Independence and pluralism of political journalism in Spain. Contrast between journalistic, political and citizens’ perceptions

La información política representa un recurso estratégico para el funcionamiento normativo del sistema democrático. Sus contenidos condicionan el acceso ciudadano a los principales acontecimientos y debates sociales, determinan el establecimiento de la agenda pública y dinamizan el proceso de formación de la opinión pública. Este trabajo analiza el grado actual de independencia y pluralismo del periodismo político en España. El estudio de estas dos cuestiones se aborda desde el análisis empírico de las percepciones de los periodistas y actores políticos y su posterior contraste con la opinión ciudadana. Los resultados indican una valoración dispar sobre la situación del periodismo político en España. Frente a la preocupación de los ciudadanos, los periodistas plantean un diagnóstico bastante templado, incluso optimista, a la hora de evaluar el nivel de pluralismo informativo en España, y algo más crítico y matizado sobre el grado de independencia en el ejercicio profesional.Palabras clave: autonomía profesional, grado de independencia, pluralismo informativo, periodistas, actores políticos, percepción de los ciudadanos.Political information is a strategic resource for the normative functioning of the democratic system. Its contents condition citizens’ access to major events and social debates, determine the establishment of the public agenda, and stimulate the process of forming public opinion. This paper examines the present degree of independence and pluralism of political journalism in Spain. These two elements are approached through an empirical analysis of the perceptions of journalists and political actors, and of how they contrast with citizens’ opinions. Our results indicate a disparate evaluation of the situation of political journalism in Spain. As opposed to the preoccupation of citizens, journalists express a fairly moderate or even optimistic diagnosis when evaluating the level of news pluralism in Spain, although the latter are somewhat more critical and nuanced about the degree of independence in professional practice.Keywords: professional autonomy, degree of independence, news pluralism, journalists, political actors, citizens’ perceptions

The cover news reporting in Spain: historical evolution of sources, agenda and frames (1980-2010)

Dentro de la cobertura informativa, la portada de la prensa de referencia representa un objeto de estudio muy relevante. A partir su análisis longitudinal, el objetivo de este trabajo es examinar la evolución de tres cuestiones periodísticas centrales: gestión de fuentes, composición de la agenda informativa, y tipo de encuadre dominante. Tras analizar una muestra de 800 noticias, los resultados indican un aumento progresivo en la cantidad y diversidad de fuentes; una agenda bastante estática y tradicional; y un patrón de encuadre caracterizado por el conflicto y el equilibrio entre lo temático y lo episódico.In news coverage, the cover of press reference represents a very important subject of study. From a longitudinal analysis, the aim of this article is to examine the evolution of three crucial journalistic issues: sources management, media agenda composition, and dominant framing type. After analyzing a sample of 800 news, results indicate a progressive increase in the number and diversity of sources; an agenda rather static and traditional; and a framing pattern characterized by conflict and balance between the thematic and episodic

Series resistance in organic bulk-heterojunction solar devices: Modulating carrier transport with fullerene electron traps

Series resistance is one of the key parameters affecting the performance of organic photovoltaic devices. Several electronic mechanisms arising from different structures within the solar cell can contribute to increasing it. We focus on the series resistance origin by altering the acceptor transport properties trough the incorporation of fullerene traps located at energies below the transporting electron levels. Indene-C60 bisadduct as acceptor molecule blended with poly(3-hexylthiophene) forms the active layer in which small amounts of [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester have been added as trapping sites. A complete analysis of the impedance response has allowed identifying bulk transport resistive circuit elements in the high-frequency part of the spectra. Series resistance is observed to be dependent on the concentration of fullerene traps, thus indicating a connection between bulk transport processes and resistive elements. By comparing different contacts it has been discarded that outer cathode interfaces influence the series resistance experimentally extracted from impedance spectroscopy

Mensajería instantánea educativa en un entorno 3D

There is a growing interest in researching on teaching methods using the latest technologies. Educational communities are making an effort to promote the generation and use of virtual environments for tutorial sessions, seminars, etc. The aim of this paper is to improve communication between teachers and students by providing new tools for education and training. Our research focuses on how we could have an improved graphical interface for messaging, featuring 3D content into virtual environments to improve the educational interaction. Thus, our proposal is to improve the technological means combining virtual tutoring tools with advanced methods of computer graphics and image processing.Existe un creciente interés en la investigación de métodos docentes que utilicen las nuevas tecnologías. Las comunidades educativas están haciendo un esfuerzo por promover la generación y el uso de entornos virtuales para tutorías, seminarios, etc. El objetivo de este artículo es mejorar la comunicación entre profesores y estudiantes ofreciendo nuevas herramientas para la educación y la formación. Nuestra investigación se centra en cómo podríamos disponer de un interfaz gráfico mejorado para la mensajería, ofreciendo contenido 3D en entornos virtuales para mejorar la interacción educativa. Así, nuestra propuesta es mejorar los medios tecnológicos combinando la tutorización virtual con herramientas y métodos avanzados de gráficos por ordenador y procesamiento de imágenes

Entering into a self-regulated learning mode prevents detrimental effects of feedback removal on memory

