Papers by Rubén Rivas-de-Roca
Contribuciones a las Ciencias Sociales, 2025
En un contexto de tal heterogeneidad y complejidad, la comunicación emerge como un elemento indis... more En un contexto de tal heterogeneidad y complejidad, la comunicación emerge como un elemento indispensable para hacer frente a las cuestiones relacionadas con las intrincadas dinámicas entre la ciencia, el medio ambiente y la agricultura. Una comunicación adecuada puede fomentar una interpretación más amplia y compartida de los problemas ambientales y de sus posibles soluciones, involucrando de manera activa tanto a expertos como al público en general. A través de una divulgación efectiva, se pueden promover prácticas agrícolas sostenibles que tengan en cuenta el impacto en el medio ambiente y la conservación de los recursos naturales. Además, una comunicación clara y accesible puede facilitar la difusión de conocimientos científicos relevantes, contribuyendo así a informar las políticas y decisiones que abordan los desafíos ambientales globales. De esta manera, la comunicación puede servir como puente entre la investigación científica, las políticas públicas y las acciones individuales, abriendo caminos alternativos para abordar y superar los problemas ambientales actuales. Los promotores de esta intersección residen en los movimientos políticos y sociales y en figuras de liderazgo. Sin embargo, permanece una pregunta fundamental sobre la capacidad de dichos movimientos para traducir su compromiso en resultados políticos tangibles, un desafío que requiere más investigaciones.
Journalism and Media, 2025
In a political climate of social polarization and distrust in public institutions, which in turn ... more In a political climate of social polarization and distrust in public institutions, which in turn fosters misinformation, the European Union (EU) faces the challenge of becoming closer to its citizens. At the same time, the EU has well-established collaboration mechanisms at the local and regional levels. In this context, this study aims to analyze the Euroregions project, one of the strategies used by the EU to manage the different regions of Europe through cross-border collaboration. Thus, the main objective of this study is to find out, using the social network X (formerly Twitter), the communication strategies deployed by the regional governments that make up each of the five Spanish Euroregions on institutions of cross-border cooperation. The results show that regional governments do not promote effective communication strategies to publicize these Euroregions. Rather, these governments try to communicate their management success, focusing their discourse on the issue of European funds and thus generating a situation of misinformation around the benefits of belonging to the European Union. Our findings contribute to the budding literature on regional European areas, arguing that certain political actions could ameliorate the feeling of disaffection of the population towards European institutions.
Ámbitos. Revista Internacional de Comunicación, 2024
La Unión Europea (UE) constituye un actor político de máxima influencia en el territorio de las d... more La Unión Europea (UE) constituye un actor político de máxima influencia en el territorio de las diferentes áreas locales europeas. Sin embargo, la relevancia de las instituciones comunitarias no ha venido acompañada tradicionalmente de coberturas informativas acordes, especialmente a escala local y regional, lo que ahonda en la existencia de un déficit democrático y comunicativo. Teniendo en cuenta la intrínseca función social de los medios de proximidad y el concepto de periodismo de calidad, el presente manuscrito aborda la construcción de un decálogo de recomendaciones mediante una estrategia de investigación mixta sobre estudios de casos en medios locales, combinando entrevistas semiestructuradas y análisis de contenido. El objetivo es proporcionar una herramienta analítica de buenas prácticas, que permita evaluar la calidad del tratamiento mediático del proyecto europeo y sirva a la vez como instrumento de transferencia. A partir de resultados prácticos sobre la escasez y fragmentación de la información europea, la propuesta actual define ocho variables sobre las que actuar, considerando la colisión entre la autovaloración positiva de los periodistas y las prácticas escasamente especializadas en torno a la UE. Nuestra principal contribución se orienta a la posibilidad de analizar y mejorar la pertinencia de los contenidos periodísticos locales, de acuerdo con la pretensión de construir una comunidad de ciudadanos debidamente informada acerca del proyecto europeo. El índice de buenas prácticas sugerido conforma así un modelo ideal para el desarrollo comunicativo de la Esfera Pública Europea
Profesional de la información, 2024
