Media & Jornalismo

A Self-perception of Ageing and Digital Technologies

Eduardo Prado Cardoso

Portuguese society is ageing and becoming increasingly digitalised. According to data from the PORDATA Institute, the elderly population in Portugal has been growing by more than two per cent annually, making the country the second most aged in Europe and the fourth in the world. On the other hand, public and private sector services have been investing in digitalisation and datafication, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic, as a means of providing greater efficiency and cost reduction in the delivery of information and services (Rosales et al., 2023). With the aim of identifying the challenges and prejudices faced by Portugal’s ageing population in the face of digitalisation, we conducted think tanks with two groups of older adults—one in Oeiras (Lisbon metropolitan area) and another in Covilhã (inland Portugal). The analysis of these sessions revealed the presence of digital ageism as a sociocultural trait that cuts across the contexts examined. At the same time, it showed that the ways in which older individuals respond to age-related prejudice and stereotypes vary, ranging from feelings of inadequacy due to digital exclusion to critical reflection as an expression of political agency that questions the compulsory digitalisation of social life.

Social Perception under Media Influence of Migrant-Associated Crime: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis of the Literature

Juan Carlos Alcazar-Gonzales

This study analyzes how the media and social networks influence social perceptions of crime associated with migrants, consolidating discursive frameworks that shape attitudes, stereotypes, and public policies. A systematic review of the literature was conducted, following the PRISMA protocol, and a bibliometric analysis was performed using data from Scopus via VosViewer and Bibliometrix, selecting eight articles published between 2020 and 2024. The findings show a media tendency to link migration with crime through metaphors and criminal frameworks, especially in contexts of high media coverage. Social media reproduces both xenophobic discourses and narratives of resistance, while education appears as a key space for counteracting prejudice. The geographical concentration of academic production in the Global North and thematic fragmentation highlights the need for more comparative and inclusive approaches. By constructing symbolic perceptions of threat, the media play a decisive role in shaping public opinion, and it is therefore recommended that more ethical and intercultural communication be promoted.

Magazine online community and affect: comments on an in-person event’s contest

Pedro Eduardo Ribeiro

Planned and executed by the editorial board of Women’s Health and Men’s Health, the in-person annual event called Health Fest by Way Up works as a strategy to magazines get closer to readers. This includes a contest to choose a male participant to feature one of the covers of Portugal’s Men’s Health. Taking from Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, this article features a study towards Instagram user comments on the event’s published photos in 2024, their implied discursive strategies and how they enable affect through words and other semiotic resources. It is suggested that most comments legitimise contestants and realise positive affect based on self-identification, desirability, or inspiration. A male contestant with disabilities is the most highlighted due to these. Therefore, magazines turn out to get closer to readers and make an attempt in the name of diversity and inclusion, while fostering a reader community. However, there persist some risks to account.

The Dani Alves case in the Spanish press: narratives and framing of a rape

Fátima Gil

This article aims to analyze how the national Spanish press has reported about “Alves case”. The purpose of the study is to evaluate to what extent the popularity of the aggressor influences the representations of victim, aggressor and crime and whether these vary depending on the newspaper analyzed. To do this the news published about the case in the three most read digital newspapers in Spain have been consulted El País and La Vanguardia, from the moment the first news begins - January 2023 - until the moment the investigation is concluded - July 2023. A quantitative but, above all, qualitative content analysis technique was used. The results show the newspapers' focus is directed on different aspects of the story. While El País uses the case to raise issues of social significance and La Vanguardia becomes, especially in the last weeks of the study, the speaker for the version of the accused.

Motherhood and Audiences: An Analysis of Audiovisual Representations of Childbirth in Relation to Real Experiences and Healthcare Protocols

Margarida Carnicé Mur

This article examines how the process of childbirth is represented in contemporary Spanish audiovisual fiction, contrasting these representations with the testimonies of mothers and healthcare professionals (midwives and obstetricians). The analysis is based on a representative sample of Spanish films from the last decade that feature childbirth scenes. The findings are discussed in dialogue with in-depth interviews with women who have experienced childbirth, as well as midwives and obstetricians, highlighting the discrepancies between dominant cinematic narratives—which often lean toward medicalization and dramatization—and the real experiences of childbirth within social and healthcare contexts.

The results reveal a significant disconnect between audiovisual representations of childbirth and the diversity of obstetric and reproductive experiences. Although some more realistic portrayals are identified, stereotypes persist that perpetuate the view of childbirth as a traumatic event, not always centered on the woman as an active agent in her own process. The voices collected in the interviews underscore the urgent need for more diverse, inclusive, and respectful representations of childbirth, which also recognize and make visible physiological models centered on maternal well-being.