Abstract

For many Spanish-speaking librarians, the so-called “progressive librarianship” has been the first step in approaching a particular way of understanding library and information sciences generically known as “social librarianship”. Despite the abundance of information on the aims and activities of progressive librarianship, few efforts have been made to define this way of framing the thought and action related to librarianship. This essay attempts to provide some guidance as to what it is and what it does.

Abstract

The Network is an emerging space for political and feminist activism. Sub-activist practices, less institutionalized and more connected with subjective experiences, find in digital technology new ways of connecting latent politics and civic political participation with conventional activism. We try to define profiles and practices of use from 12 in-depth interviews with activists who have a long history in the feminist movement and who use social networks intensively, in particular Twitter, for their policy initiatives. As a conclusion this article shows how digital collective repertoires of action establish a continuum between real life and online militancy as well as amplify, empower, and democratize feminist popularization. In turn, social networks are configured as inbred spaces and not fully conquered by feminist groups, so it is necessary to create novel scenarios of their own and to promote proposals and discourses with transformative political capacity.

Abstract

This study analyses the media coverage of immigration in Melilla, the land frontier between Spain and Morocco andone of the access points where immigrants enter the European Union, and the role that journalists and other agents play in spreading news on immigration. By means of a field study we analyse the type of news professionals and media that are present near the border, the logics followed by institutional press offices when providing information, and the particular conditions in which journalism is practiced in a space of juridical exceptionality. Amongst the results obtained we underscore: the predominance of a media market that, while apparently diverse, is highly dependent on institutional advertising; the relevance of figures like activists or freelance journalists in providing differentiated news on immigration; and the difficulties in working that journalists face due to arbitrariness and obscurantism when accessing images and data.

Abstract

A tour of the theoretical development and the main research lines of international communication is presented. To do this, the appearance of communication in the configuration of power in four aspects (hard, soft, sharp and strategic narrative) is analyzed. The critical perspective and the Anglo-Saxon mastery on the subject are examined, with evidence from France, Germany, or Latin America. Five axes of future research are anticipated, such as the strengthening of the theoretical and methodological bases with interdisciplinary methods; the nature and characteristics of the international journalists (correspondents versus false news); the management of populist communication in the face of a political globalization with leaders that hinder the conventional journalistic ethos; the analysis of the structures; and global information systems in a multipolar scenario and less “CNN effect” than expected, and the constant innovation dynamics of propaganda.

Abstract

A tour of the theoretical development and the main research lines of international communication is presented. To do this, the appearance of communication in the configuration of power in four aspects (hard, soft, sharp and strategic narrative) is analyzed. The critical perspective and the Anglo-Saxon mastery on the subject are examined, with evidence from France, Germany, or Latin America. Five axes of future research are anticipated, such as the strengthening of the theoretical and methodological bases with interdisciplinary methods; the nature and characteristics of the international journalists (correspondents versus false news); the management of populist communication in the face of a political globalization with leaders that hinder the conventional journalistic ethos; the analysis of the structures; and global information systems in a multipolar scenario and less “CNN effect” than expected, and the constant innovation dynamics of propaganda.

Abstract

This study analyses the media coverage of immigration in Melilla, the land frontier between Spain and Morocco andone of the access points where immigrants enter the European Union, and the role that journalists and other agents play in spreading news on immigration. By means of a field study we analyse the type of news professionals and media that are present near the border, the logics followed by institutional press offices when providing information, and the particular conditions in which journalism is practiced in a space of juridical exceptionality. Amongst the results obtained we underscore: the predominance of a media market that, while apparently diverse, is highly dependent on institutional advertising; the relevance of figures like activists or freelance journalists in providing differentiated news on immigration; and the difficulties in working that journalists face due to arbitrariness and obscurantism when accessing images and data.

Abstract

This study analyses the role of communication in social activism from models that surpass the mere emotional reaction, prior belief reinforcement or brand identification. This paper tests the hypothesis that a message focused on the cause (and its results) will motivate a previously sensitized audience depending on their interactions with source favorability. The methodology is based on the design of a bifactor experimental action result study 2 (failure versus success) x 2 valences (favorable versus unfavorable source) with the participation of 297 people who are pro-avoidance of evictions. The results allow us to infer that the messages from sources hostile to the cause that report negative results have the potential to emotionally and behaviorally motivate activists to a greater extent than messages with more positive results from favorable sources. The conclusions point to the dialogue between social injustice frames and pro-cause action emotions as a way to increase social mobilization. The theoretical and empirical implications of these findings are discussed in the present-day context of social media prevalence.

Abstract

The chapter discusses a certain type of activism and cinema associated with it, which cannot be described as strictly ‘Marxist’, but which might appeal to Marxist viewers: the Critical Mass movement. This movement, which started in the early 1990s, consists of groups of bicyclists riding through inner cities in numerous countries. The Critical Massmovement can be assessed in two basic ways: either as a means of combating capitalism by challenging the domination of a private car in the cities and advocating living in a more sustainable and greener way, or as a one-issue activismthat diverts attention from the crucial problem of capitalism, which is that of class. The chapter also discusses the films that represent and advocate bikeactivism and living according to the ‘bike ethos’ in terms of their production, textual characteristics and distribution. It draws attention to the fact that cinema is crucial for bike activism and the internet is indispensable for Mass Movement cinema.