Our latest issue on Climate Change Information (15.2) is out!

Our Special Issue 15.2 Beyond Climate Change Information: Communicating the Anthropocene is now out. This brand new issue gathers together outstanding contributions to the field of climate change communication and the Anthropocene, understood as an upfolding social construct, a concept in progress that has been built through communicative processes. 

I would like to thank Dr. Jordi Prades-Tena, Dr. Arturo Vallejos-Romero and Dr. Volker Mauerhofer for their hard work on this issue, which explores the concept of the Anthropocene through both the analysis of classical and digital media (press, cinema, YouTube and Twitter) as well as through philosophy and law. 

Here you’ll find more information on the issue:

Editorial
The need for communicating the Anthropocene
Authors: Jordi Prades-Tena, Arturo Vallejos-Romero and Volker Mauerhofer
https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00086_2

Articles
Quality journalism and advocacy in raising climate awareness: The case of The Guardian
Authors: Lola Bañon-Castellón and Esma Kucukalic-Ibrahimovic
https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00087_1

Grassroots leadership and negotiation style: The quest for justice in the movie Erin Brockovich
Authors: Amarendra Kumar Dash, Rashmi Ranjan Behera and Rajendra Kumar Dash
https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00088_1

Analysis of climate denialism on YouTube: Refuting instead of debating
By David Vicente Torrico
https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00089_1

The fall after the hatching: Evolution and engagement of Greta Thunberg’s frame on Twitter
Authors: Sílvia Díaz-Pérez, Roger Soler-i-Martí and Mònica Figueras-Maz
https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00090_1

The pluriverse of the Anthropocene: One Earth, many worlds
Authors: Rangga Kala Mahaswa and Ayom Mratita Purbandani
https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00091_1

Viewpoints
Social inequalities in the making sense of climate change narratives
Authors: Josep Espluga-Trenc and Ana Prades
https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00092_7

Supercomplex systems and constitutional (dis)order: The consequences of the Anthropocene in the law1
By Jordi Jaria-Manzano
https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00093_7

Book Review
El bucle invisible (The Invisible Loop), Remedios Zafra (2022)
By Núria Araüna Baró
https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00094_5

New issue published! (15.1)

Our latest miscellaneous issue 15.1 is now online and available to download!

Congratulations and thanks to all the contributors for an excellent job! It is a pleasure to work with some of the finest scholars in Europe and the world who have chosen the Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies as an outlet for their work.

Our latest issue on Communication and Dissent (14.2) is out!

Our Special Issue 14.2 “Communication and dissent: Competing voices in a post-truth world“ is now out. This brand new issue gathers together outstanding contributions to the field of public opinion, journalism, and political communication. The relation between communication and dissent, between information and polarization, between alternative discourses and
manipulated claim is that which nineteen authors in this monograph deal with, and is made up of six scientific articles and two viewpoints.

I would like to thank Dr. Adolfo Carratalá, Dr. Maria Iranzo and Dr. Guillermo López from Universitat de València for their hard work on this issue, which explores the use of communication as an instrument with which to build versions of reality which have little to do with factual truths or as a tool with which monitor democratic systems.

Here you’ll find more information on the issue:

Editorial

Communication and dissent: Competing voices in a post-truth world
Authors: Adolfo Carratalá, Maria Iranzo-Cabrera and Guillermo López-García
https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00067_2

Articles

‘Fascist Heroes’ vs. progressive policies and political correctness: Agenda and framing of the Spanish Alt-lite micro-celebrities on YouTube | Authors: José Gamir-Ríos and Miguel Ibáñez-Cuquerella https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00068_1

Populism and racism on social networks: An analysis of the Vox discourse on Twitter during the Ceuta ‘migrant crisis’ | Author: Antonia Olmos-Alcaraz https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00069_1

The pandemic as a political weapon: Analysis of Spanish press editorials during the COVID-19 health crisis | Authors: Anna Mateu, Lucía Sapiña and Martí Domínguez https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00070_1

