Transformational Leadership and Innovation in Digital-Only News Outlets. Analysis of Quartz and El Confidencial

The constant changes in the media and increasing competition oblige news organizations to develop a solid leadership that promotes innovation. Transformational leadership has been recognized as an optimal style in this context, as it fosters organizational creativity and a collaborative culture, which are essential factors to anchor innovation within organizations by aligning workers with the company’s vision and empowering them to take their own decisions. This article analyses the leadership style in digital-only outlets and how it influences aspects such as intrinsic motivation, which leads to creativity, organizational culture and, ultimately, innovation. We studied Quartz and El Confidencial, selected from among the most innovative in the United States and Spain, respectively, using a method based on their social, professional and expert relevance. In both organizations, participant observation processes were carried out in addition to in-depth interviews with professionals. The results indicate that these digital-only news outlets try to promote innovation through transformational leadership, identified through the recommendations set out in the literature, despite observing the emergence of certain features of traditional transactional leadership style in strategic decision-making. Our study supports previous research that shows an interrelation between leadership and innovative performance, filling an existing gap about digital-only news outlets

The role of innovation labs in advancing the relevance of Public Service Media: the cases of BBC News Labs and RTVE Lab

As part of their social function, Public Service Media (PSM) organizations are devoted to innovation. In this context, a number of European PSM outlets have created laboratories based on the implementation of products, services and formats for multiplatform audiences. Our research focused on two case studies: a) BBC News Labs (UK) and b) RTVE Lab (Spain). We applied both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. We used content analysis techniques to examine products generated by the two laboratories between 2013 and 2017, quantifying and classifying each one according to categories related to the type and nature of the innovation. We carried out ethnographic research using participant observation over five days in each laboratory, both in London and Madrid. We also conducted open-ended interviews with five professionals at the BBC and three at RTVE, as well as with the head of EBU’s Media Strategy & Development department. Our results show that BBC News Labs implements a global innovation strategy through the design and engineering of products that facilitate journalists’ work. Projects include speechto- text software, prototypes for voice recognition and text analysis, chatbots and object-based media. On the other hand, RTVE Lab focuses on designing and producing interactive formats, multimedia narratives and social media content, with an emphasis on experimentation. The findings reveal the main barriers and incentives to innovation within each lab and show how the transfer of innovation could increase the diversity, universality and quality of their overall output

Devuélveme la voz: Proyecto de la Universidad de Alicante para la recuperación de las emisiones de Radio París de la época Franquista

Documentary collections held by the communications media have become a source of essential information for research. Scholars of contemporary history have found in them both the official information and the opinion of government opponents that allows them to compare, refine and supplement their research. Some collections exist in media formats that are now difficult to reproduce, as in this project at the University of Alicante. Radio broadcasts preserved on open-reel tapes require technology that has already disappeared, and the reproduction of the original source involves progressive destruction. Therefore, digitization of this content and a technical approach that will allow open access constitute a high-value initiative for researchers

Estrategias para programar la detección de plagios en actividades basadas en texto

La detección de plagios en los trabajos entregados por los alumnos es un problema que ha existido tradicionalmente cuando se entregaban en formato papel pero que en los últimos años se ha incrementado debido a la gran cantidad de información que existe en Internet, a la facilidad para encontrarla usando buscadores y a la entrega electrónica de los trabajos o actividades (ciberplagio). Incluso existen plataformas en Internet que estructuran y ofrecen gratuitamente los trabajos para que se puedan descargar. En este artículo se proponen varias estrategias orientadas a implementar un programa para uso personal que detecte uno de los tipos de plagio más extendidos actualmente como es copiar y pegar fragmentos de textos de Internet. Estas propuestas se estudian para la detección de plagio en trabajos de diferente índole, incluyendo memorias, diapositivas y páginas web. El sistema devuelve un índice de coincidencia por entrega, de esta forma el profesor puede identificar claramente las copias y centrar su esfuerzos en revisar solamente el contenido de las tareas originales.Detection of plagiarism in students’ homework is a problem that already existed when they were submited in paper form. In recent years, it has increased due to the large amount of information available on the In-ternet, to the ease of use of search engines to find infor-mation, and to the electronic submission (cyberplagiarism). There are even Internet platforms that prepare and offer free homework to be downloaded. This article proposes several strategies to implement a program for personal use to detect one of the currently most widespread types of plagiarism as is copying and pasting fragments of texts from the Internet. These proposals are targeted to detect plagiarism in papers of different type, including reports, slides and web pages. This system returns an matching index for each delivery, thus teachers can clearly identify copies and focus efforts on reviewing only original works

Sponge Fishery and Aquaculture in Cuba: Impacts and Challenges

Sponges are very primitive multicellular organisms that belong to phylum Porifera; they are sessile and live attached to different types of hard and soft substrates. Sponges have different shapes and colours and very varied sizes, from a few millimetres to more than 2 m in height. They inhabit mainly in the marine environment at different depths. This chapter describes the general biological characteristics of sponges, their properties, uses and applications. Moreover, this study discusses a commercial fishery analysis of this natural resource in Cuba during the period 1970–2017, as well as the different characteristics of their natural populations subjected to commercial extraction. The applied techniques for aquaculture, harvest and postharvest processing are reviewed, including those procedures adapted from other countries or locally developed by Cuban fishermen. Finally, this study examines the challenges and perspectives of this productive activity with a long-term eco-sustainable approach

