Abstract: The two 2019 Spanish elections, held on April 28 (28A) and on November 10 (10N), were marked by the irruption of the far-right populist party Vox, which went from 23 to 52 deputies. The aim of this research is to analyze the impact of its emergence in the structure of the communities (Smith et al., 2014) of political debate networks on Twitter during these two elections. The study also compares the structures of the two 2019 elections with those of 2015 and 2016, as well as the political distances between the main Spanish parties. The analyzed sample is made up of more than 1.5 million tweets published during the electoral campaigns of 28A and 10N. Although previous research shows that, in general, interaction patterns and networks structures tend to remain stable after the repetition of an election this research shows a substantial change in the structure of RON communities (Guerrero-Solé, 2017) and in the distances between parties. Specifically, the research shows an increase in the distance between the two main Spanish political blocs the one formed by the triple right wing (PP, Cs and Vox) and the one constitudes by left and nationalist parties and (2) the location of Vox in the center of the right-wing cluster.

Resumen: Las dos elecciones españolas de 2019, celebradas el 28 de abril (28A) y el 10 de noviembre (10N), estuvieron marcadas por la irrupción del partido Vox, populista de extrema derecha, que pasó de 23 a 52 diputados. El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar el impacto de su irrupción en la estructura de las comunidades (Smith et al., 2014) de las redes de debate político durante estas dos elecciones en Twitter. El estudio compara además las estructuras de las dos elecciones de 2019 con las de 2015 y 2016, así como las distancias políticas entre los principales partidos españoles. Las muestras analizadas se componen de más de 1,5 millones de tuits publicados durante las campañas electorales del 28A y el 10N. Aunque las investigaciones anteriores muestran que, en general, los patrones de interacción y las estructuras de las redes tienden a permanecer estables después de la repetición de unas elecciones, esta investigación muestra un cambio sustancial en la estructura de las redes de intersección de comunidades de retuiteadores RON (Guerrero-Solé, 2017) y en las distancias entre partidos. Específicamente, la investigación evidencia un incremento de la distancia entre los dos principales bloques políticos españoles el formado por la triple derecha (PP, Cs y Vox) y el constituido por partidos de izquierda y nacionalistas y (2) la ubicación de Vox en el centro del clúster de las opciones de derecha.

Resumo: As duas eleições espanholas de 2019, celebradas no 28 de abril (28A) e o 10 de novembro (10N), foram marcadas pela irrupção do partido populista de extrema direita Vox, que passou de 23 a 52 deputados. O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar o impacto da irrupção de Vox na estrutura das comunidades (Smith et al., 2014) das redes de debate político durante as duas eleições no Twitter. O estudo compara também as estruturas das duas eleições de 2019 com as de 2015 e 2016, além das distancias políticas entre os principais partidos espanholes. As mostras analisadas se compõem de mais de 1,5 milhões de tuítes publicados durante as campanhas eleitorais do 28A e o 10N. Ainda que as pesquisas anteriores mostremm que, em geral, os padrões de interação e as estruturas das redes tendem a permanecer estáveis depois da repetição de umas eleições, esta pesquisa mostra uma mudança significativa na estrutura de redes de interseção das comunidades RON (GuerreroSolé, 2017) e nas distâncias entre partidos. Em particular, a pesquisa evidencia (1) um incremento das distâncias entre os dos principais blocos políticos espanhóis, e as distâncias entre o bloco da triple direita (PP, Cs e Vox) e o bloco dos partidos de esquerda e nacionalistas, e (2) a localização de Vox no centro do cluster das opções da direita.

Social media have changed the communication practices by creating an acute need for continuous interaction. The use of social chatbots is growing as an effective way to communicate with publics. Bots have become social actors and then, someone must account for their actions. Since responsibility is bounded to agency and rationality, it cannot be directly attributed to bots. Who should be held responsible for non-human beings' actions, particularly when the consequences of these actions are negative? We address this controversy from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Firstly, we discuss the adequacy of the notions of moral responsibility and accountability regarding non-human artificial agents, as they are ruled by complex, intentionally opaque and unpredictable interactions and processes. We do it from the two approaches currently predominant: context-dependent and structuralist. Secondly, we draw on the assumption that the failure of a computer system is an opportunity to gain knowledge about the interested powers behind its design and functioning. Then, taking the concept of media frame as an implicit way of spotting the agent of the story, we perform an exploratory analysis on how responsibility was attributed by the media in the paradigmatic case of the transformation of Tay, a chatbot launched by Microsoft in 2016, turned into a racist, Nazi and homophobic hate speaker. Our results illustrate the difficulties media experienced in consistently attributing the responsibility for the chatbots' malfunction. Results show the discourse is, in general, simplistic, non-critical and misleading, and tends to depict a reality that favors business's interests. We conclude that, while all the actors interacting with the chatbot share the responsibility of its actions, it is only Microsoft who must account for these actions, both retrospectively and prospectively.

