Sociología de la comunicación

Activism on the Web examines the everyday tensions that political activists face as they come to terms with the increasingly commercialized nature of web technologies and sheds light on an important, yet under-investigated, dimension of the relationship between contemporary forms of social protest and internet technologies.

Drawing on anthropological and ethnographic research amongst three very different political groups in the UK, Italy and Spain, the book argues that activists’ everyday internet uses are largely defined by processes of negotiation with digital capitalism. These processes of negotiation are giving rise to a series of collective experiences, which are defined by the tension between activists’ democratic needs on one side and the cultural processes reinforced by digital capitalism on the other. In looking at the encounter between activist cultures and digital capitalism, the book focuses in particular on the tension created by self-centered communication processes and networked-individualism, by corporate surveillance and data-mining, and by fast-capitalism and the temporality of immediacy.

Activism on the Web suggests that if we want to understand how new technologies are affecting political participation and democratic processes, we should not focus on disruption and novelty, but we should instead explore the complex dialectics between digital discourses and digital practices; between the technical and the social; between the political economy of the web and its lived critique.

Why are some voices louder in public debates than others? And why can’t all voices be equally heard? This book draws significant new meaning to the inter-relationships of public relations and social change through a number of activist case studies, and rebuilds knowledge around alternative communicative practices that are ethical, sustainable, and effective. Demetrious offers a powerful critical description of the dominant model of public relations used in the twentieth century, showing that ‘PR’ was arrogant, unethical and politically offensive in ways that have severely weakened democratic process and its public standing and professional credibility. The book argues that change within the field of public relations is imminent and urgent—for us all. As the effects of climate change intensify, and are magnified by high carbon dioxide emitting industries, vigorous public debate is vital in the exploration of new ideas and action and if alternative futures are to be imagined. In these conditions, articulate and persistent publics will appear in the form of grassroots activists, asking contentious questions about risks and tabling them for public discussion in bold, inventive, and effective ways. Yet the entrenched power relations in and through public relations in contemporary industrialized society provide no certainty these voices will be heard. Following this path, Demetrious theorises an alternative set of social relations to those used in the twentieth century: public communication. Constructed from communicative practices of grassroots activists and synthesis of diverse theoretical positions, public communication is a principled approach that avoids the deep contradictions and flawed coherences of essentialist public relations and instead represents an important ethical reorientation in the communicative fields. Lastly, she brings original new perspectives to understand current and emergent developments in activism and public relations brought about through the proliferation of Internet and digital cultures.

Originally published in 1983. The conventions, institutions and practices of communication today are issues of great concern to all. Using a dual approach, this book evaluates communication today in all its facets. On the one hand, an investigation of communication can be viewed as an intellectual task –thus emphasizing basic issues of the human condition; on the other hand, communication can be examined in a practical manner, in the context of current social problems, operational decisions, and questions currently facing researchers. This text brings these two together so that the practical issues of communication can be viewed as they relate to the human condition itself.

Esta obra aborda los elementos que dotan a los conflictos armados de hoy de una mayor complejidad y que dificultan su análisis tanto en términos científicos como desde el punto de vista de la comunicación. Especialmente, nos hemos detenido en uno de los aspectos más importantes de los nuevos conflictos o las nuevas guerras, como es la progresiva privatización de las relaciones internacionales conflictuales que se traduce en un incremento del sufrimiento humano, especialmente entre los colectivos más vulnerables como son las mujeres. En contextos de conflictos armados y violencia estructural, la persecución y violencia se ceba con mujeres que juegan un papel esencial como comunicadoras, capaces de dar a conocer la barbarie y el sufrimiento que padecen sus respectivas comunidades y, desde ese momento se convierten en una amenaza, un peligro o, simplemente, una molestia para los agentes del conflicto, que a toda costa quieren mantener sus actividades en un marco de completa impunidad.

This book provides an in-depth comparative analysis of inequality and the stratification of the digital sphere.

