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.