Advertising uses stereotyped body images to promote physical ideals and unhealthy eating habits related to food products which are targeted especially at young people. The purpose of this study, carried out in Barcelona (Spain) in May 2013, was to test the perception of 139 young people of university age - with and without eating disorders - regarding 25 values in seven food commercials that did and did not use body image strategies. Results show that only the group of young people with eating disorders considered commercials using body image strategies to have a very negative influence on values such as health, well-being, family and effort. In contrast, the assessment of the two groups regarding the rest of the commercials greatly coincided. These results show that today’s university youth have accepted as normal a beauty canon based on the prevailing social and economic order, while young people in treatment for eating disorders have learned to denaturalize such messages.

La publicidad utiliza imágenes corporales fuertemente estereotipadas para promocionar cánones físicos y conductas alimentarias no saludables asociadas a productos de alimentación dirigidos sobre todo a jóvenes. El objetivo de este estudio, realizado en Barcelona (España) durante el mes de mayo de 2013, es testear la percepción de 25 valores en siete spots televisivos de alimentación (con y sin estrategias de imagen corporal) en 139 jóvenes con y sin trastornos de la conducta alimentaria (TCA). Los resultados muestran que solo el grupo de jóvenes con TCA considera que los spots con una estrategia comercial basada en la imagen corporal influyen muy negativamente en valores como salud, bienestar, familia y esfuerzo. En cambio, se ha observado una gran coincidencia entre los dos grupos cuando se evalúa el resto de los spots. Estos resultados señalan que los jóvenes universitarios españoles de hoy han aceptado como normal un canon de belleza basado en el orden social y económico, mientras que los jóvenes en tratamiento por desórdenes alimenticios sí han aprendido a decodificar este tipo de mensajes.

Advertising uses stereotyped body images to promote physical ideals and unhealthy eating habits related to food products which are targeted especially at young people. The purpose of this study, carried out in Barcelona (Spain) in May 2013, was to test the perception of 139 young people of university age - with and without eating disorders - regarding 25 values in seven food commercials that did and did not use body image strategies. Results show that only the group of young people with eating disorders considered commercials using body image strategies to have a very negative influence on values such as health, well-being, family and effort. In contrast, the assessment of the two groups regarding the rest of the commercials greatly coincided. These results show that today’s university youth have accepted as normal a beauty canon based on the prevailing social and economic order, while young people in treatment for eating disorders have learned to denaturalize such messages.

La publicidad utiliza imágenes corporales fuertemente estereotipadas para promocionar cánones físicos y conductas alimentarias no saludables asociadas a productos de alimentación dirigidos sobre todo a jóvenes. El objetivo de este estudio, realizado en Barcelona (España) durante el mes de mayo de 2013, es testear la percepción de 25 valores en siete spots televisivos de alimentación (con y sin estrategias de imagen corporal) en 139 jóvenes con y sin trastornos de la conducta alimentaria (TCA). Los resultados muestran que solo el grupo de jóvenes con TCA considera que los spots con una estrategia comercial basada en la imagen corporal influyen muy negativamente en valores como salud, bienestar, familia y esfuerzo. En cambio, se ha observado una gran coincidencia entre los dos grupos cuando se evalúa el resto de los spots. Estos resultados señalan que los jóvenes universitarios españoles de hoy han aceptado como normal un canon de belleza basado en el orden social y económico, mientras que los jóvenes en tratamiento por desórdenes alimenticios sí han aprendido a decodificar este tipo de mensajes.

The automatic segmentation of real-time news has been mainly researched by linguistics and signal processing disciplines in the last years. The piece of work presented here has a substantially different approach: from a communication perspective, the specific prosodic forms of news discourse are taken into consideration and programmed in Labview program by using the cepstrum processing. After several tests, the processing parameters are set to generate a macromelodic curve fitting based on pitch maximums (parabola). An algorithm of automatic news segmentation is designed by means of spotting pauses and analyzing prosodic forms for the beginning and the end of the piece of news. With a sample of five news programs broadcasted in the Spanish channel Cuatro in July 2009, the programming environment spots 98 pauses and labels correctly (cut/not cut) 76% of them. The totality of real cuts is contained in those 98, of which the algorithm misses 9 and finds 15 non-cuts. Both the computational linguistics and the spoken language processing have room for improvement by assuming a communication perspective too: group acoustic data as complex variables associated to the act of communication. For future pieces of research, this algorithm may be improved by complementing it with speakers' recognition systems, noise detection and word spotting.