Incentives can decrease performance by undermining intrinsic motivation. How such an interplay of external reinforcers and internal self-regulation influences memory processes, however, is less known. Here, we investigated their interaction on memory performance while learning the meaning of new-words from their context. Specifically, participants inferred congruent meanings of new-words from semantic context (congruent trials) or lack of congruence (incongruent trials), while receiving external feedback in the first or second half of trials only. Removing feedback during learning of congruent word meanings lowered subsequent recognition rates a day later, whereas recognition remained high in the group, which received feedback only in the second half. In contrast, feedback did not substantially alter recognition rates for learning that new-words had no congruent meanings. Our findings suggest that external reinforcers can selectively impair memories if internal self-regulated processes are not already established, but whether they do so depends on what is being learned (specific word-meanings vs. unspecific incongruence). This highlights the relevance of self-regulated learning in education to support stable memory formation

Neural basis of acquired amusia and its recovery after stroke

Although acquired amusia is a relatively common disorder after stroke, its precise neuroanatomical basis is still unknown. To evaluate which brain regions form the neural substrate for acquired amusia and its recovery, we performed a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) and morphometry (VBM) study with 77 human stroke subjects. Structural MRIs were acquired at acute and 6 month poststroke stages. Amusia and aphasia were behaviorally assessed at acute and 3 month poststroke stages using the Scale and Rhythm subtests of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA) and language tests. VLSM analyses indicated that amusia was associated with a lesion area comprising the superior temporal gyrus, Heschl's gyrus, insula, and striatum in the right hemisphere, clearly different from the lesion pattern associated with aphasia. Parametric analyses of MBEA Pitch and Rhythm scores showed extensive lesion overlap in the right striatum, as well as in the right Heschl's gyrus and superior temporal gyrus. Lesions associated with Rhythm scores extended more superiorly and posterolaterally. VBM analysis of volume changes from the acute to the 6 month stage showed a clear decrease in gray matter volume in the right superior and middle temporal gyri in nonrecovered amusic patients compared with nonamusic patients. This increased atrophy was more evident in anterior temporal areas in rhythm amusia and in posterior temporal and temporoparietal areas in pitch amusia. Overall, the results implicate right temporal and subcortical regions as the crucial neural substrate for acquired amusia and highlight the importance of different temporal lobe regions for the recovery of amusia after stroke

Engagement in Music-Related Activities During the COVID-19 Pandemic as a Mirror of Individual Differences in Musical Reward and Coping Strategies

The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to mitigate its impact (e.g., confinement orders) have affected people's lives in profound ways that would have been unimagable only months before the pandemic began. Media reports from the height of the pandemic's initial international surge frequently highlighted that many people were engaging in music-related activities (from singing and dancing to playing music from balconies and attending virtual concerts) to help them cope with the strain of the pandemic. Our first goal in this study was to investigate changes in music-related habits due to the pandemic. We also investigated whether engagement in distinct music-related activities (singing, listening, dancing, etc.) was associated with individual differences in musical reward, music perception, musical training, or emotional regulation strategies. To do so, we collected detailed (∼1 h long) surveys during the initial peak of shelter-in-place order implementation (May June 2020) from over a thousand individuals across different Countries in which the pandemic was especially devastating at that time: the USA, Spain, and Italy. Our findings indicate that, on average, people spent more time in music-related activities while under confinement than they had before the pandemic. Notably, this change in behavior was dependent on individual differences in music reward sensitivity, and in emotional regulation strategies. Finally, the type of musical activity with which individuals engaged was further associated with the degree to which they used music as a way to regulate stress, to address the lack of social interaction (especially the individuals more concerned about the risk of contracting the virus), or to cheer themselves up (especially those who were more worried about the pandemic consequences). Identifying which music-related activities have been particularly sought for by the population as a means for coping with such heightened uncertainty and stress, and understanding the individual differences that underlie said propensities are crucial to implementing personalized music-based interventions that aim to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms

Spontaneous synchronization to speech reveals neural mechanisms facilitating language learning

We introduce a deceptively simple behavioral task that robustly identifies two qualitatively different groups within the general population. When presented with an isochronous train of random syllables, some listeners are compelled to align their own concurrent syllable production with the perceived rate, whereas others remain impervious to the external rhythm. Using both neurophysiological and structural imaging approaches, we show group differences with clear consequences for speech processing and language learning. When listening passively to speech, high synchronizers show increased brain-to-stimulus synchronization over frontal areas, and this localized pattern correlates with precise microstructural differences in the white matter pathways connecting frontal to auditory regions. Finally, the data expose a mechanism that underpins performance on an ecologically relevant word-learning task. We suggest that this task will help to better understand and characterize individual performance in speech processing and language learning

Oxygen doping-induced photogeneration loss in P3HT:PCBM solar cells

This work investigates the loss in performance induced by molecular oxygen in bulk heterojunction solar cells. We observe that upon exposure to molecular oxygen both formation of P3HT+:O2− complex and metal oxidation at the interface between the active layer and metallic contact occur. These two different effects were separately investigated using NOBF4 as an oxidant. Our procedure has allowed studying p-doping of the active layer independently from contact degradation. A loss in photocurrent is associated with formation of P3HT+:O2− complex, which reduces the concentration of neutral P3HT present in the film in accordance with absorption and external quantum efficiency spectra. This complex is regarded as a source of a pathway of reversible degradation. Capacitance–voltage measurements allow for an accurate extraction of p-doping levels of the active layer produced by the presence of charged O2− species. In addition, one of the irreversible degradation pathways is identified to be oxidation of the metallic contact to form CaO. This oxide forms a thin dipole layer producing a voltage drop across the active layer/Ca interface, which has a direct impact on the open circuit voltage and fill factor