En esta tesis doctoral, se estudian las principales escuelas de divulgación científica en el mundo -primera parte- y se analizan 532 textos del periodista español Javier Sampedro (Madrid, 1960) -segunda parte-. El autor distingue cuatro tradiciones de divulgación con sus autores fundamentales, características y obras más relevantes. En primer lugar, se destaca la escuela fundacional de la divulgación científica: la italo-renacentista, cuyo máximo exponente es Galileo Galilei con su obra cumbre Diálogo. La segunda escuela considerada es la francesa, que vive sus años gloriosos en el siglo XVIII, con autores como Diderot, Fontenelle y Buffon o, ya en el XIX, con Flammarion. En tercer lugar, este trabajo destaca la escuela germano-prusiana que abarca desde mediados del XVIII hasta la II Guerra Mundial. Su valor máximo es Einstein, un sensacional escritor y conferenciante, sin olvidar a autores como Planck, Heisenberg o el influyente Schrödinger. Por último, se señala la poderosa escuela anglosajona, que brilla en el XIX con Darwin, un científico que escribía como un divulgador, y da lugar al siglo XX norteamericano: la verdadera explosión cámbrica de la divulgación, con autores como Gamow, Asimov, Sagan o Gould.A partir de la II Guerra Mundial, el modelo anglosajón ha resultado el paradigma dominante en la popularización de las ciencias, y las estrategias y métodos divulgativos anglosajones han penetrado en todos los continentes. Un buen ejemplo en la Europa continental de esta tendencia globalizadora es el periodista del diario español de referencia El País Javier Sampedro, cuya obra está llena de influencias anglosajonas. El objetivo de la segunda parte de la tesis es estudiar la obra periodística de divulgación de Sampedro desde el punto de vista de la Periodística, caracterizarla y sistematizar sus estrategias divulgativas más usuales. La obra de Sanpedro, sumamente original e innovadora, se analiza a partir de cinco campos

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This critical analysis focuses on my investigations over the past almost 24 years into what I term the ‘Satanic ritual abuse myth’ – or ‘Satanic panic’ – the controversy over recovered versus false memories, and, more recently, the validity of the diagnosis of multiple personality disorder (MPD), now known as dissociative identity disorder (DID). This reflective analysis, written for the PhD by prior publication, explores how my journalism has made an original and significant contribution to knowledge in my own field, investigative journalism, and how it relates to – and has contributed to - the literature in several academic disciplines – the psychology of false memories, the anomalistic psychology of weird beliefs, and the sociology of moral panics. I was one of the first researchers internationally to conclude there was no physical, forensic evidence that Satanic abuse existed. My ‘Making of a Satanic Myth’ feature, published in the Independent on Sunday in 1990, has been cited in the literature, along with key investigations since. I describe the methodology and conduct of research during my continuing investigations into the origins and spread of the ‘Satanic panic’ and related controversies of false memories and multiple personalities. The dissertation itself adds significantly to academic theories and historical accounts of these events from the 1980s until today. Through a wide reading of the literature I have pieced together a forensic chronology which provides a unique overview of a particular era of striking and peculiar phenomena. On reflection, I conclude that my investigations provide evidence for the concept of moral panics created through an ‘explosive amplification’ of anecdote, social and official concern about issues such as child abuse, spread by ‘claims-makers’ and a globalised mass media. Although sporadic claims of Satanic abuse continue I conclude there is still no corroborating evidence.

