Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies - Volume 11, Issue 1, 2019

The competitive practice of videogames, known as electronic sports, has changed the traditional entertainment consumption scenario associated with games, creating a new kind of show business with several specific features. This article aims to introduce a holistic view of this new phenomenon, delimiting its socio-economic ecosystem and identifying the actors and relationship characteristics of its dynamic. This model of analysis allows us to take a general perspective of every actor role within the industry. Our research focuses on the new business models, the spectacularization of the eSports industry and the relationship between videogame and user. Finally, this article attends to the emerging issues, challenges and traditional game industry disruptions related to the mobile devices, game distribution platforms and the prosumer identity of the gamer in the digital society.

This article addresses how the concept of ‘Action Art’, which came mainly from the anti-cultural movements of May 1968 in Europe, has been transformed into the term Artivism. The main hypothesis is that it is a succession of committed and protest art, transformed by two fundamental elements: the emergence of social networks and the exposure of a very young audience to artistic creation through this network. This type of creative action has acquired an urban character that is strongly linked to civil protest movements. In the second part, this article discusses how both terms circulate as Instagram hashtags in this delocalized world of networks. The terms are used to show that, beyond transcending national territories, new, significant geographies are continually being reconstructed.

The aim of this article is to verify how the Destination Management Organizations of Barcelona and Cambrils managed their crisis communication following the attacks of August 2017 via their Twitter platforms. To do so, an analysis template was created from the field of public relations and a content analysis was performed on the tweets published on the official accounts of these organizations during one month after the terrorist attacks. The results show that, despite the great communication potential of Twitter during crises following terrorist attacks, only Barcelona Turisme published a high volume of tweets in the first days after the attack. However, the content of the tweets by Barcelona Turisme and Cambrils Turisme focuses mainly on how the attack was dealt with, the actions they took to protect the stakeholders, and the promotion of their tourist attractions. The tweets reported to a lesser extent on what had happened during the attacks and the security measures adopted after the attacks. The study has shown the need for public relations and crisis communication by Destination Management Organizations when terrorist attacks take place. This article involves the creation of a highly useful methodology to analyse crisis communication management after terrorist attacks at tourist destinations.

This article analyses the media accountability instruments available in the area where the Basque language is spoken. After mapping out media accountability in the Basque Country focusing on instruments both internal and external to the media, it is discussed how the situation differs from other cases in Europe, such as Sweden or Catalonia. Despite the absence of strong institutional media accountability organizations, several media accountability instruments (MAI) have been launched in recent years. It is too early yet to affirm whether this is a passing trend or an indicator of deeper changes leading to a consensus on ethical standards with respect to the media.

In Catalonia, the smaller media publishing in the Catalan language – usually calling themselves proximity media instead of local media – is a significant and particularly dynamic sector of the media industry’s environment. In a constant struggle to be visible against the backdrop of the state-focused Spanish media measurement systems, different approaches have been tested to portray a more accurate picture of the importance of these media, to increase their advertising revenue and also to assess the impact of Catalonian media and culture. This article analyses the effect produced in the audiences of the local media integrated in the Associació de Mitjans d’Informació i Comunicació (Association of Information and Communication Media) by the changes observed in the Communication and Culture Barometer published by the Communication and Culture Audiences Foundation (FUNDACC). The objective of this article is to delineate the challenges that these media have to face to be market-significant from an audience measurement standpoint and how the media measurement institutions are a key player in this process.

When observing certain global debates in recent decades on the defence of national cultural and linguistic spaces, one finds what seems to be a paradox: states that were historically constructed by homogenizing cultures and stifling languages in their territory (even states that were until recently accused of promoting cultural imperialism), now seem to be resorting to defensive arguments traditionally used by threatened minorities. This reaction is based on the perception that flows linked to globalization, migratory movements and the development of telecommunications are threatening the linguistic and cultural space of the nation, and therefore the nation itself, and could thus suggest a confluence of arguments between states and minorities. As in any paradox, we are not only faced with statements that apparently depart from common sense, but instead with a complex reality, whose understanding poses a challenge. In this article, we will try to analyse, from the point of view of the linguistic minorities, the limits of the arguments wielded by the states in defence of their national space, as well as the possibilities those minorities have of resorting to the discourses constructed at a global level in defence of diversity.

In the audio-visual industry it is increasingly common to find professional productions created with mobile devices, mobile journalism continues to grow, the smartphone market places increasing emphasis on camera quality and mobile cinema (created with smartphones) is more relevant every day. Yet despite this change at the industry level, the study ‘Apps4CAV’ reveals that future audio-visual creators receive no training in the use of mobile devices as part of their university courses. Communication and media students are aware of very few mobile applications for the production and distribution of audio-visual content and almost none for scriptwriting, pre-production and post-production. Moreover, they make scarce use of the wellknown apps and perceive mobile devices to be valid tools for audio-visual creation only in the personal sphere, but not for academic or professional work. Should our universities provide training to those future audio-visual professionals in the development of mobile creation skills?

Spanish copla singer Falete is best known for his frequent presence on TV shows, which receive record ratings, and also for the jokes made regarding his appearance. Confronted with normative questions regarding gender and sexuality, Falete’s successful TV career challenges not only binary conceptions of gender but also how we think about TV spectatorship. We argue that liminal spaces, such as the one that Falete inhabits on TV, are useful for unveiling how audiences develop plural and complex forms of identifying with TV stars. Watching Falete on TV, therefore, challenges theories of gender that reify processes of identity formation and identification. In this article, we highlight Falete’s engagement with queer strategies of resistance, such as humour, reappropriation and hypervisibility to resist society’s impulse to name and fix normative identities, but also to gain the audience’s attention and sympathy.

Painscapes: Communicating Pain, E. J. Gonzalez-Polledo and Jen Tarr (eds) (2018) London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 254 pp., ISBN 978-1-34995-271-7, h/bk, $109.99

Guerras simbólicas: El papel del audiovisual en la lucha contra la violencia de género, Maria Isabel Menéndez and Paula Illera Miguel (eds) (2017) Palma: Edicions Universitat de les Illes Balears, 187 pp., ISBN: 978-8-48384-371-0, p/bk , 17.10€

Barbarismos Queer y Otras Esdrújulas, R. LUCAS PLATERO Méndez, María Rosón and Esther Ortega (eds) (2017) Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra, 432 pp., ISBN: 978-8-47290-829-1, p/bk, 22€

Stuart Hall: Conversations, Projects and Legacies, Julian Henriques, David Morley and Vana Globot (eds) (2017) London: Goldsmiths Press, 328 pp., ISBN 978-1-90689-747-5, h/bk, $29.95|£24.00

Framing Referendum Campaigns in the News, Marina Dekavalla (2018) Manchester: Manchester University Press, 184 pp., ISBN 978-1-52611-989-6, h/bk, £80.00

Periodistas y Políticos en España, Andreu Casero-Ripollés and Pablo López-Rabadán (eds) (2016) Barcelona: Editorial UOC, 246 pp., ISBN 978-8-49116-516-3, p/bk, 24,70€