Abstract

A range of different methods and tools have been proposed by both academics and professionals in recent years for evaluating the quality of websites. Some are of general application and can be used to assess any type of website, while others have been adapted to the specialized characteristics of the websites employed in a given sector. This paper undertakes an analysis of existing scientific production in this field, with the aim of identifying its most relevant publications, its principal authors and the specific sectors served by the sites under evaluation. By triangulating review methods, 716 texts, published between 2000 and 2018, were identified in Scopus, Web of Science and other databases and examined. In addition to basic bibliographic information, the number of citations received by each text was recorded using Google Scholar. The area of knowledge in which each author works was also categorized based on his or her specific affiliations. The results point to a growing interest in website quality in a scientific community that has a presence in more than 70 countries. Its authors are drawn from various disciplines, although the highest number of publications is recorded in computer science, business and medical informatics. The most frequently cited texts are in fact seminal books in the associated disciplines of usability, information architecture and user experience. However, as of 2007, the number of texts describing evaluation tools for the websites of specific sectors – most notably, education (33%), health (27%) and commerce (21%) – increased their share. In conclusion, it is evident that website quality is a field of study undergoing constant growth and increasing specialization and one that offers ample opportunities for research.

Abstract

The core hypothesis of the theory of agenda setting is that there is a process of transfer of salience from the media agenda to the public agenda. Since its original conception in the early 1970s, the explanatory model of ‘issue-agenda setting’ (first level) has been extended to help explain the transfer of the media’s ‘attribute agenda’ (second level) and ‘network agenda’ (third level) to the public agenda. This article provides a review of the agenda-setting model and its theoretical and empirical development, ending with a section that summarizes and discusses research studies published in this area in the last five years in Spain. Despite the broad influence of the agenda-setting theory in communication research in this country, Despite the broad influence of the agenda-setting theory in communication research in this country, many of the studies use the theory as a general framework for conducting a content analysis, withouh empirically testing any process of salience transfer.

Abstract

A systematic literature review is carried out, detailing the research topics and the methods and techniques used in information science in studies published between 2000 and 2019. The results obtained allow us to affirm that there is no consensus on the core topics of information science, as these evolve and change dynamically in relation to other disciplines, and with the dominant social and cultural contexts. With regard to the research methods and techniques, it can be stated that they have mostly been adopted from social sciences, with the addition of numerical methods, especially in the fields of bibliometric and scientometric research.

Abstract

Journalism has been able to adapt quickly to technological innovation, especially in recent years. The application of algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) to this discipline is a phenomenon that has developed rapidly in a very short time. This is therefore a research area that, in spite of its short life, deserves special interest. The objective of this review article is to map and analyze the global scientific production on this topic and to identify which countries are most focused on this issue, which areas are studied most and using which methodological approaches, how and where it is evolving, and the gaps present in this research. The review of 358 texts confirms the considerable attention from academia during the last decade, especially between 2015 and 2020, and that the USA is, by far, the country with most publications on this subject. Most of the published works are research articles carried out, above all, using qualitative methodologies. The areas that have attracted the most interest to date are data journalism, robot writing, and news verification. As is to be expected in a developing discipline, others such as the review of the role of the journalist, the personalization of content, or the incorporation of AI into teaching of journalism have not yet been sufficiently explored but surely will be in the near future.

Abstract

The vertiginous explosion of new forms and experiences of communication that have emerged in the last 30 years cannot be compared with other moments in the history of humanity. The rapid transformation of the media ecosystem and the technological sphere in general is putting old scientific theories and models to the test. The very idea of “ecosystem” or widely used concepts such as “emergence” (of new media) or “adaptation” or even “extinction” (of old media), albeit metaphorically, point in the same direction: the development of an evolutionary theory of media change. This review article aims to map the different approaches and contributions that come together in an evolutionary theory of the media, understood for all purposes as a transdisciplinary work-in-progress. The article opens with a reflection on the processes of theoretical construction, continues with a map of Media Ecology –a “field of inquiry” inspired by the works of Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman– and concludes this first approach with the authors who worked on the evolutionary dimension of media change. It could be said that the evolutionary theory of the media already exists, but it is scattered in countless texts and investigations waiting to be articulated. The article concludes with a first identikit of the Evolution of the Media, understood as a theoretical field under construction but more than necessary to understand the past and contemporary transformations of the media ecosystem.

Abstract

Information, communication, and digitalization technologies have driven the unlimited access to knowledge, thereby promoting creativity, economic and cultural development, and the emergence of a global world at breakneck speed over recent decades. Across its multiple dynamics, this digital revolution has opened new educational opportunities that are closely connected to emerging technologies and, recently, to artificial intelligence. These advances have had an unexpected impact on people’s lives, altering the values of society and our understanding of the role of education and the modern school in this scenario of global communication. In this context, media education arises from the clear influence of electronic devices and digital technology on society. The aim of this study is to review our understanding of the scientific relevance of the terms “media education” and “educommunication” during the last two decades to describe its evolution on the basis of its terms, locations, thematic stages, and methodological approaches using a systematic quantitative–qualitative review of 598 articles collected from the Web of Science between 2000 and 2021. The results suggest that such scientific interest can be divided into two stages, viz. reflections on media education in its terminological diversity (2000–2012) and measurement, implementation, training, and educommunicative digitization in terms of technological–digital development (2013–2021). We conclude that studies in this transdisciplinary field, which have historically been spread across North and South America, Europe, North Africa, and the North/South East Asia–Pacific region, have broadened their perspective from early criticism of media education to consider the “glocalization” of media education, directing interest toward the cultural digitization of the Global South, algorithmic literacy, and the digital and ethical–critical (self-)management of individual and collective identity.