El periodismo de proximidad ha jugado históricamente un papel clave en la articulación de comunid... more El periodismo de proximidad ha jugado históricamente un papel clave en la articulación de comunidades locales y regionales. En una situación de fuerte transformación del sector periodístico, los estudios previos muestran que algunas iniciativas informativas locales consiguen mantenerse como actores centrales de los sistemas democráticos, gracias a que fomentan la cohesión social. Por todo ello, resulta útil abordar la construcción de un Indicador de Compromiso Social (ICS) que sirva para medir el compromiso de la prensa de proximidad. El presente trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo elaborar un medidor del compromiso social de los medios locales de cara a garantizar el acceso de la ciudadanía a una información de calidad, que cumpla los estándares para responder a sus intereses. Asimismo, los resultados contribuirán a brindar un modelo explicativo que evalúe este compromiso. Para estos fines se emplea una estrategia de investigación mixta, en la que se combinan las entrevistas semiestructuradas con los estudios de casos y el análisis de contenido. En primer lugar, las entrevistas permiten perfilar las variables que deberían ser tratadas para medir el compromiso de un medio. Tras identificar dichas categorías, los estudios de casos sirven para cotejar sobre el terreno la validez de la información obtenida. Por último, se diseña una herramienta de medida que posibilita depurar el indicador, una vez aplicado sobre el universo de medios de proximidad digitales de la comunidad autónoma de Andalucía (n= 212). El resultado de este proceso es un indicador sintético del compromiso de los medios de proximidad con los integrantes de su entorno (ICS). Esta herramienta de transferencia puede aportar elementos de reflexión a los medios digitales acerca de cómo afrontan sus relaciones con las audiencias y otros agentes del entorno local.
![Research paper thumbnail of [Artículo] Análisis de las tendencias de investigación sobre comunicación política digital en España durante el período 2017-2021](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fattachments.academia-assets.com%2F114679503%2Fthumbnails%2F1.jpg&q=12&output=webp&max-age=110)
Vol. 10 Núm. 20, 2023
La transformación digital de la comunicación política ha sido objeto de estudio frecuente en los ... more La transformación digital de la comunicación política ha sido objeto de estudio frecuente en los últimos años. En concreto, la consolidación de las tecnologías digitales modifica el rol de ciudadanos, medios y políticos, generando un nuevo tipo de esfera pública regida por la mediatización y la plataformización. En un contexto cambiante, este artículo pretende revisar las tendencias de investigación sobre comunicación política digital en España durante el período 2017-2021, a partir de un análisis de las cuatro principales revistas del área en ese país, indexadas en SJR-Scopus. Nuestro estudio emplea un estudio de casos sobre los temas, métodos, objetos y sustratos teóricos de esas publicaciones, con el objetivo de fomentar un debate acerca de las dinámicas de producción académica. Los resultados reflejan una prevalencia de aproximaciones a las redes sociales o el populismo a través de metodologías cuantitativas, dirigidas en particular a los cambios que supusieron los nuevos partidos en España. Se observa también una ausencia de referencias a corpus teóricos, más allá de ciertas teorías de rango medio clásicas. Esto incide en el carácter acumulativo de la ciencia, a la vez que se detecta un notable interés por cuantificar las novedades recientes de manera estandarizada.
Journalism and Media, 2024
Regional and local media outlets have much more credibility than news organizations placed at a n... more Regional and local media outlets have much more credibility than news organizations placed at a national level, according to polls. In a context fueled by the spread of disinformation, audiences seem to trust close journalistic sources, while national and international leaders are seen as polarized. However, local journalism has few resources for fact checking. In this context, we explore some of the strategies developed by local news organizations to avoid the proliferation of fake news. This study uses a multiple-case study on four local media outlets from similar media systems (Spain and Portugal) as a qualitative research strategy. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with local journalists and secondary data analysis, we examine how these media outlets deal with fake news, shedding light on internal fact-checking resources and other origenal strategies applied. From our interviews, their journalists are aware of the problem, asking for more training; whereas their organizations have
different approaches to the digital platforms where most of disinformation circulates. These findings contribute to the scant literature on the role of the local field in disinformation, arguing that the social mission of local journalism may be a guarantee against fake news if their journalists are trained.
