Communication & Methods

Miradas y herramientas críticas para repensar la comunicación en tiempos de polarización desde la acción

Eloísa Nos Aldás — 2025-05-19

Hablar de propuestas metodológicas y de análisis supone entender su concepción performativa: desde dónde se habla, cómo se interpreta la realidad y qué consecuencias tiene en el ámbito científico, pero también en el social y cultural. Las investigaciones aquí presentadas son un claro ejemplo de compromiso social para quebrar procesos de polarización y transitar hacia modelos comunicativos inclusivos.

Atlas as a Cartographic and Archaeological Method of Montage, Analysis, Reading and Interpretation of the Contemporary Moving Image

Imen Bouziri Boullosa — 2025-05-21

We present an unprecedented cartographic and archaeological method: a readaptation of Aby Warburg’s Atlas Mnemosyne for its application to the field of media studies. Our Atlas relies on a solid double triangulation; theoretical (the intersection of media theories with other related and historically compatible research areas) and methodological (a combination of media analysis techniques and symbolic hermeneutics). The result is a novel ‘media archaeology of knowledge’ which turns the cinematic image, through its own epistemological revaluation, into the ontological matrix of all media representations and the ultimate source of a scientific knowledge built through images and by the power of imagination.

A Methodological Approach to Exploring Hashtags as Digital Expressions: a Case Study on #onlinedating of Instagram

Rita Sepúlveda — 2025-05-21

With the pervasive presence of social media in everyday life and the diverse ways users express themselves across platforms and within platform-specific grammars, traditional research methodologies are being adapted, combined to newer, digital approaches. Among social media users' expressions, hashtags have become central to studies of social fenomena (e.g. activism, health, political participation), as they offer valuable insights into user behaviour and discourse. This article combines digital methods (Rogers, 2013, 2019) with thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2020) to explore users' expressions associated with hashtags using #onlinedating on Instagram as a case study. The study aimed to identify and describe the narratives through which users express themselves in posts associated with #onlinedating, to understand the underlying dynamics of contemporary dating. While research on online dating has mainly relied on surveys, interviews and ethnographic approaches, this study highlights the potential of hashtags as user expressions for analysing related public discourse in the digital age. By focusing on the #onlinedating hashtag, the study offers a nuanced understanding of how modern dating behaviours and perceptions are communicated on social platforms. Additionaly, the findings reflect on the benefits and limitations of this methodological approach, offering insights into its broader applicability in the study of communication focusing on user-generated content and online interactions.

Methodological Proposal for the Study of the Ethical Use of Information in Secondary School Classrooms from a Media Literacy Approach

Elsa Alfaro Gallardo — 2025-05-21

Media literacy is the set of skills and knowledge that are essential for people to be able to access, understand, evaluate and critically use information and the media. It is a powerful tool for combating misinformation, as media literate people are better able to identify misinformation and prevent it from affecting their decisions. The objectives of this work are to find out about the current problem of disinformation and journalistic ethics, to find out about the media literacy proposals that are being carried out in Spanish secondary. The first results show that there are shortcomings in the field of media literacy, which is unevenly applied in the different Autonomous Communities.

Methodology for the Analysis of the Modes of Representation of the Financial Protagonist in Hollywood Fiction

Julián Franco Lorenzana — 2025-05-22

For the development of the doctoral thesis entitled Hollywood and the world of finance through the representation of its protagonist in the era of sound cinema (1934-2016), a combined methodology was used, based on the theoretical bases of Sigfried Kracauer, Jesús González Requena and Sergei M. Eisenstein, which implied resorting to a psychoanalytic and symbolic approach, a social and historical approach and, finally, a semiotic and aesthetic approach. The aim was to find those points of connection between the different approaches and to check how these connections were represented in the 16 cinematographic texts that made up the sample under study. This methodology allowed conclusions to be reached that went beyond these areas, reaching issues related to morality and metaphysics, as well as discovering a series of common codes in the films, as detailed in this paper.

The Film Club as a Space for Collective Knowledge: a Proposed Method using Discussion Groups

Jesús Gerardo Cervantes Flores — 2025-05-22

This article proposes a methodology based on the interpretivist paradigm, the phenomenological and socio-constructionist approach. It uses the film club as a collaborative space where, after the screening of a film, participants dialogue and collectively construct meanings about the topics addressed in it. The proposal highlights how subjectivity and social interactions can generate a collective knowledge. The discussion groups allow individual experiences to be transformed into consensus, deepening the understanding of social reality. The film club, therefore, is presented as a tool that can explore the expression of complex issues from a qualitative approach.

Between Content Analysis and Grounded Theory: a Methodological Proposal for the Reconstruction of Socio-technical Imaginaries of the Energy Transition in Digital News

Facundo David Franciso Gonzalez — 2025-05-22

This article proposes a methodology to analyze socio-technical imaginaries of energy transition in digital media, taking as illustrative cases some studies conducted in digital media in the Province of Salta (Argentina). The proposal combines documentary research techniques, content analysis, grounded theory and theoretical coding. Likewise, the basis of this strategy is based on the concept of socio-technical imaginaries and the transdisciplinary nature of communication studies, transcending the specific case and demonstrating its potential in other contexts and research areas. We seek to foster interdisciplinary debate and contribute to the development of methodological strategies applicable to complex communicational phenomena in various fields. Therefore, we highlight the flexible nature of this methodology and its relevance for the study of digital media, political discourses, scientific/academic productions, among other texts in various presentations and formats.