This review of eight years of research into digital media addresses the methodological and epistemological issues and tensions arising out of the emergence of new communicative spaces that have expanded the range of actors involved in the construction of the news. Until recently, journalism has developed as a relatively closed professional culture for the production of knowledge, based on a system of editorial control. Yet digital media technologies have disrupted established concepts of communication, prevailing notions of space and time and the distinction between public and private spheres. The research in this portfolio highlights elements of change and continuity in the way journalists think about and engage in their work, through processes of adaptation shaped by cultural, social, economic and technological factors. The work reveals how far participatory media technologies are transforming how journalists and audiences relate to the news in a profession where norms and routines that have remained, until now, decidedly consistent. But it goes beyond a focus on journalists as a distinct group to advance ideas about how the media environment itself is being reconfigured, particularly due to the development of social media. The research presented here on Twitter reveals how news and information have become woven into social awareness streams that represent a constantly updated public account of the experiences, interests and opinions shared by the platform’s users. They are able to reframe or reinterpret messages through networked platforms that extend the dissemination of news through social interaction, infusing hybridity in news production, selection and dissemination.

This research explores the dominant meanings arising from British newspaper reportage of sexual violence directed at children. The research employs a quantitative and qualitative analysis to answer the following questions: What are the dimensions of child sexual abuse that are covered? How do the media cover these (e.g. as straight news, editorials, opinion columns)? How are offenders and victims portrayed? What sources are cited in stories? What explanations are offered about the occurrence of child sexual abuse? The objective is to: (a) describe the content of press reportage about child sexual abuse through quantitative and qualitative content analysis and; (b) explain the nature of that content in terms of better understanding journalism as a producer of meanings, specifically in relation to coverage of child sexual abuse. In simultaneously identifying and comparing news coverage, the research attempts to articulate the political and ideological functions of language in newspaper coverage of child sexual abuse. It also attempts to develop explanations for the discursive representation of child sexual abuse in the British press, linking news discourse on sexual offending against children to the journalistic practices in news production, the profile of the profession as well as broader prevailing socio-political ideologies about the family, offending, childhood and risks faced by children. A close and systematic analysis of news texts is important to understanding the role of the media in the production of meanings about such a social problems.

Esta investigación tiene como propósito el estudio de las representaciones de la realidad social en la prensa escrita y la relación que establecen con el contexto histórico en el que se llevan cabo, mediante la aplicación del método Hemerográfico Diacrónico Automático a una muestra de ejemplares completos de los diarios vespertinos venezolanos Tal Cual y El Mundo del período 2000-2002. Este instrumento novedoso, concebido por la Dra. Amparo Moreno, se diferencia de los análisis de contenidos tradicionales porque enfoca la totalidad de la superficie impresa de cada ejemplar estudiado (redaccional, publicitaria y administrativa), en procura de una descripción minuciosa y pormenorizada de su mirada informativa, es decir, de la versión que ofrecen a sus lectores del espacio en el que se desarrolla la vida social, en el que se destaca a determinados protagonistas actuando en específicas condiciones espacio-temporales: ¿Quién enfoca a quién, haciendo qué en qué escenarios?Asimismo, el carácter interdisciplinario del mismo reivindica el valor historiográfico de la prensa como fuente documental para la elaboración de las explicaciones que eventualmente se harán de los fenómenos sociales en un período determinado. Por tanto, la escogencia de estos vespertinos también me ha ayudado a abordar el tema del rol de la prensa en los años de enfrentamiento político, desintegración social y estancamiento económico, bajo el gobierno del presidente Hugo Chávez. De allí la necesidad de presentar los elementos contextuales que me han parecido más apropiados para la interpretación de los fenómenos observados a través de la presentación sociológica, filosófica e histórica de las variables sociales, especialmente la política, en tanto dicha crisis y su posible resolución se centran en este cariz del asunto. Por medio de disertaciones teóricas he pretendido despejar los argumentos sustanciales del debate planteado en torno al periodismo en democracia, tema que ha adquirido especial relevancia en la Venezuela de principios del siglo XXI, para su cotejamiento e interpretación con los datos específicos de esta investigación comunicacional.Finalmente, la organización del texto de la tesis se divide en tres grandes bloques. En la primera parte están los planteamientos esenciales de la investigación (objetivos, hipótesis y metodología) y el contexto filosófico en el que abordo los temas relacionados con el rol de los medios de comunicación en democracia. En la segunda parte, elaboro una explicación de los cambios sociales en el siglo XX en Venezuela partiendo de los presupuestos del enfoque no androcéntrico, junto con un análisis crítico de los textos historiográficos referentes, desde el punto de vista de la evolución político-institucional de la democracia y la prensa venezolana. Y en la tercera parte, se presentan los resultados del análisis de los textos periodísticos de la muestra escogida, las conclusiones, las fuentes consultadas y los anexos. / The purpose of this research is the study of the representations of the social reality in the press, and the relation that those representations establish into the historic context in which they are carried out, through the use of the Automatic Diachronic Hemerographic method, applied to a sample of complete copies of the Venezuelan evening newspapers Tal Cual and El Mundo, between the years 2000 and 2003. This novel method, created by Doctor Amparo Moreno, is different of those traditional ones based on the analysis of contents, because it focuses on the whole printed area of each studied copy (in terms of wording, advertisement and management), searching for a thorough and detailed description of its information scope; that is, the searching of the version that they offer to their readers about the area in which social live takes place, where certain figures, acting in specific space-time attitudes, are highlighted: Who looks at who, doing what, and in which scenes?Likewise, the interdisciplinary nature of the study vindicates the historiographic value of the press as a documentary source to draw up explanations to be made about the social phenomena at a certain period. Therefore, the fact of choosing these evening newspapers, helped me, as well, to tackle the issue concerning to the role played by the press in the years of politic confrontation, social breakup and economic slowdown, under the administration of President Hugo Chávez. Hence, the need to present the contextual elements that seemed to me the most suitable to the interpretation of the observed phenomena though the sociological, philosophical and historical presentation of the social variables, particularly the politics, since the foremetioned crisis and its possible solution are focused on this aspect of the matter. By means of theoretical reasoning, I tried to state the fundamental arguments of the discussion set out on journalism in a democracy, one issue that has gained special relevance in the Venezuela of the beginnings of the 21st century, to its comparison an interpretation with the specific data of this research about communication.Finally, the text of the thesis is divided into three blocks. The first part consists of the main approaches of the research (targets, hypothesis and methodology) and the philosophical context, in which tackle the issues related to the role of the mass media in a democracy. In the second part, I draw up an explanation of the social changes in Venezuela in the 20th century, starting from a non-androcentric premises, together with a critical analysis of the historiographic texts about this, from the point of view of the politic-institutional of the democracy and the press in Venezuela. And in the third part, I present the results of the analysis of the journalistic texts of the chosen sample, the conclusions, the consulted sources and the annexes.

El trabajo es una aproximación global al Máster en Documental de Creación de la Universidad Pompeu Fabra (UPF), de Barcelona, en sus, hasta 2009, doce años de existencia, y a los catorce largometrajes realizados hasta 2009, además de a otras piezas de distinta duración, desarrolladas por sus alumnos. Además, el estudio sitúa el master en su contexto histórico (historia del documental español y extranjero) y socio-geográfico (la propia ciudad que lo acoge, en la que hay ya un cierto "ambiente" de creación y, más tímidamente, de producción), así como lo que en sí mismo supone como proyecto docente nuevo, único en sus especiales características, que han contribuido a su consideración como referente internacional. Por último, el estudio apunta posibles relaciones entre las películas del máster y otros filmes de ficción y no ficción, realizadas en los últimos años en la ciudad, en los que el afán investigador y experimental se evidencian, algo que ha llevado ya a algunos críticos a comenzar a hablar de una "escuela de cine documental de Barcelona", vinculándola incluso a otro posible "nuevo cine catalán". / This work is a first approach to Master in Creation Documentary in Pompeu Fabra University (1997-2009), in which fourteen films have already been produced, apart from a number of other short pieces, by its students. Besides, the work places this postgraduate study in its historical context (Spanish and International Documentary History), and also in a socio-geographical environment, Barcelona, a city where filmmakers and artists have found proper conditions for creation and production, in the last years. The work considers, as well, the study as a pioneer university initiative, which is being followed by many others all around Spain and Europe and is yet seen as an international reference. Moreover, it establishes a possible relationship between this new Catalan documentary cinema and other fiction films, developed in the region, a fact that means for some criticism that a new Catalan cinema is born.