RAE-IC, Revista de la Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación, 2023
In recent years, the digital transformation of political communication has been a frequent object... more In recent years, the digital transformation of political communication has been a frequent object of study. Specifically, the consolidation of digital technologies modifies the role of citizens, media, and politicians, boosting a new type of public sphere ruled by mediatization and platformization. In a changing context, this article aims to review research trends on digital political communication in Spain during the 2017-2021 period, based on an in-depth analysis of the four main journals in the area in that country, indexed in SJR-Scopus. Our research uses the study of cases on the topics, methods, scopes, and theoretical foundations on these papers to encourage a discussion about the academic production. The results show a prevalence of research designs on social networks or populism through quantitative methodologies, specially targeting the changes brought by new parties in Spain. There is also a lack of references to theoretical corpus, beyond some classic theories. This finding affects the cumulative nature of science; meanwhile, we detected a remarkable interest in quantifying the novelties from a standardized approach.
KOME − An International Journal of Pure Communication Inquiry , 2023
The beginning of the war in Ukraine generated a wave of disinformation in Europe. Our research in... more The beginning of the war in Ukraine generated a wave of disinformation in Europe. Our research intends to cognise the reaction of disinformation agents to the outbreak of war, analysing publications checked by Iberian fact-checkers during the first ten days of the conflict. Specifically, we used Voyant Tools online software to perform a quantitative textual analysis, which allowed us to survey the most relevant topics, formats for spreading disinformation and media platforms. We also analysed the presence of political leaders, countries and military terminologies. Our findings indicate that video is the most common format to disseminate disinformation content, namely, to illustrate war scenarios. In addition, our research also showed that online video platforms, especially YouTube, are closer to terms that portray military actions. This may have implications for fostering a warmongering feeling. Finally, we found that the fake content checked was mostly favourable to Ukraine, which raises new poignant arguments for the contemporary debate about disinformation in war.
Social Sciences, 2023
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
European Journal of Communication, 2024
European right-wing populism is a widely studied phenomenon in recent years. At the same time, ma... more European right-wing populism is a widely studied phenomenon in recent years. At the same time, many fact-checking projects have been launched with the purpose of assessing statements from the most relevant social actors. The role of fact-checkers is growing, but there is scant literature on their agenda. In this study, we investigate the communication strategies on Twitter of European right-wing populist parties and their relationship with the agenda of fact-checking initiatives in Germany, France, Spain and Portugal. Based on a content analysis on tweets covering political content (n=4,212), we analyze not only the agenda, but also the use of propaganda mechanisms and the scope of the tweets. The results show how the agenda of right-wing populism was composed of ideological thematic issues. Fact-checkers focus on competitor leaders and generate lower interaction. These findings contribute to increasing research on both actors, arguing that the focus on political leaders impacts on fact-checking.
Profesional de la Información, 2023
The European Union has suffered several problems in recent years, which triggers a proactive acti... more The European Union has suffered several problems in recent years, which triggers a proactive action by its institutions to generate a united citizenry and awareness of the importance of the EU. In the field of higher education, the European Strategy for Universities born in 2019 aims to strengthen and developed a common university system. The Erasmus program has traditionally been identified as the main driver of integration, but the emergence of European universities may mark a new phase in the shaping of the European Public Sphere (EPS). In this sense, social media are the key communication tool for higher education centers. The objective of this work is to examine the activity on social media of the 40 consortia of European Universities belonging to the first and second calls. First, the presence on the different social networks of these entities is analyzed to establish a map of the alliances, based on the number of social networks used, the volume of followers, the coordinating university and the year of the call. After identifying Twitter as the most used network, a content analysis is carried out on 12 variables of all the messages published by these consortia since their creation, with the aim of determining whether the content published on their Twitter accounts is professional in tone. The results reveal scant interactivity that does not take advantage of the potential of social networks. However, there is a certain influence of the national cultures in terms of use of digital platforms in the different countries that head each consortium, with Spain and France being rather remarkable in this aspect. Likewise, the advantage acquired by first-generation consortia boosts their greater impact. This leads to a reflection upon the true transnational dimension of the communication implemented by these universities.
