The Philadelphia Syndrome, or an insurmountable cultural trauma: Outdated mainstream visual representations of HIV in times of undetectability

In 1981, the first case of AIDS was diagnosed in the US. Almost forty years later, the biomedical situation of people living with HIV (PLWH) in Western countries has significantly improved, and today, PLWH have a normal lifespan with few physical comorbidities. Nevertheless, current media representations of HIV do not seem to have moved past the AIDS epidemic of the 1990s. The film Philadelphia, directed by Jonathan Deeme in 1993, has had a huge cultural impact in how society perceives HIV, and many contemporary films and fiction series portraying HIV still represent the condition in the same narrative terms. This analysis sets out to define what could be referred to as the Philadelphia Syndrome, a concept intended to describe the outdated, nostalgic representations of HIV in mainstream cultural productions in the last decade, a period marked in biomedical terms by the success of antiretroviral drugs, chronification, the importance of undetectability, and the increasingly widespread use of the prophylaxis pre-exposition (PrEP). By analyzing ten mainstream blockbuster films and fiction series produced from 2013 to 2022, this study examines the main characteristics of the Philadelphia Syndrome: nostalgia and melodramatic use of the 1980s and 1990s, high stigmatization of gay sexualities, and a neglect of women with HIV

Interactive documentaries and health: combating HIV-related stigma and cultural trauma

Interactive documentaries have been growing in number and importance on the international scene in numerous fields and markets. Interactive documentaries entered the field of health about a decade ago, and since then they have proven to be a worthwhile tool for exploring various health issues, such as living with HIV. More recently, experts and academics have started to explore interactive documentaries dealing with a newly emerging topic: stigma. Stigma can be defined as the establishment of a 'mark' or characteristic identified as deviant and rejected by society. Stigma has negative consequences in every aspect of a person's life. When it comes to health, people with stigmatised conditions have the worst outcomes, a problem ultimately related to their own power and agency. There are many sources of stigma, but the structural sources are the least studied and have the biggest impact on health. The media and culture are two of these structural sources of stigmatization, and cultural trauma has been suggested as one of its mediators. This study seeks to examine interactive documentaries as a tool for raising awareness of the impact of HIV-related stigma and cultural trauma. To this end, it analyses two interactive documentaries, Vertical/Horizontal and The Graying of AIDS, focusing on the device, narrative, and textual elements used by these documentaries to deal with the impact of stigma in health, and elaborating on how these filmic pieces represent people living with stigma and whether that representation challenges or reinforces stigmatization

Spanish Civil war in the construction of Neorealist Greek Cinema: an introductory study of Nikos Koundouros' To Potami

The film director Nikos Koundouros is one of the most important representatives of the Neorealist Cinema that bloomed after the end of the Greek Civil War (1946-1949). This film movement was highly influenced by another conflict that took place in the previous decade: the Spanish Civil War. This brief research overview will examine, through pictorial and semiotic analyses, the film To Potami/The River by Nikos Koundouros in order to discover the extent to which this film-maker was influenced by the Spanish conflict. Therefore, this project will shed light on the study of the common historical grounds of Greece and Spain and, at the same time, on the emergent field of Southern Europe cultural studies

The Philadelphia Syndrome, or an insurmountable cultural trauma: Outdated mainstream visual representations of HIV in times of undetectability

In 1981, the first case of AIDS was diagnosed in the US. Almost forty years later, the biomedical situation of people living with HIV (PLWH) in Western countries has significantly improved, and today, PLWH have a normal lifespan with few physical comorbidities. Nevertheless, current media representations of HIV do not seem to have moved past the AIDS epidemic of the 1990s. The film Philadelphia, directed by Jonathan Deeme in 1993, has had a huge cultural impact in how society perceives HIV, and many contemporary films and fiction series portraying HIV still represent the condition in the same narrative terms. This analysis sets out to define what could be referred to as the Philadelphia Syndrome, a concept intended to describe the outdated, nostalgic representations of HIV in mainstream cultural productions in the last decade, a period marked in biomedical terms by the success of antiretroviral drugs, chronification, the importance of undetectability, and the increasingly widespread use of the prophylaxis pre-exposition (PrEP). By analyzing ten mainstream blockbuster films and fiction series produced from 2013 to 2022, this study examines the main characteristics of the Philadelphia Syndrome: nostalgia and melodramatic use of the 1980s and 1990s, high stigmatization of gay sexualities, and a neglect of women with HIV

Infecciones y estigmas: lecciones de la pandemia del VIH para el mañana de la COVID-19

Una semana más, seguimos confinados en casa. El virus SARS-CoV-2, al que coloquialmente llamamos coronavirus, agente causante de la COVID-19, ha generado un terremoto social que muchos de nosotros jamás habíamos vivido. Sin ser la pandemia más mortífera que haya sufrido la humanidad –la pandemia del VIH, de la que ahora hablaremos, ya se ha llevado por delante a 30 millones de personas–, sí está siendo la primera que ha confinado en sus casas a más de dos mil millones de personas en menos de dos semanas

¿Tenemos la televisión que merecemos?