Does population size matter? Political participation of citizens through mobile instant messaging services depending on the place of residence | Authors: Laura Alonso-Muñoz and Andreu Casero-Ripollés https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00071_1

‘What tools should we use?’: Politicized youth’s perspectives on digital activism in the Basque Country | Authors: Onintza Odriozola, Iker Iraola and Ane Larrinaga https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00072_1

Fact-checking in Spain: Perception and trust | Authors: Dafne Calvo, Lidia Valera-Ordaz, Marina Requena i Mora and Germán Llorca-Abad https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00073_1

Viewpoints

The ‘5 Ps’ and their interplay: Does it still make sense to talk about ‘public’? | Authors: Nicola Ferrigni, Matteo Pietropaoli and Marica Spalletta https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00074_7

Is there an international right to truth in the post-truth world? | Author: Andrei Richter https://doi.org/10.1386/cjcs_00075_7

New issue 14.1 published

Our latest miscellaneous issue 14.1 is now online and available to download!

Congratulations and thanks to all the contributors for an excellent job! It is a pleasure to work with some of the finest scholars in Europe and the world who have chosen the Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies as an outlet for their work.

Special Issue 13.2 on digital health is out!

Our Special Issue 13.2 “The breakthrough of digital health: Communication as the catalyst of the transformation of care” is now out. This brand new issue gathers together outstanding contributions to the field of health communication and discusses the different roles it plays in the context of the transition towards digital health or (ill)health. Hence, it offers a rich combination of articles on health communication ranging in subject matter from social media and the internet to interpersonal communication practices in the realm of digital health.

I would like to thank Dr. Anna Sendra and Dr. Sinikka Torkkola from Tampere University and Dr. Eliza Govender from University of KwaZulu-Natal for their hard work on this issue, which is the first of its kind in this journal.

The issue will be launched on December 14th in the framework of a seminar on digital health during the pandemic. The event is bilingual and can be followed on site at Universitat Rovira i Virgili or online. More information can be found here:

Read the introduction to the special issue:

The breakthrough of digital health: Communication as the catalyst of the transformation of care

Authors: Sendra, Anna; Torkkola, Sinikka; Govender, Eliza

Articles:

Older (65+) patients’ use of e-mail consultations: A Danish qualitative study using a Foucauldian framework
pp. 179-194(16)
Authors: Bavngaard, Martin V.; Grønning, Anette

Oralizations in e-mail consultations: A study of general practitioners’ use of non-verbal cues in written doctor‐patient communication
pp. 195-211(17)
Authors: Nordtug, Maja; Møller, Jane Ege; Matthiesen, Signe Schlichting; Brøgger, Matilde Nisbeth

Appreciating ‘schizophrenics’ online: Identification in mHealth
pp. 213-231(19)
Author: Sánchez Valle, Francisco

Ageing, health misinformation and mobile messaging apps
pp. 233-247(15)
Author: Choudhury, Naziat

Platformization of healthcare communication: Insights from the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy
pp. 249-266(18)
Authors: Locatelli, Elisabetta; Lovari, Alessandro

Influence of African Indigenous language media in COVID-19 digital health messaging
pp. 267-284(18)
Authors: Fadipe, Israel A.; Salawu, Abiodun

Health disparities and the digital divide within South African disadvantaged communities during the COVID-19 pandemic
pp. 285-302(18)
Authors: Lubinga, Elizabeth; Sitto, Karabo; Molebatsi, Keke

Viewpoints:

Digitization of healthcare post COVID-19: Reimagining the role of health education and promotion
pp. 303-310(8)
Author: Obuaku-Igwe, Chinwe

Culture-centred approach to digital health communication: Sustaining health, addressing inequalities, transforming structures
pp. 311-319(9)
Author: Dutta, Mohan J.

Congratulations to all for a great issue!

CfA SPECIAL ISSUE 2022 (extended deadline 31 JANUARY 2022)

Call for Articles Issue 14.2 (Fall 2022)

Deadline for full proposals: 15 January 2022

Guest Editors

Adolfo Carratalá (University of València)
Guillermo López García (University of València)
María Iranzo-Cabrera (University of València)

Communication and dissent:
competing voices in a post-truth world

WHY THIS ISSUE NOW?