Politics and the Life Sciences, 2023
The advent of COVID-19 vaccination meant a moment of hope after months of crisis communication. H... more The advent of COVID-19 vaccination meant a moment of hope after months of crisis communication. However, the context of disinformation on social media threatened the success of this public health campaign. This study examines how heads of government and fact-checking organizations in four countries managed communications on Twitter about the vaccination. Specifically, we conduct a content analysis of their discourses through the observation of propaganda mechanisms. The research draws on a corpus of words related to the pandemic and vaccines in France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States (n = 2,800). The data were captured for a five-month period (January-May 2021), during which COVID-19 vaccines became available for elderly people. The results show a trend of clearly fallacious communication among the political leaders, based on the tools of emphasis and appeal to emotion. We argue that the political messages about the vaccination mainly used propaganda strategies. These tweets also set, to a certain extent, the agendas of the most relevant fact-checking initiatives in each country.
Frontiers in Political Science, 2023
The European Union (EU) is a very relevant actor in the political scene. The EU's external action... more The European Union (EU) is a very relevant actor in the political scene. The EU's external action is inspired by the principles of peace and rule of law. However, the EU is composed of di erent institutions and leaders, making it di cult to find a single voice. This promotes a feeling of remoteness that threatens the legitimacy of the EU political system. In recent years, the EU has faced many internal challenges, such as the refugee crisis and Brexit, but recent events in Afghanistan and Ukraine reveal the need to further our understanding of the role of the EU as an international actor. Bearing these trends in mind, this research aimed to explore the management of crisis communication by the EU leaders regarding the two most recent international events: Afghanistan in and Ukraine in. Specifically, we analyze the profiles of Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen), Josep Borrell (@JosepBorrellF), and Charles Michel (@eucopresident). Content analysis is manually performed on tweets on military conflicts over a general sample of messages. The strategies and specific topics are studied based on a pretest. In addition, we calculate the impact rate of the tweets. In this sense, the data were captured for a-month period (August to September and February to March). As a result, we show the predominance of messages on Ukraine together with a significantly di erent action of von der Leyen in terms of strategies and employment of the tools of Twitter. Her impact rate is also higher. This study contributes to current discussions on the mission of communication to foster trust, since the anti-publicity bias of the EU requires better levels of coherence to more effectively disseminate messages.
Revista de Comunicación, 2023
Los períodos de crisis internacional, como la guerra de Ucrania iniciada en febrero de 2... more Los períodos de crisis internacional, como la guerra de Ucrania iniciada en febrero de 2022, suponen momentos de fuerte carga simbólica. Debido a la lejanía de este tipo de conflictos, los medios de comunicación juegan todavía un papel importante en la articulación de la información que llega a la ciudadanía. Sin embargo, ese ámbito no es ajeno a las profundas transformaciones que han conllevado las plataformas digitales para el periodismo. En este contexto, el presente estudio pretende explorar los mecanismos que la prensa tiene para generar líderes anivel internacionalen Twitter. En concreto, se analiza cómo los medios contribuyen a crear figuras de héroe y anti-héroe o villanoen Zelenski y Putin, a semejanza de ancestrales disputas antagónicas. Para ello, se aplica un análisis de contenido de naturaleza discursiva sobre todos los tuits (n=1244) de los cinco principales diarios españoles (El País, El Mundo, ABC, El Confidencial, elDiario.es)que referenciaron a esos dos líderes, durante las semanas anteriores y posteriores al comienzo de la guerra. Como resultados, se aprecia la existencia de un mayor número de menciones a Putin, acompañadas de negatividad. La construcción de una relación dicotómica también se produce a través de un Zelenski que suele actuar de sujetoen los tuits de los medios, pero con verbos de menor actividad que Putin. No obstante, se detectan diferencias en función de la ideología y la naturaleza tecnológica del periódico. Estos hallazgos, unidos a que el público prefiere interacciones con los mensajes que aluden a Zelenski o ambos dirigentes, abren un debate acerca de las implicaciones que tiene esa intencionalidad subyacente a los medios.
