May 2024. Using critical discourse analysis as a methodological tool, the research examines the strategies Llados employs to promote an individualistic vision of success, in which personal achievement is portrayed as the exclusive result of willpower, discipline, and an appropriate mindset. A central dimension of these discourses is the training of the body as both a metaphor and a vehicle for personal success, in which physical practice serves as a symbol of control, perseverance, and merit. The body thus emerges as a form of capital in itself: shaped, managed, and optimised according to logics of efficiency and self-improvement. Within this framework, work is construed as a moral identity, while failure is presented as an individual responsibility. The study situates these contents within the digital ecosystem of the manosphere, a space in which models of masculinity associated with control, productivity, and self-sufficiency are reinforced. It is argued that these videos contribute to the normalisation of forms of self-exploitation while simultaneously obscuring the structural dimensions of inequality and labour precariousness. The research also addresses how work and the body are re-signified on digital platforms such as Instagram and how these platforms operate as devices that legitimise neoliberal logics.

‘We’ve got them dancing, lads’: Culture wars and self-promotion on Vito Quiles’s España Combativa tour

Lucía Caro-Castaño — 2026-05-08

This study examines the España Combativa tour organised by the reactionary activist Vito Quiles at several Spanish universities between October and November 2025. Specifically, it analyses Quiles as a key political influencer within the digital media ecosystem of the Spanish right, given his capacity to generate controversy and antagonism on social media through culture wars. The method used in the research was Grounded Theory, a qualitative approach applied to a study corpus composed of content published across all of Quiles’s social media profiles, podcasts featuring interviews with Quiles, and other content published on social media and in digital news media. The tour is characterised in this paper as a series of pseudo-events operating on two levels: (a) as a self-promotional strategy by Quiles in his capacity as a political agitator and reference point among right-wing youth, generating value for his personal brand before aligned political parties, think tanks and lobbies; and (b) as a propagandistic tactic of public conflict performance centred on exacerbating the perception of antagonism between blocs and producing political polarisation, as it enables the construction of an epic narrative of conflict between ‘decent people’ and the enemies of Spain (Sánchez, the coalition government, the left, and public universities) on social media. The paper advances knowledge on the digital pseudo-event and its use by political influencers for self-promotional and propagandistic purposes.

Emotional Truth: Visual Narratives and Strategic Affectivity of the Far Right on TikTok during the European political dynamics

Noelia García-Estévez — 2026-05-08

This article analyzes how European far-right leaders used TikTok during the 2024 European Parliament election campaign to construct emotional truths through visual, narrative, and affective resources. Drawing on a sample of 472 videos posted by 27 far-right party leaders in 19 countries, it applies a mixed methodology of quantitative and qualitative content analysis, organized into three blocks: ideological contextualization, profile characterization, and systematic examination of the audiovisual content. The results show that TikTok has become a strategic space for articulating narratives that carefully combine negative emotions (fear, danger, disgust) with positive ones (pride, hope, enjoyment, empathy), shaping a hybrid aesthetics that alternates between denunciation of the present and the promise of renewal. The most frequent topics focus on campaign events, calls to vote, criticism of the political system, and immigration, while explicit references to young people are scarce and are instead replaced by implicit strategies of connection based on visual style, informal language, and identity codes. The analysis of normalized engagement reveals that content associated with personal enjoyment, vulnerability, hope, and the defence of traditional values achieves higher proportional interaction than that grounded in intense negativity or pride. The study concludes that TikTok operates as a privileged device for the dissemination of emotional truths, understood as narrative constructions that are plausible due to their affective resonance rather than their factual basis, reinforcing the mobilizing capacity of the far right among young audiences.

Political and emotional polarization in Spain: an exploratory systematic review

Javier Durá Martínez de la Peña — 2026-05-08

Political polarization has become one of the most extensively studied phenomena in contemporary Spain, particularly following the intensification of public debate over the past decade. This article presents a systematic exploratory review (scoping review) of academic literature published between 2020 and 2025, with the aim of mapping the main thematic lines, theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and analytical trends in the study of polarization in Spain, as well as identifying research gaps.The analysis of 25 articles shows that Spanish scholarship conceptualizes polarization as a multifaceted phenomenon, with particular emphasis on its affective and ideological dimensions. The reviewed literature assigns a relevant role to political, media, and digital actors in shaping confrontational dynamics, highlighting social media platforms—especially X—as environments that may facilitate the amplification of polarizing discourse. The so-called “culture wars” around identity-related issues emerge as recurrent axes of analysis. The studies examined tend to interpret polarization as having significant implications for the quality of public debate and institutional functioning, while paying comparatively limited attention to potential functional or ambivalent effects. Overall, the literature privileges diagnostic approaches over comparative, longitudinal, or intervention-oriented research. This article provides an updated systematic map of the field, contributing to clarifying the current state of knowledge and outlining avenues for future research.