Traditional media were for a long time seen as institutions that had to avoid challenges to the system in order to guarantee the maintenance of the social structure, which was dependant on broad consensus around certain issues. Making news was key to the social construction of reality in a complex world (Tuchman, 1983). The impact of the media on public opinion, approached at first as a desirable influence for the functioning of society (Lippmann, 2011), was later identified as an instrument of control and propaganda (Herman & Chomsky, 2013). However, the media have also proven to be essential in questioning discourses of power. Alternative journalism has offered a discordant as well as rigorous proposal of framing reality (Couldry & Curran, 2003; Barranquero Carretero & Sánchez Mocanda, 2018). And, occasionally, media outlets have also been responsible for the generation of dissent in the public sphere, promoting social protests (Milne, 2005). The expression of dissent has been strengthened thanks to the digital media (Loader, 2018), which have given rise to connective actions (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012); this is, online mobilizations that coexist with collective action in offline world, as the anti-racial protests in the US or the new impetus of the feminist movement have recently shown.

But dissent expressed on the Internet often establishes problematic relationships with factual truths, as COVID-19 denialism has demonstrated in the first pandemic of the post-truth era (Parmet & Paul, 2020). Digital sphere has emerged as a perfect ally for the dissemination of hoaxes and misinformation (Magallón, 2020; Salaverría et al., 2020), conspiracies that tune in with messages delivered by celebrities and politicians such as Bolsonaro (Ricard & Medeiros, 2020) and Trump, who first talked about “alternative facts” to deny data provided by journalists, discredited as fake news. The context of populist leadership and growing polarization (Bennett & Pfetsch, 2018; Stroud, 2010), together with the expansion of far-right political forces (Wodak, 2019), has encouraged the articulation of discourses unconnected to facts that seek to redefine reality in the public sphere. The media, aware of the impossibility of returning to be builders of broad consensus, do seek to regain credibility in this scenario of multiple voices and discourses and to counteract hoaxes with the revitalization of fact-checking as a tool to reclaim their authority.

TOPICS
The main goal of this special issue is to collect different approaches to the study of how communication and dissent interact in the context of social media, populism and misinformation. We aim to confront different perspectives about one of the main challenges faced by social and media systems in the current world and so we invite scholars, researchers and practitioners to submit full articles and viewpoints on topics that may include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Impact of populism and polarization on political communication
• Media coverage of crisis in the post-truth era
• New voices claiming authority in the digital sphere
• Interaction between online and offline activism
• Fact-checking as a tool to fight against misinformation
• Spread of hoaxes in social media
• Logics and reception of conspiracy theories
• Alternative media contesting power
• Audience studies regarding to reactions to fake news and media credibility
• New roles and strategies of traditional media in the current environment

SUBMISSIONS
The journal plans to include research articles of 6,000-7,000 words (including references), as well as brief research notes, experiences or progress reports of 2,000-3,000 words for the Viewpoint section. Full proposals should be submitted by 15 January 2022 in accordance with the Notes for Contributors through the following link: https://callisto.newgen.co/intellect/index.php/CJCS/about/submissions

All contributions will be subjected to double blind peer review, except for the Viewpoint articles, which will be evaluated by the Editors.

New issue published

Our latest miscellaneous issue 13.1 is now online and available to download!

Congratulations and thanks to all the contributors for an excellent job! It is a pleasure to work with some of the finest scholars in Europe and the world who have chosen the Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies as an outlet for their work.

Long live the CJCS!

Now that our latest special issue on documentary film is out safe, it is with some pain in my heart I have to announce this was also my last issue as the chief Editor of the Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies. Due to new responsibilities I have decided to take a step back from the daily editorial tasks and pass on my position of Editor. When I started this endeavor back in 2014, I was honoured and excited to take over an already successful journal: Dr. Enric Castelló and his team at URV had founded a journal from scratch, and quickly managed to put it on the academics metric charts. Six years and twelve issues later, the CJCS has a CiteScore impact factor of 0.8 SJR (projected for 2020) in Scopus, and is indexed by Clarivate’s Emerging Sources Index.