Grounded in classical sociological theories of inequality, as well as empirical evidence, this book defines ‘the digital divide’ as the unequal access and utility of internet communications technologies and explores how it has the potential to replicate existing social inequalities, as well as create new forms of stratification. The Digital Divide examines how various demographic and socio-economic factors including income, education, age and gender, as well as infrastructure, products and services affect how the internet is used and accessed. Comprised of six parts, the first section examines theories of the digital divide, and then looks in turn at:

Highly developed nations and regions (including the USA, the EU and Japan);
Emerging large powers (Brazil, China, India, Russia);
Eastern European countries (Estonia, Romania, Serbia);
Arab and Middle Eastern nations (Egypt, Iran, Israel);
Under-studied areas (East and Central Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa).

Providingan interwoven analysis of the international inequalities in internet usage and access, this important work offers a comprehensive approach to studying the digital divide around the globe. It is an important resource for academic and students in sociology, social policy, communication studies, media studies and all those interested in the questions and issues around social inequality.

Media education for digital citizenship is predicated upon the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and produce media content and communication in a variety of forms. While many media literacy approaches overemphasize the end-goal of accessing digital media content through the acquisition of various technology, software, apps and analytics, this book argues that the goals for comprehensive and critical digital literacy require grasping the means through which communication is created, deployed, used, and shared, regardless of which tools or platforms are used for meaning making and social interaction. Drawing upon the intersecting matrices of digital literacy and media literacy, the volume provides a framework for developing critical digital literacies by exploring the necessary skills and competencies for engaging students as citizens of the digital world.

La vertiginosa irrupción del Estado Islámico ha trastocado el concierto internacional en Oriente Medio y amenaza con rediseñar los roles tradicionales en una de las zonas más convulsas del planeta. Pero más allá de su impacto político, los yihadistas se han destapado como unos efectivos gestores de la comunicación y la propaganda del terror. En este reportaje se investigan las múltiples actividades del Daesh a través de los medios de comunicación e internet, que implican desde el proselitismo más salvaje hasta la captación de voluntarios en redes sociales. Asimismo, a través de una experiencia en primera persona, el autor desciende hasta las profundidades de la Deep Web para demostrar que el contacto con los terroristas y su terrible maquinaria está a pocos clics de distancia.

¿Qué es H2PaC? El modelo H2PAC resuelve propuestas clave a partir de ACTIVIDADES. Esta forma de aprendizaje parte de un RETO: la actividad que deberás resolver. Para ello te facilitamos un contenido teórico, EL CONOCIMIENTO IMPRESCINDIBLE, que te ayudará a entender los conceptos esenciales para poder afrontar el desafío planteado inicialmente. Además del contenido teórico, el modelo también te facilita LAS SOLUCIONES, una propuesta de resolución del reto expuesto. Con este libro obtendrás las claves para poder adentrarte en el proceso de elaboración de una campaña publicitaria y determinar cuáles son las funciones de cada agente profesional que interviene.

This collection investigates the publics of the hashtag. Taking cues from critical public sphere theory, contributors are interested in publics that break beyond the mainstream – in other publics. They are interested in the kinds of publics that do politics in a way that is rough and emergent, flawed and messy, and ones in which new forms of collective power are being forged on the fly and in the shadow of loftier mainstream spheres.
Hashtags are deictic, indexical – yet what they point to is themselves, their own dual role in ongoing discourse. Focusing on hashtags used for topics from Ferguson, Missouri, to Australian politics, from online quilting communities to labour protests, from feminist outrage to drag pop culture, this collection follows hashtag publics as they trend beyond Twitter into other spaces of social networking such as Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr as well as other media spaces such as television, print, and graffiti.

This book examines the notions of ethics and equity in relation to language and communication in intercultural relations. Although these notions are often discussed, they are not always addressed with regard to specifi c subjects. Much intercultural discourse and dialogue in recent times has been coloured by the clash of civilizations (as described by Samuel Huntington), terrorist attacks such as 9/11, and the indelible effects which these events have had on dealings between different peoples, cultures and religions. This book discusses ethics and equity with regard to marginalized and privileged minorities, victims of abuse and of confl ict, researchers and practitioners, and language learners and speaker/users. It opens up spaces for a critical discourse of ethics and equity in language and intercultural communication as ‘new’ knowledge. This book was originally published as a special issue of Language and Intercultural Communication.