Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies - Volume 8, Issue 2, 2016

While news media representations of science and technology have received ample attention in academic research, there is a lack of comparable research into disaster films. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative content analysis, this article aims to explore the representation of science in three recent disaster films: The Day After Tomorrow (Emmerich, 2004), Contagion (Soderbergh, 2011) and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Wyatt, 2011). We find these films’ representation of science contributing to a reification of science and the promotion of the ‘ideology of science’. We conclude by discussing how this representation potentially shapes the context in which late modern risks are approached in social and political debates, and to what extent this might contribute to facilitating or impeding democratic debate and citizenship.

This article draws on the results of a research project on media accountability instruments in Catalonia. We map out media accountability in Catalonia focusing on institutional self-regulation instruments and outline their history compared to that of equivalent instruments in the rest of Spain and Europe. We discuss how the situation in Catalonia differs significantly from that of Spain in the context of Hallin and Mancini’s media systems models. We argue that including the cultural domain in an analysis of media accountability provides a more accurate understanding of the media system in stateless nations. We conclude that the culture of journalistic accountability in Catalonia is more closely aligned with the Corporatist or Liberal model than with the Mediterranean one and thus that the economic and political spheres alone do not provide a true picture of national realities when assessing media accountability.

In an era when the relationship between communications and physical spaces has been deeply modified, one must wonder about how these changes affect the dynamics of minority languages whose speakers are scattered throughout the territory of a hegemonic language. Joshua Fishman’s concept of ‘physical breathing space’ refers to the need of these languages to have a dense space available to them, where the language’s reproduction is in some way guaranteed. By analysing a case study on Basque language press, we will try to understand how mediacentric spaces can act as such breathing spaces. Choosing the printed press as our subject allows us to examine the correlation between the density of speakers and circulation of media. The analysis is completed with a set of in-depth interviews that illustrate some attitudes towards media in Basque among speakers in environments with a low density.

This study analysed the role played by the media in social perceptions about the risk of infection from rare diseases and Ebola. For this purpose, a content analysis was carried out on 479 news items on Ebola in 2014 and on 28 news items on rare diseases in 2013, all coming from the most widely circulated newspapers in Spain: El País and El Mundo. The findings enabled us to state that the media play an important role in the perception of social risk from both these issues (Ebola–Rare Diseases): on the one hand, because of intrinsic factors of the media themselves and journalistic routines and, on the other hand, because of the role played by politicians as an external factor. In addition, news about the spreading and the fatal consequences of Ebola lead to it being considered as a ‘terrible risk’ disease, whereas news about other rare diseases and the damage they can cause define them as of ‘unknown risk’.

In the context of globalization, national unity or identity are problematic and even contested concepts. The inherent diversity of most nations, furthermore, complicates the notion of a national unity or identity. Within this struggle to define the nation, mass media are generally regarded as playing an important role in ideas around nationhood. This article explores contemporary struggles to define ‘the nation’ as unified by comparing the diverse realities of South Africa and Flanders (Dutchlanguage northern Belgium) with specific focus on Public Service Broadcasting (PSB). Thus, by systematically exploring how diversity is dealt with in two separate national contexts, focusing in particular on PSB, we aim to come to a better understanding of how generic concepts like the nation, unity and diversity function in unique and specific contexts.

This article examines the measures taken by the German Nazi government to regulate and frame the coverage of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1039) in the German press. Primarily they did this through instructions issued at press conferences for the Berlin correspondents of the German newspapers. Although the journalists were forced to destroy their notes of these verbal instructions, some did not follow this command, preserving the written directives. In total, around 500 instructions reference the Spanish Civil War. In the beginning, the German press was asked to remain reluctant concerning the conflict; however, the Spanish Nationalists eventually overcame the Republicans. One of the permanent topics addressed by the Nazi propaganda ministry was foreign intervention in the Spanish Civil War. German intervention in the conflict was continually denied, particularly when German aircrafts bombarded the Basque town of Guernica on 26 April 1937, one of the most heinous war crimes prior to World War II. On the whole, the press instructions presented a distorted picture, full of deceit and hypocrisy. The brutal reality of war was omitted or completely glossed over in the German press.

On 29 July 2000, the ninth and 47th fronts of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) stormed the town of Arboleda (Colombia) and bombarded its population. In this massacre, seventeen people died and the town was nearly completely destroyed. Media across the country reported this massacre, and people repudiated the event. This viewpoint article reflects on this particular episode of violence to analyse the role of media in the formation of collective memory. The reflections in this case study will show how media, in the context of conflict, may contribute to the victims’ doing of memory by telling stories about that conflict. However, by focusing on the storytelling aspects of conflict, media may also contribute to constructing a depolitized memory.

THE UNLEASHED SCANDAL: THE END OF CONTROL IN THE DIGITAL AGE, BERNHARD POERKSEN AND HANNE DETEL (2014) Exeter: Imprint Academic, 225 pp., ISBN: 9781845407193, p/bk, £14.95

DE LA NECROPOLÍTICA NEOLIBERAL A LA EMPATÍA RADICAL: VIOLENCIA DISCRETA, CUERPOS EXCLUIDOS Y REPOLITIZACIÓN, CLARA VALVERDE GEFAELL (2015) Barcelona: Editorial Icària, 144 pp., ISBN: 9788498886825, paperback, 13€

GENDER AND MEDIA: REPRESENTING, PRODUCING, CONSUMING, TONNY KRIJNEN AND SOFIE VAN BAUWEL (2015) London and New York: Routledge, 208 pp., ISBN: 9780415695404, p/bk, £24.99

MUJERES EN MEDIO(S): PROPUESTAS PARA ANALIZAR LA COMUNICACIÓN MASIVA CON PERSPECTIVA DE GÉNERO, ASUNCIÓN BERNÁRDEZ RODAL (2015) Madrid: Editorial Fundamentos, 280 pp., ISBN: 9788424513115, p/bk, 20€

DIRECTORAS DE CINE EN ESPAÑA Y AMÉRICA LATINA: NUEVAS VOCES Y MIRADAS, PIETSIE FEENSTRA, ESTHER GIMENO UGALDE AND KATHRIN SARTINGEN (EDS) (2014) Frankfurt and Main: Peter Lang, 458 pp., ISBN: 9783631628591, h/bk, $97.95

CATARACT, JOHN BERGER (2011) London: Notting Hill Editions, 65 pp., ISBN: 9781907903328, h/bk, $22.00