El enorme desarrollo y las dimensiones que ha cobrado la Ciencia moderna exige la evaluación de los resultados de la actividad investigadora y de los actores que intervienen en este proceso, evaluación que resulta fundamental para los propios investigadores, organismos gestores de las políticas científicas, editores y organizaciones implicadas en la generación y difusión del conocimiento científico. La tesis doctoral analiza las investigaciones difundidas en las principales revistas biomédicas editadas en España a lo largo del período 2003-2007, integrando las aportaciones de la Bibliometría para caracterizar la productividad, colaboración e impacto de los trabajos; el aporte del Análisis de Redes Sociales para identificar los grupos de investigación; y las contribuciones de la Documentación para determinar los contenidos abordados en los documentos. Para la realización del estudio se han seleccionado las revistas biomédicas editadas en España que formaban parte de la cobertura del Journal Citation Reports entre 2003-2007, recogiendo la información bibliográfica y de contenido de los trabajos publicados en las mismas a partir de las bases de datos Science Citation Index-Expanded y Medline. Se ha efectuado un exhaustivo proceso de normalización para unificar las variantes en la presentación de los nombres de un mismo autor y homogeneizar las afiliaciones institucionales como paso previo a la obtención de los indicadores y su análisis e interpretación. Se han analizado 12.335 trabajos, un 86,4% publicados en once revistas editadas en español y un 13,59% en cinco revistas editadas en inglés. El índice de firmas por trabajo o índice de colaboración de los artículos originales en el conjunto de revistas es de 5,22; mientras que el índice de transitoriedad del 71,47%. El conjunto de artículos analizados han recibido 25.102 citas, de las que 15.586 corresponden a artículos originales, con un 63,07% de artículos originales citados (febrero de 2009). Las revistas editadas en español se adscriben a disciplinas del área de la Medicina Clínica y son generalmente publicaciones oficiales de sociedades médicas que constituyen un importante canal de comunicación científica para sus miembros. Estas revistas aglutinan el 86,35% de los grupos de investigación identificados, con un 85,8% de los trabajos firmados por centros asistenciales hospitalarios y un predominio de la colaboración nacional y regional. Las revistas editadas en inglés se adscriben al ámbito de las Ciencias de la Vida, presentan una productividad reducida y recogen fundamentalmente investigaciones básicas, con un 87,62% de trabajos realizados por centros universitarios, una destacada participación internacional (16-22% de las colaboraciones) y grado de citación. Se ha constatado que no existe una igualdad entre hombres y mujeres en cuanto a número de investigadores, ya que de los 6.845 autores de los que se ha identificado el sexo (>1 trabajo), el 66,91% son hombres y únicamente el 33,09% mujeres. La relación desfavorable a las mujeres se acentúa progresivamente en relación con la mayor productividad, ya que han pasado de ser un 40,16% las autoras que han firmado dos trabajos a únicamente un 11,17% las "grandes productoras" (autoras con >9 trabajos). La cuantificación de la frecuencia de asignación de descriptores a los documentos a partir de un instrumento de control terminológico como el Medical Subject Headings, ofrece una aproximación muy precisa a los contenidos abordados en los trabajos. Se han integrado en un mismo análisis los indicadores bibliométricos y los resultados derivados del análisis terminológico, tratando los grupos identificados mediante el Análisis de Redes Sociales como agregados y vinculando los mismos con los temas sobre los que han publicado, obteniendo resultados significativos para caracterizar con precisión los ámbitos de investigación de un número importante de grupos, así como las metodologías e instrumentos o técnicas de investigación que utilizan, su colaboración e impacto científico. / The evaluation of scientific research is an essential process for organisations responsible of developing scientific policies, scientists, editors and organizations connected to scientific knowledge diffusion process. The study analyzes the scientific production of Spanish Biomedical journals indexed in Journal Citation Reports database between 2003-2007, by means of a Bibliometric approach with the aim to characterise the productivity, collaboration and scientific impact. Alike, a Social Network Analysis to identify research groups and a quantitative analysis of the Medical Subject Headings terms (descriptors assigned to papers indexed in Medline) are performed to determinate main research areas. 