Flujos de trabajo para el periodismo postindustrial: métodos y programas para una comunicación organizacional más ágil y transversal

Los medios de comunicación buscan la supervivencia en un escenario caracterizado por los cambios constantes y acusados. Para reducir la incertidumbre y adaptarse al entorno, algunos optan por introducir flujos de trabajo flexibles en sus redacciones. En este trabajo se propone un modelo conceptual que identifica dos grupos de prácticas: 1) los métodos de ideación y creación de productos, que permiten el lanzamiento al mercado de activos que evolucionan continuamente para satisfacer las necesidades cambiantes de los usuarios; y 2) las metodologías ágiles para la gestión del trabajo cotidiano, que permiten una comunicación organizacional más fluida y transversal y, con ello, una mejor coordinación entre los profesionales y los equipos. Además, se aportan ejemplos concretos de cada tipo de flujo de trabajo, se estudia la relación entre ambos y se enumera una serie de aplicaciones tecnológicas que facilitan la flexibilidad y la comunicación en estos proceso

How COVID-19 is Revamping Journalism: Newsroom Practices and Innovations in a Crisis Context

Worldwide audiences became interested in COVID-19-related news, as the health emergency generated a sharp increase in information consumption. Drawing on the literature of crisis innovation, this study aims to understand the transformations that have taken place in the Spanish journalistic industry and the innovations implemented during the pandemic. The research questions are: How has COVID-19 fostered innovation in work organisation in the Spanish newsrooms? What other innovations were launched by the Spanish media during the pandemic? The methodology is based on semi-structured interviews conducted with a purposive sample of 20 media practitioners and 20 experts on journalism innovation (academics and journalists) in Spain. Results show that newsroom practices have evolved through telework, collaboration and other factors, and that digital transformation was accelerated in legacy media. In many outlets, the science section was increasingly relevant, working in a coordinated way with the areas of data visualisation and design to produce relevant content. Also, fact-checkers played an important role in fighting misinformation. The pandemic has speeded up some ongoing innovations in news production, newsroom organisation, distribution, and commercialisation in a significant way. Thus, COVID-19 understood as a crisis situation has had an impact on news products and it has affected journalistic culture

New Water-Ethylene Glycol Lubricants with Stearate Ionic Liquid Crystal Additive

The main purpose of the present study is to improve the tribological performance of aqueous lubricants with the use of ecofriendly, fatty acid-derived additives. The protic ionic liquid crystal bis(2-hydroxyethyl)ammonium stearate (DES) has been added to 50:50 water+ethylene glycol (W–EG) to obtain (W–EG)+0.5%DES; (W–EG)+1%DES and (W–EG)+2%DES emulsions. The new lubricants have been studied in sapphire-AISI (American Iron and Steel Institute) 316L stainless-steel pin-on-disk sliding contacts. The addition of DES reduces the friction coefficient by up to 76% and wear rate by up to 80%, with respect to (W–EG). The best performance is found for the emulsions with the lower proportion of DES (0.5 and 1 wt.%). These results have been related to viscosity and turbidity values. Wear mechanisms have been studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM/EDX) and by Raman microscopy. While W–EG shows a severe abrasive mechanism, no abrasion marks are present inside the wear track after lubrication with (W–EG)+0.5%DES, the emulsion with the lowest wear rate. After lubrication with W–EG, an increase in oxygen content is observed inside the wear track, as determined by EDX and confirmed by Raman microscopy, which shows the presence of iron oxides. The addition of DES reduces these oxidation processes.publishedVersio

Symptomatology of post-traumatic stress disorder in a sample of women victims of sexual violence

El presente trabajo analiza la sintomatología del trastorno por estrés postraumático en mujeres víctimas de violencia sexual en función de la edad en que tuvo lugar dicha violencia y del tipo de violencia ejercida (puntual o reiterada). Se llevó a cabo un estudio observacional de cohorte retrospectivo, con una muestra de usuarias de la Asociación de Mujeres Víctimas de Agresiones Sexuales (AMUVI) que habían sufrido algún tipo de violencia sexual. Se las evaluó con una entrevista semiestructurada de elaboración propia y con la escala de gravedad de síntomas del trastorno por estrés postraumático. Los resultados indican que, si bien no existen diferencias significativas entre grupos, son las mujeres mayores de 20 años y víctimas de violencia puntual las que presentan un mayor número de síntomas, con algunas diferencias significativas en función de su frecuencia. Estos resultados invitan a continuar investigando este fenómeno.The present study analyzes the symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in women victims of sexual violence based on the age at which the violence took place and the type of violence (punctual or repeated). An observational, retrospective cohort study was carried out with a sample of users of the Association of Women Victims of Sexual Assault (AMUVI) and victims of some type of sexual violence. They were evaluated with an own elaboration semi-structured interview of and with the Scale of severity of symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. The results indicate that, although there are no significant differences between groups, women over 20 years of age and victims of point violence present a greater number of symptoms, and there are some significant differences depending on the frequency. These results invite us to continue investigating this phenomenon