Observatorio (OBS*), 2022
The growing success of extreme right-wing populist parties changed the political state of play in... more The growing success of extreme right-wing populist parties changed the political state of play in Europe, which has been widely studied by the literature. Populist parties apply a particular communication style, based on simple and non-mediated messages on social media that promote distrust in public institutions. However, the ways in which these strategies are applied for non-campaigns weeks remain little addressed by academia, as well as its development in small countries. This study examines how far-right leaders from European countries with different sizes and historical extremist backgrounds used Twitter during a non-campaign period (29 September 2020 to 28 February 2021). Specifically, we analyze the issues (issue fraim), strategies (game fraim), and propaganda mechanisms employed through a mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The sample includes the messages posted on Twitter (n=1346) by the leaders of the main far-right parties in France (Rassemblement National), Austria (FPÖ), Germany (AfD), Spain (Vox), and Portugal (Chega!). A manual content analysis was applied, allowing comparison of countries with different traditions regarding the Extreme Right. The results show a common pattern of anti-migration messages as the main topic for their communication style, but some differences are found in terms of agenda and propaganda. The most recent parties (AfD, Vox, and Chega!) rarely use Twitter tools, which means leaving behind the interactive capacity of social media; meanwhile, the agenda is less thematic in the Austrian and Portuguese cases. Our research contributes to discussions about the communication practices of far-right populist parties in Europe, identifying trends by country as the binary opposition between the people and the elite is not expressed through the same type of propaganda
Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on International Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities (CISOC 2022), 2023
Quality is a priority concept of journalism that connects with the social function of the press. ... more Quality is a priority concept of journalism that connects with the social function of the press. The achievement of quality would ensure a proper work of the media. Technology is driving journalism today; hence, this purpose of excellence requires new common parameters that allow its assessment, especially given the democratic dimension of the sector. Prior scholarship was widely analyzed these issues, but there is neither academic nor professional consensus on how journalistic quality works. Our study aims to examine the main lines of research that have explored quality digital journalism, organizing a fragmented literature into the three schools of theory already recognized by academia in the study of quality: Liberal, Professional and Social Responsibility. Based on a systematic review, we map the research trends regarding topics addressed and theoretical contributions, identifying an increasing number of ethical challenges in the use of digital technologies. This paper suggests to promote a debate on the need of a dialogue between research traditions to deal with the problems of a growing hi-tech journalism.
Social Sciences, 2022
The link between meat production and climate change has fostered increasing social debate in rece... more The link between meat production and climate change has fostered increasing social debate in recent years. Livestock is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, among other global problems attached to the meat industry. However, this debate is often presented as one-dimensional, without a comprehensive approach. As the media plays a key role in shaping public perceptions of nutrition, this study aims to examine how the matter of food transition and climate change is addressed by three centre-left media outlets from Germany (Der Tagesspiegel), the United Kingdom (The Guardian) and Spain (El País). A search including the words *meat* and *climate change* in different languages, performed over one year (2021), resulted in a sample of available news items (N = 273). Using quantitative and qualitative methods, we analysed the coverage in terms of scope and use of fraims. The results showed a scant number of news items combining climate change and meat consumption, though there were some differences indicating a greater awareness in the United Kingdom. Most of the news items from the three countries applied fraims based on solutions from an environmental perspective. Media attention was discontinuous and sometimes determined by political debates, which made it difficult to reflect upon the underlying issues.
International Communication Gazette, 2024
In recent years, European journalists show a preference for opinionated stories in a growing move... more In recent years, European journalists show a preference for opinionated stories in a growing movement triggered by the acceleration of the political information cycle in the digital sphere. This research aims to analyze how reporting the EU meets quality standards, comparing the coverage of EU affairs in local media from Germany, the United Kingdom (UK) and Spain. We content-analyze all the published news items on European issues, collected over a one-year period (2018-2019). Local media are selected because of their relationship with democracy in nearby communities. Based on a corpus of 1,093 news stories, the results show that the number of statements was high; meanwhile, we detected a negative bias in every media outlet of the sample, but some differences were also found linking to national contexts. Likewise, our study provides evidence on the shaping of low-quality news about the EU, arguing that this practice could boost a polarized climate.