12,335 papers have been analysed, 86.4% published in eleven Spanish language journals and 13.59% published in five English language journals. Collaboration index of articles was 5,22; the transience index of 71.47% and 63.07% of papers were cited (February 2009). The great majority of Spanish language journals belong to official publications of Spanish medical societies which disseminate research topics of interest for its members. A remarkable number of Spanish research groups have been identified in Spanish language journals, 85.8% of papers have been generated in Health Care institutions and domestic and regional collaboration prevails. On the other hand, English language journals are focused on basic research. They have a lower productivity, but a higher international participation and outstanding citation rates. 87.62% of papers have been published by academic scientists and international collaboration ranges between 16% and 22% of the collaborations. There is no gender equality, particularly when considering the most productive researchers. Gender of 6,845 authors (>1 paper) have been identified, 66.91% men and 33.09% women. It has been observed a women’s decrease while the productivity thresholds are increased, from 40.16% of women with two papers to 11.17% of women with more than nine papers. An approach to characterise the scientific activity of research groups identified by means of Social Network Analysis which combines bibliometric indicators and the descriptors of the Medical Subject Headings assigned to papers in Medline is described.

My work on the sports pages of the Sunday Times led to invitations to write two books on the emergence of elite female champions and two unauthorized biographies of female champions, all of which included original data and analysis of gender issues in sport. One of the first academic, self-reflective analyses by a sports journalist, this dissertation written for the PhD by prior publication, places my work in the context of the profession and considers my contribution to understanding how elite champions have used their agency in sport. Contributions in the works submitted include re-theorizing the ―feminine apologetic‖ with regard to elite champions, documentation and interpretation of agency and constraint in the career of Martina Navratilova, identifying and modelling the backlash role of gymnastics, and interrogating the gender frontier; all are critically analysed here. In this dissertation, issues of journalistic practice including the advantage of bias are considered, and the ―doping apologetic‖ is identified, named and preliminarily modelled. My work both benefits from and contributes to the cross-disciplinary, inter-linked analysis of women‘s sport in the social sciences and in sport and women's studies, and has been cited in the literature. Contravening conventionalist journalistic stereotyping of female champions, it documents and evaluates how champions have attempted to gain opportunity for themselves, and how their strategies may have affected the paradigm of femininity.

The thesis hereby submitted, ‘How Does Technological Development And Adoption Occur In The Media? A Cultural Determinist Model’ was originally published in Media Technology and Society A History: from the telegraph to the Internet (London: Routledge 1998) and Technologies of Seeing: Photography, Cinematography and Television (London: British Film Institute 1996). The argument outlined in those two books is further supported and updated by six other texts published between 1995 and 2005 on the same topic. Media Technology and Society A History: from the telegraph to the Internet deals with the development of electrical and electronic mass media proposing a model for the nature of such developments. It is a final iteration of an approach to this history which has its origins in work first begun in the 1970s. Technologies of Seeing: Photography, Cinematography and Television applies the same model to photographic and cinematographic technologies. The thesis argues that all these media developments can only be understood in a social context; that they are to be understood as examples of what has become known as ‘socially shaped technology’ (or, in terms of the thesis, ‘cultural determinism’). This is contrary to the received dominant view that technology itself is the driver determining social formation – termed the ‘technological determinist’, ‘technicist’ or ‘diffusion theory’ approach. In rejecting technicism, ‘How Does Technological Development And Adoption Occur In The Media? A Cultural Determinist Model’ proposes instead an original, pioneering contribution to a revisionist cultural determinist/SST historiography as well as outlining a model to explicate at a theoretical level how such innovations and adoptions occur.