El debate sobre la calidad de la televisión en España lleva décadas presente. La discusión sobre si los contenidos televisivos pueden ser perjudiciales para las audiencias emerge intermitentemente ante ciertos sucesos que lo ponen de relieve, como la manipulación de información en informativos, la sensacionalización de contenidos sensibles o la infrarrepresentación de colectivos sociales

Participación Política, Medios de Comunicación y Redes Sociales en los Adolescentes Catalanes

El grado de implicación política de los adolescentes es una cuestión abierta que atraviesa el debate académico generación tras generación. Actualmente, esta cuestión se ve salpicada por la irrupción de las redes sociales y los nuevos medios. El presente artículo estudia la vinculación entre el uso de medios, redes sociales y el interés por la política de una amplia muestra de estudiantes catalanes del último curso de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. La investigación concluye que las dinámicas de participación política y las plataformas de debate de los adolescentes no difieren en exceso de las generaciones mayores y que, por tanto, las redes sociales no parecen haber afectado al grado de implicación política de los adolescentes

The use of statistics to define taxonomies of film voices: a practical approach to documentary classification

The study of visual content using qualitative methods currently involves much scholarly work in the field of digital humanities. Documentary films are considered among those objects defined as visual content and are therefore not the focus of most attention within Film Studies. One of the bestknown researchers in this area, Bill Nichols, proposed a theoretical classification of six documentary voices that is widely recognized in academic circles. However, the classification is based on induction and intuition which, until now, have not been verified in accordance with the evidence. This study proposes a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology that allows the authors to surpass Nichols' model and generate a new classification based on empirical criteria. To that end, they study the opinions of users of and experts on Nichols' theory through the card sorting technique borrowed from cognitive science that is based on multivariate statistics. In this way, they generate a hierarchy of formal cinematographic elements grouped into four documentary voices and Nicholas' classification proposal is partly replaced as two of the voices in his model disappear but the four others are confirmed. In addition, this new model allows the authors to determine which formal elements are assigned to each one of the confirmed documentary modes and with what relative weights, thereby opening up the possibility of generating a predictive model. The article therefore demonstrates that cluster analysis and other techniques borrowed from multivariate statistics can be used to empirically and quantitatively verify theories in film studies as well as in other areas such as poetics. This suggests that it is possible to verify empirically and use quantitative models for the study of visual content and complement other methods based on induction and intuition

Los medios comunitarios, libres y ciudadanos en el Estado español. Territorios, tecnologías y valores

Presente desde finales de la década de los años 70, el sector de los medios comunitarios, libres y ciudadanos ha tenido una enorme importancia en la construcción de espacios públicos alternativos, diversos y plurales y en la reivindicación de lenguas, culturas y resistencias activas minorizadas bajo diferentes formas de dominación. Sin embargo, a pesar de su importancia social, no existen análisis integrales acerca de la situación actual del sector. Este trabajo pretende ofrecer un panorama de análisis acerca de los actores presentes entre dichos medios, las formas de organización e interacción, la construcción de identidades alternativas y propias, el uso de las nuevas tecnologías y la penetración de los procesos de digitalización en sus estructuras y la construcción de valores comunes y formas propias de participación.Since the late 70s, the sector of the community, free and citizen media has developed a huge importance in the improvement of alternative, diverse and plural public spaces and the claim of languages, cultures and resistances minorised by several forms of domination in the state. Despite its social importance, there is no analysis about the current situation of the sector. This work aims to provide an overview about the actors, forms of organization and interaction, the construction of alternatives and own identities, the use of new technologies, the penetration of the digitization process in its structures and the construction of common values and own forms of participation

Drama-Based Activities for STEM Education: Encouraging Scientific Aspirations and Debunking Stereotypes in Secondary School Students in Spain and the UK

This study presents findings from testing an innovative student-centred drama-based teaching methodology for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) disciplines for secondary school students. The method, based on performances, was tested in two case studies, Spain and the UK, on a sample of 2,089 students. These performances have been shown to be an effective way of generating a two-way dialogue between students and researchers, and prompting student reflections about researchers as role models, gender inequalities in science, and ethical issues in STEM careers and scientific research. Furthermore, they have enhanced young people's positive attitudes and interest in science, scientists and scientific careers and have debunked science-related stereotypes. This indicates that the performances evaluated in this study are supporting the aspirations of young people, but not limiting their inclination to critically assess the relative benefits and risks of scientific development for themselves