Comentarios de las noticias: la pesadilla de los cibermedios

Media have quickly integrated audience participation on their websites, and comments on the news have become very popular. But this participation has produced many problems and discussions. The strategies media have implemented to reduce the problems that arise are described

Heavy neutrino decays at MiniBooNE

It has been proposed that a sterile neutrino \nu_h with m_h \approx 50 MeV and a dominant decay mode (\nu_h -> \nu\gamma) may be the origin of the experimental anomaly observed at LSND. We define a particular model that could also explain the MiniBooNE excess consistently with the data at other neutrino experiments (radiative muon capture at TRIUMF, T2K, or single photon at NOMAD). The key ingredients are (i) its long lifetime (\tau_h\approx 3-7x10^{-9} s), which introduces a 1/E dependence with the event energy, and (ii) its Dirac nature, which implies a photon preferably emitted opposite to the beam direction and further reduces the event energy at MiniBooNE. We show that these neutrinos are mostly produced through electromagnetic interactions with nuclei, and that T2K observations force BR(\nu_h -> \nu_\tau\gamma) \le 0.01 \approx BR(\nu_h -> \nu_\mu\gamma). The scenario implies then the presence of a second sterile neutrino \nu_{h'} which is lighter, longer lived and less mixed with the standard flavors than \nu_h. Since such particle would be copiously produced in air showers through (\nu_h -> \nu_{h'}\gamma) decays, we comment on the possible contamination that its photon-mediated elastic interactions with matter could introduce in dark matter experiments.Comment: 18 pages, typo in Eq.(6) correcte

Heavy-neutrino decays at neutrino telescopes

It has been recently proposed that a sterile neutrino \nu_h of mass m_h=40--80 MeV, mixing |U_{\mu h}|^2=10^{-3}--10^{-2}, lifetime \tau_h \lsim 10^{-9} s, and a dominant decay mode (\nu_h \to \nu_\mu \gamma) could be the origin of the experimental anomalies observed at LSND, KARMEN and MiniBooNE. Such a particle would be abundant inside air showers, as it can be produced in kaon decays (K -> \nu_h \mu, K_L -> \nu_h \pi \mu). We use the Z-moment method to evaluate its atmospheric flux and the frequency of its decays inside neutrino telescopes. We show that the \nu_h would imply around 10^4 contained showers per year inside a 0.03 km^3 telescope like ANTARES or the DeepCore in IceCube. These events would have a characteristic energy and zenith-angle distribution (E_\nu = 0.1--10 TeV and \theta < 90^o), which results from a balance between the reach of the heavy neutrino (that disfavors low energies) and a sizeable production rate and decay probability. The standard background from contained neutrino events (\nu_e N \to e X and neutral-current interactions of high inelasticity) is 100 times smaller. Therefore, although it may be challenging from an experimental point of view, a search at ANTARES and IceCube could confirm this heavy-neutrino possibility.Comment: 10 pages. Comments on constraints from muon capture and cosmology added, minor corrections, references added. Version to appear as a Rapid Communication in PR

Models de participació de les audiències en mitjans digitals catalans: anàlisi de La Vanguardia, El Periódico, Vilaweb i 3cat24

El present article té com a finalitat presentar diferents models d'adopció de la participació dels lectors en webs informatius. Presentem els casos de La Vanguardia, El Periódico, Vilaweb i el 3cat24, tots ells mitjans de referència en l'àmbit català. S'ha realitzat un estudi de les opcions de participació que presenten cada un dels mitjans objecte d'anàlisi, partint d'una fitxa d'estudi que permet realitzar comparacions i comprovar quins mecanismes de participació adopta cada un dels webs estudiats. En una segona fase, s'han entrevistat els responsables dels webs o de la corresponent secció de participació, amb l'objectiu de comparar les dades obtingudes en l'aplicació de la fitxa d'estudi amb les opinions de les persones entrevistades i identificar els motius per obrir els seus mitjans a la participació de l'audiència.Models of audience participation in Catalan news sites: analysis of La Vanguardia, El Periódico, Vilaweb and 3cat24. This article aims to present different models of audience participation in informative (journalistic) websites. We report on the cases of La Vanguardia, El Periódico, Vilaweb and 3cat24, all within the Catalan media field. Firstly, we analysed the participation mechanism used by each of the news sites. Subsequently, we interviewed the online editors or the community managers in order to complete the data obtained from interviewee opinions and to assess the motivation behind opening their websites to audience participation and their observations regarding the benefits of participation

Presencia y uso de internet en las redacciones catalanas

Se pretende observar el grado de penetración de internet en las redacciones de los medios catalanes y analizar hasta que punto la red está modificando las rutinas profesionales. Para ello se dispone de los resultados obtenidos de una encuesta realizada entre los miembros del Col.legi de Periodistes de Catalunya. Los resultados sugieren que internet está absolutamente integrada en las rutinas profesionales. A pesar de ello, internet no se muestra todavía como un medio indispensable para la práctica periodística, existiendo poca confianza en él como origen de un hecho noticiable

Digital media in 2014: an alternative balance

Some aspects that have characterized the evolution of online media over the last year are analysed, paying special attention to pending matters still to be addressed. Since the advent of the internet, media have delegated their survival to technological innovations, and 2014 was no exception. Data journalism, robot journalism, and hi-tech journalism..., are some of the labels devised for different technological models by online media worldwide last year. However, user-centred innovations are the most creative and potentially successful ones

New challenges in managing user-generated content: the case of Charlie Hebdo

News organizations have realized that certain types of information and images are more attractive than others to capture the reader’s attention, particularly stories and images about crime and entertainment, among others. At the same time, audiences have become more active, providing eyewitness photos and videos. Newsrooms are flooded with graphic materials submitted by citizens. Along with ease of access may come the publication of extreme content, even when some content may exceed moral boundaries. Publication is often justified on the basis of newsworthiness, freedom of speech, creativity and some kind of technological fatalism. The aim of this short paper is to analyze the coverage by some media outlets of the Charlie Hebdo attack, particularly the use and management of the amateur video of a Paris police officer’s cold-blooded murder. Our results identify some differences depending on the media network (Hallin; Mancini, 2004) of each newspaper. These differences are generally related to questions of ethics, and therefore we emphasize that user-generated content (UGC) must be incorporated into ethical standards of journalism, and journalists should be responsible for their proper implementation

Media and mobile devices. In search of El Dorado.

The spread of mobile devices –smartphones and tablets– does not go unnoticed by media companies, and particularly by press companies, which have seen in mobile content a new and profitable source of income. The aim of this article is to explain how newspapers are adopting mobile strategies and the business model behind their strategies

Journalism and I vitamine

Faced with the lost value of information that was traditionally produced by the press, audiences are now turning to social networks and interacting with the news in new ways. And, as a result, the low credibility of the Spanish media is negated by diversifying the sources for news information as people turn to their trusted gatekeeping “friends” who act as watchdogs of the fourth estate. For the moment this new relationship with social media does not mean a distancing from the news produced by professional journalists, but it does require that the media take steps to overcome the perceived loss in value of the information they produce