La segmentación automatizada de noticias en tiempo real es un problema que ha tenido un abordaje fundamentalmente lingüístico y de procesamiento de la señal en los últimos años. El trabajo que presentamos tiene un enfoque sustancialmente diferente: desde una perspectiva comunicológica, se toman las formas prosódicas típicas del discurso informativo y se intentan programar mediante el procesamiento cepstrum en el entorno Labview. Después de numerosas pruebas se fijan los diferentes parámetros de procesamiento y estilización de la curva macromelódica basada en los máximos de pitch (parábolas). Se formula un algoritmo de segmentación automática de noticias a partir de la detección de pausas y el análisis de formas prosódicas de inicio y final de noticia. Sobre una muestra de cinco informativos reales emitidos en el canal español Cuatro en julio de 2009, el entorno detecta 98 pausas y etiqueta correctamente (corte/no corte) el 76% de las mismas. La totalidad de los cortes estaban contenidos en las 98 pausas localizadas, de los cuales el algoritmo pasa por alto 9 y genera 15 errores de cortes mal emplazados. Tanto la lingüística computacional como el procesamiento del habla pueden tener un importante margen de mejora si también se asume la perspectiva comunicológica: agrupar datos acústicos como variables complejas asociadas a cada acto de comunicación. Para futuros trabajos, este algoritmo puede ser mejorado si se complementa con sistemas de identificación de locutores, discriminación de ruidos y word spotting.

No marco de um projeto de cooperação entre a UAB e a UFMS, os autores ficaram no estado brasileiro de Mato Grosso do Sul para estudar os problemas das comunidades de pescadores do Rio Paraguai em Corumbá, que está sofrendo uma crise grave devido a diferentes fatores econômicos, políticos e meio ambientais. Foi achado um problema de comunicação, pelo qual foi desenhada uma metodologia qualitativa ad-hoc, baseada numa pesquisa documental sobre três âmbitos complementários: a) paradigmas da Comunicação Institucional e Empresarial, b) contexto histórico e socioeconômico, c) infra-estruturais e conteúdos mediáticos. E, paralelamente, foi feito um desenvolvimento dum Trabalho de Campo baseado em entrevistas em profundidade a 16 atores e observação direta do entorno. Os resultados indicam que a crise produtiva e social dos pescadores corumbaenses esta relacionada com uma crise organizacional e de uso e presença midiática, e foi proposto um Programa Integral de Comunicação como hipóteses cujo teste poderia levar a que seja empregado no resto das comunidades de pescadores na bacia do Rio Paraguai e do resto do mundo.

In the Framework of a cooperation project between UAB¹ and the UFMS², the authors moved to the Brazilian State Mato Grosso do Sul to study the case of the fishermen community in the River Paraguay (mainly in Corumbá), which are suffering big crisis du to different economic, politic and environmental factors. It was detected an underlying problem of communication, that was approached by an ad-hoc Qualitative Methodology, based on the documental research of three scopes: a) paradigms of Organization and Corporate Communication, b) Historical and socioeconomic background and c) hardware and media contents. Simultaneously, it was developed a fieldwork base of 16 in-depth interviews and the direct observation of the place and environment in which this activity takes place. The results show that the productive and social crisis of the fishermen in Corumbá is connected to an eventual crisis in terms of organizational and use of media, and an Integral Communication Plan is proponed as hypothesis which testing may conduct to its implementation in the rest of communities in River Paraguay and the rest of the world.

En el marco de un proyecto de cooperación entre la UAB y la UFMS, los autores nos trasladamos al estado brasileño de Mato Grosso do Sul para estudiar el caso de la comunidad de pescadores del Río Paraguay (principalmente en Corumbá), que está viviendo una grave crisis debido a diferentes factores económicos, políticos y medioambientales. Se detectó un problema de comunicación, que fue abordado mediante una Metodología Cualitativa ad-hoc, basada en una investigación documental de tres ámbitos complementarios: a) paradigmas de la Comunicación Organizacional y Empresarial, b) contexto histórico y socioeconómico y c) infraestructuras y contenidos mediáticos. Paralelamente, se desarrolló un Trabajo de Campo basado en entrevistas en profundidad a 16 actores implicados y observación directa del entorno. Los resultados indican que la crisis productiva y social de los pescadores corumbaenses está relacionada con una crisis organizacional y de uso y presencia mediáticos, y se propone un Plan Integral de Comunicación como hipótesis cuyo testeo podría llevar a su aplicación en el resto de comunidades del Río Paraguay y resto del mundo.