Active audiences and social discussion on the digital public sphere. Review article

In little over a decade, essential concepts in research on communication have become zombie concepts (Beck; Willms, 2004) and are no longer effective for understanding the profound transformation that has taken place with the arrival of the internet. Public sphere, deliberation, audiences, public... the academic literature has oscillated between an initial optimism about the potential for strengthening democracy of communication technologies to a critical scepticism. This text reviews the academic literature with regard to the forms of social deliberation adopted in the context of the media and social networks and its impact on the public sphere

Incidental exposure to non-like-minded news through social media: opposing voices in echo-chambers' news feeds

Debates about post-truth need to take into account how news re-disseminates in a hybrid media system in which social networks and audience participation play a central role. Hence, there is a certain risk of reducing citizens’ exposure to politically adverse news content, creating ‘echo chambers’ of political affinity. This article presents the results of research conducted in agreement with 18 leading Spanish online news media, based on a survey (N = 6625) of their registered users. The results highlight that high levels of selective exposure that are a characteristic of offline media consumption are being moderated in the online realm. Although most of the respondents get news online from like-minded media, the figures related to those who also get news from media with a different media ideology should not be underestimated. As news consumption is becoming more ‘social,’ our research points out that Spanish citizens who are more active on social media sites are more likely to be exposed to news content from different ideological positions than those who are less active users. There is a weak association between the use of a particular social network site and gaining access to like- and non-like-minded news

Modelling intervals of minimum/maximum temperatures in the Iberian Peninsula

In this paper, we propose to model intervals of minimum/maximum temperatures observed at a given location by fitting unobserved component models to bivariate systems of center and log-range temperatures. In doing so, the center and logrange temperature are decomposed into potentially stochastic trends, seasonal and transitory components. We contribute to the debate on whether the trend and seasonal components are better represented by stochastic or deterministic components. The methodology is implemented to intervals of minimum/maximum temperatures observed monthly in four locations in the Iberian Peninsula, namely, Barcelona, Coruña, Madrid and Seville. We show that, at each location, the center temperature can be represented by a smooth integrated random walk with time-varying slope while the log-range seems to be better represented by a stochastic level. We also show that center and log-range temperature are unrelated. The methodology is then extended to model simultaneously minimum/maximum temperatures observed at several locations. We fit a multi-level dynamic factor model to extract potential commonalities among center (log-range) temperature while also allowing for heterogeneity in different areas. The model is fitted to intervals of minimum/maximum temperatures observed at a large number of locations in the Iberian Peninsula.Financial Supportfrom\laCaixa"Foundation,grantLCF/PR/SR20/52550012-Climate change and economic challenges for the Spanish society, is gratefully acknowledged. The third author also acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Government grant PID2019-108079GBC21/AIE/10.13039/501100011033 (MINECO/FEDER).The suppor tof Jouni Helske with some of the codes used in this paper is also gratefully acknowledged. We are also grateful to participants at the 69th International Symposium of Forecasters (July, 2022),Rome-Waseda Time Series Symposium (October, 2022) and 16th International Conference, Computational and Financial Econometrics (December, 2022).Any remaining errors are obviously our responsibility

Re-dissemination of news and public debate on social networks

The results of a qualitative research study based on 12 focus groups with a total of 106 people about the role of social networks in the consumption of current information are presented. We inquired about the motivation of citizens to interact with the news on social networks, and if they consider them appropriate spaces for public debate. Some findings of this study suggest that social networks are seen as an adequate space to share news and information on matters of public interest; to extend the agenda of topics that focus on the interests of users by allowing them access to topics often silenced in their usual media; and finally, social networks are viewed as more suitable for opinions, rather than public debate

Re-dissemination of news and public debate on social networks

The results of a qualitative research study based on 12 focus groups with a total of 106 people about the role of social networks in the consumption of current information are presented. We inquired about the motivation of citizens to interact with the news on social networks, and if they consider them appropriate spaces for public debate. Some findings of this study suggest that social networks are seen as an adequate space to share news and information on matters of public interest; to extend the agenda of topics that focus on the interests of users by allowing them access to topics often silenced in their usual media; and finally, social networks are viewed as more suitable for opinions, rather than public debate

News and social networks: audience behavior

Based on a quantitative approach, this paper presents some of the preliminary results of a research project focused on the analysis of the motivations that encourage citizens to actively participate in online news media, using the mechanisms provided by their websites, and through open social network platforms. The findings show that, although there is a widespread discourse of distrust in connection to journalists and the traditional media institutions, as well as general criticism of the actual practices of journalists, the common understanding of the participatory dimension of the media does not entail discourses of change or modification of the existing hegemony. Instead of turning to alternative sources, such as citizen journalism or non-traditional media, or taking the lead by creating their own content, citizens prefer to continue to respect journalism as a profession and the traditional media institutions as the main producers of news as well as the most trusted sources of information. Furthermore, although in previous studies audience participation “in” the media has been highlighted, the findings of this research show that the practice of user recommendation or dissemination of media content through social networks has been adopted by a large number of citizens

Re-dissemination of news and public debate on social networks

The results of a qualitative research study based on 12 focus groups with a total of 106 people about the role of social networks in the consumption of current information are presented. We inquired about the motivation of citizens to interact with the news on social networks, and if they consider them appropriate spaces for public debate. Some findings of this study suggest that social networks are seen as an adequate space to share news and information on matters of public interest; to extend the agenda of topics that focus on the interests of users by allowing them access to topics often silenced in their usual media; and finally, social networks are viewed as more suitable for opinions, rather than public debate

Re-dissemination of news and public debate on social networks

The results of a qualitative research study based on 12 focus groups with a total of 106 people about the role of social networks in the consumption of current information are presented. We inquired about the motivation of citizens to interact with the news on social networks, and if they consider them appropriate spaces for public debate. Some findings of this study suggest that social networks are seen as an adequate space to share news and information on matters of public interest; to extend the agenda of topics that focus on the interests of users by allowing them access to topics often silenced in their usual media; and finally, social networks are viewed as more suitable for opinions, rather than public debate

Audiencias activas y discusión social en la esfera pública digital. Artículo de revisión

En poco más de una década, conceptos esenciales de la investigación sobre comunicación se han convertido en conceptos zombis (Beck; Willms, 2004) y no son eficaces para comprender la profunda transformación que se ha producido con la irrupción de internet. Esfera pública, deliberación, audiencias, público... La bibliografía académica ha oscilado entre un optimismo inicial sobre las posibilidades de fortalecimiento de la democracia de las tecnologías de la comunicación a un escepticismo crítico. Este texto revisa la bibliografía académica en relación a las formas de deliberación social adoptadas en el contexto de los medios de comunicación y de las redes sociales y su incidencia en la esfera pública

Economic activity and climate change

In this paper,we surve yrecent econometric contributions t omeasure the relationship between economic activity and climate change.Due to the critical relevance of these effectsfor the well-being of future generations,there is an explosion of publications devoted to measuring this relationship and its main channels.The relation between economic activity andclimate change is complex with the possibility of causality running in both directions. Starting from economic activity,the channels that relate economic activity and climate changeare energy consumption and the consequent pollution. Hence, we first describe the main econometric contributions about the interactions between economic activity and energy consumption, moving then to describing the contributions on the interactions between economicactivity and pollution. Finally, we look at the main results on the relationship between climate change and economic activity. An important consequence of climate change is the increasing occurrence of extreme weather phenomena. Therefore,we also survey contributions on the economice effects of catastrophic climate phenomena