But, above all, the CJCS has grown mature. It has consolidated an editorial line that prioritizes novel research in the field of cultural studies and communication, including authorships from underrepresented groups or geographical areas. The journal has grown as to the amount and the quality of submissions, and receives numerous manuscripts from all over the world. The articles withheld for publication are very diverse and of excellent quality, which was one of our aims when we started out. I would like to thank all the scholars and authors that have chosen our journal as an outlet for their work, and hope they will continue doing so!

There are also some other people I want to thank.

It has been a true pleasure to lead a team that not only supported me in the daily management of the journal, but also put passion and devotion into their work: Dr. Carlota Moragas, Dr. Antonio Caballero and Dr. Natàlia Lozano as Managing Editors, and Dr. Iolanda Tortajada as our Book Reviewer. Thanks to them, and to our excellent Production Managers Tim Mitchell and Mareike Wehner at Intellect Books, I can say this was a wonderful and exciting journey!

Now I am passing on the task to Dr. Carlota Moragas, whose qualities, experience and skills make her the best possible successor as an Editor. Wishing you all the best in taking on this challenge!

Visca CJCS!

Issue on i-Docs published

Our Special Issue 12.2 ‘Documentary Film Mutations: New Opportunities for Social Change’ is now online. This brand new issue is an exquisit selection of the latest trends in the field of i-docs and its different degrees of interaction and immersion, breaking the boundaries of the conventional screen. Topics as diverse as immigrant communities in the US, 360º immersive experiences for youth, health and empowerment for women, makes this a highly committed issue that goes way beyond the technical aspects of interactive documentary film.

I would like to thank Dr. Fernando Canet from the Universitat Politècnica de València, and his co-editors Stefano Odorico and Xosé Soengas for their hard work on this issue, which is the first of its kind in this journal.

Read the introduction to the special issue:

Documentary film mutations for social justice: Introductory reflections
Authors: Canet, Fernando; Odorico, Stefano; Soengas, Xosé

Articles:

Digital transformation of doing documentary: Committed documentary and the knitting of networks of co-creation
Author: Wiehl, Anna

Documentary subversions and migrant agency: Towards an alternative audio-visual portrait of immigrant communities in the United States
Authors: Limón Serrano, Nieves; Moya Jorge, Tamara

Youth empowerment through the creation of i-docs: Educational and social impacts
Authors: Jiménez-Morales, Manel; Lopera-Mármol, Marta; Salvadó Romero, Alan

Immersive experiences in 360° video for social youth engagement
Authors: Ivars-Nicolás, Begoña; Martínez-Cano, Francisco-Julián; Cuadra-Martínez, Joan

Use of virtual reality and 360° video as narrative resources in the documentary genre: Towards a new immersive social documentary?
Authors: Rodríguez-Fidalgo, María Isabel; Paíno-Ambrosio, Adriana

Strengthening women empowerment through i-docs: Alternative forms of participation and civic engagement in the feminist movement
Authors: Pérez-Escolar, Marta; Cortés-Selva, Laura

Interactive documentaries and health: Combating HIV-related stigma and cultural trauma
Author: Villanueva Baselga, Sergio

Documentary games for social change: Recasting violence in the latest generation of i-docs
Author: Dowling, David O.

Do as I say, not as I do: Documentary, data storytelling and digital privacy
Author: Scott-Stevenson, Julia

Data and documentaries: Methodological hybridizations in activism
Author: Gutiérrez, Miren

Congratulations to all for a great issue!

New issue published

Our latest miscellaneous issue 12.1 is now online and available to download!

Congratulations and thanks to all the contributors for an excellent job! It is a pleasure to work with some of the finest scholars in Europe and the world who have chosen the Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies as an outlet for their work.