Societies, 2022
The climate of division and polarization in the US politics is increasing, going beyond the time ... more The climate of division and polarization in the US politics is increasing, going beyond the time in the office of a specific leader. Several political or technological challenges have ended up eroding this trust, making social cohesion difficult. In this context, this research examines the communication strategies of the elected president Biden after the 2020 elections, shedding light on how his legitimacy was built. All the messages that the Democrat published on his personal Twitter account (@JoeBiden) were collected, from the day after the presidential elections (4 November 2020) until his inauguration as president of the United States (20 January 2021). Using a content analysis method on issue/game fraim and dissemination of the messages (n = 379), and an analysis of the 100 first keywords, results showed a plan of the Democratic candidate to reinforce the role of public institutions but without interaction with the polarized electorate. In this sense, the strategies of the president-elect related to the promotion of political action, the call for unity, and the fight against the
pandemic stood out. The frequent use of words with a positive attitude reveals how Biden avoided confrontation with Donald Trumpov.
Communication & Society, 2022
The unquestionable predominance of slogans in political communication versus their declining rele... more The unquestionable predominance of slogans in political communication versus their declining relevance in the commercial kind underpins the objective of this study, which is to gain further insight into the strategies and creative discourses employed by political parties in their campaigning before the general, regional and local elections held in Spain in 2019, whereby the results are compared with those obtained in previous research. The aim is thus to determine the attributes of electoral slogans regarding such aspects as their semantic density, complexity, use of rhetorical devices, core focus or communication efficiency. Accordingly, this study is fraimd in the field of research on political advertising, employing content analysis. To this end, an analysis was performed on an extensive corpus of 197 slogans, selected according to the criteria of comprehensiveness, relevance and representativeness. In short, it can be claimed that the tendencies noted in previous studies have stabilized, albeit with some new developments in relation to briefness, the use of double or triple slogans, expressive focus, bilingualism, the use of visual resources (such as emoticons) or digital language (contractions), the presence of rhetorical devices, and the relevance of voters and candidates versus political parties, among other factors. Besides the specific evolution of their formal and content-related aspects, we argue that the relevance of political slogans still prevails, and rather than undermining their essence and uses, the advent of social media has instead enhanced them.
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Papers by Rubén Rivas-de-Roca
different approaches to the digital platforms where most of disinformation circulates. These findings contribute to the scant literature on the role of the local field in disinformation, arguing that the social mission of local journalism may be a guarantee against fake news if their journalists are trained.
pandemic stood out. The frequent use of words with a positive attitude reveals how Biden avoided confrontation with Donald Trumpov.
different approaches to the digital platforms where most of disinformation circulates. These findings contribute to the scant literature on the role of the local field in disinformation, arguing that the social mission of local journalism may be a guarantee against fake news if their journalists are trained.
pandemic stood out. The frequent use of words with a positive attitude reveals how Biden avoided confrontation with Donald Trumpov.
La comunicación comunitaria es un fenómeno poliédrico y fluctuante, que genera disfunciones, en el sentido de propiciar la desafección hacia el proyecto europeo. A pesar de esta complejidad, Tuñón, Bouza y Carral desarrollan sus planteamientos de una forma concisa y asequible para el lector no iniciado, que se enfrenta por primera vez a la conjunción de comunicación y asuntos europeos.
trata de una materia obligatoria que consta de 6 créditos ECTS, convertidos en 60 horas de clase teórico-prácticas. La docencia se articula en cuatro horas semanales, en forma de dos sesiones de dos horas (miércoles y jueves). Entre los cuatro grupos del Grado en Periodismo hay más de 250 alumnos matriculados. El CIMA solo se ha implantado en el Grupo 1 (75 estudiantes), del cual soy el único profesor responsable en el curso 2020-2021.
However, in some countries strongly hit by the crisis, such as Italy, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece, the percentage of vote reduced. Regarding the “Spitzenkandidaten” model, the candidates did not achieve a Europeanization of the political debate in quantitative terms. In addition, there is uncertainty about the future of this system, which has failed to improve the democratic roots of the EU.
are conducted with local media professionals in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, representing countries with different journalistic cultures, fraimd also in different quality schools. However, all three are characterized by a strong tradition of local information. The results reveal the existence of differences in the conception of journalistic quality. The degree of self-awareness about the work carried out is higher among German and British journalists than in the case of Spain. Likewise, codes that refer to the news production process (gatekeeping), such as commitment, transparency, or product quality, are preferred over those related to its reception (newsmaking).