Instagram as a Virtual Faculty for Teachers

Social networks are consolidated as spaces for the exchange of valuable content. It is not surprising to find spaces for the exchange of good teaching practices in virtual learning communities, so the objective of this study is to analyze, through the case study of #ElClaustrodeIG on Instagram, the educational content focused on teaching that is shared for the Ibero-American community in Spanish, as well as the analysis of the users who share their experiences and good practices in this social network. In order to do this, content analysis is first carried out, through an analysis sheet to 300 posts and a questionnaire is applied to 130 users of this hashtag on Instagram in order to analyze their patterns of use, their interests and motivations, their training in ICT and social networks, as well as the impact that the use of this social network has on their professional development and the gratification they expect. The results show that most of the publications are about good practices for primary and preschool education while most of the users think that Instagram is an ideal space for non-formal learning, applying in the classrooms many of the good practices shared in this coworking space.

Public TV in Andean America: Control vs Service

This paper analyzes and describes public television in Andean America through the historical, hermeneutic, and non-participating observation method, carrying out a critical review of the literature, legal provisions, and official websites. The research reveals the appearance and precariousness of Andean-American public television, its financing, and particular administration forms. Twenty-four stations were identified as having evidence of public ownership, of which only eight are close to the principle of public service TV. There is little evidence of the existence of public service television because of the political-ideological control of the public media by the various governments, especially by populist regimes. Also, public television in the Andean region suffers from the cultural contamination of banal commercial content and infotainment.

Slow Journalism in Latin America: Ethics and Resistance

The pressure of immediacy, the dictatorship of the click, and the growing avalanche of fake news have impacted journalism. Citizens are particularly skeptical about the information they receive from the press, especially in the digital media. Journalism is faced with the need – or almost the urgency – to rethink, reinvent and redefine messages, routines, and processes. In this regard, various initiatives, especially in Ibero-America, have opted for slow journalism as a reaction and response to information devaluation. The commitment to journalism that appreciates context and cares for narrative has driven this "slow" news trend that believes in "author journalism" and stories' humanization. Through the methodology of the case study, of a qualitative and exploratory nature, 12 experiences of "slow journalism" media in Ibero-America are reviewed, with a particular interest in their themes, contents, aesthetics, and sources of financing. It is concluded that these media are one of the few that carry out investigative journalism, although to subsist, they depend to a great extent on international cooperation agencies since their contents and aesthetics are elitist in comparison with their conventional digital peers, which reduces their capacity of maintenance by subscriptions and advertising.

Alcohol and Betting Ads on Spanish Radio

This article studies the process of demonization, its consequences, and how social media contribute to the formalization of its axiology. The demonization of societies aims to create social subjects that fit into the idea of the “other” by exposing them to compulsory invisibility. This research’s main objective was to examine how demonization is used as a weapon of oppression to devalue specific individuals through the hashtag #StopIslam and Instagram’s role in this process. The methodology used for this purpose has consisted of an empirical and quantitative analysis of the most recent (1 January 2020–31 July 2020) posts on Instagram with #StopIslam, analyzing the images and the content. The study has determined how, through social media manipulation, erroneous ideas are transmitted that prevent the Islamic collective’s integration, especially in European countries. The conclusions will reflect hate speech and how the Islamic world’s demonization results in the Muslim community’s stigmatization, racism, and Islamophobia. Although there are different articles related to demonization and hate speech, there are not many scientific resources that explain these variables on Instagram and how it affects the inclusion of the Muslim community in Europe, significantly when the time spent on the Internet is growing.

Islamophobia on Instagram: The #StopIslam Case

This article studies the process of demonization, its consequences, and how social media contribute to the formalization of its axiology. The demonization of societies aims to create social subjects that fit into the idea of the “other” by exposing them to compulsory invisibility. This research’s main objective was to examine how demonization is used as a weapon of oppression to devalue specific individuals through the hashtag #StopIslam and Instagram’s role in this process. The methodology used for this purpose has consisted of an empirical and quantitative analysis of the most recent (1 January 2020–31 July 2020) posts on Instagram with #StopIslam, analyzing the images and the content. The study has determined how, through social media manipulation, erroneous ideas are transmitted that prevent the Islamic collective’s integration, especially in European countries. The conclusions will reflect hate speech and how the Islamic world’s demonization results in the Muslim community’s stigmatization, racism, and Islamophobia. Although there are different articles related to demonization and hate speech, there are not many scientific resources that explain these variables on Instagram and how it affects the inclusion of the Muslim community in Europe, significantly when the time spent on the Internet is growing.

Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality in Journalism: Future Scenarios

The Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies highlights “augmented human technologies” as one of their emerging trends, while the Future Today Institute alludes to the potential of extended reality (digitally manipulated environments encompassing virtual and augmented reality) for the development of new applications with great informative value. Based on this, the current study brings together in-depth interviews with experts who analyze the possibilities of augmented reality (AR) in journalism, including its weaknesses and some proposals for new journalistic scenarios. The study concludes that, according to experts, the use of AR in daily systems and applications is key to establishing this technology. In addition, experts stress the need to carry out sociological and ethical studies of its impact, as well as experimental research on the use of augmented senses in humans, including visual and haptic augmentation and hearing.

Kid Influencers in Spain: What They Post and Who Follows

This research analyses the contents of the videos of the ten Spanish children's YouTube channels with the highest number of followers and video plays to identify correlations between the thematic axes of the videos and the increase in digital engagement data. Little is known about the topics that the most popular Spanish-language YouTube influencers share with preteens and young adults' audience. In response, this exploratory study will use content analysis to examine this gap and contrast the themes that its videos reflect against others. For this purpose, interpretive-based content analysis is carried out based on an analysis sheet validated by expert judgment. Among the main results, it is shown that most of the children who are the lead character of the channel are currently between 10 and 12 years old, having created the channels an average of five years ago, which shows how early many YouTubers are starting in this industry. There are also differences in the thematic axes of the channels' videos according to the gender of the children's influencers, with a higher representation of male YouTubers devoted to gameplays, while their female peers have a more significant presence in videos in the lifestyle category. It is concluded that there is a need to supervise the contents accessed by children on this platform since it can deepen not only gender gaps but also become a wrong reference of role models.

Peruvian Universities in Rankings: Ownership vs. Seniority

This study evaluates the correlations between the universities' type of property (public, private associative and private corporate), institutional seniority (<20, 20–45 and >45 years) and the presence and position in national and international university rankings. It considers 90 Peruvian universities certified by SUNEDU (public agency for the accreditation of universities in Peru). According to their presence in 20 university rankings (yes/no) and the position (tertiles) in two world rankings: Webometrics and SIR Iberoamericano, four universities participated in 10 or more rankings and only 16 (18%) in six or more. The private corporate universities were the least old (p < 0.01). No association was found with the type of property both in the presence in rankings and in the positioning (p > 0.05), except in one where there was less participation of public institutions. Long-lived universities had higher participation and better positioning in rankings than those with less seniority (p < 0.01). The presence and better positioning in university rankings depend on institutional seniority and not on the type of ownership in Peruvian licensed universities. This research highlights the lack of equity in several international rankings for the evaluation of the quality of universities, in the respect that most of them give priority to aspects related to institutional seniority and size. At the same time, the results of younger and smaller institutions are not put into perspective.

Teachers vs Youtubers: Who Leads STEM Learning?

Youth is increasingly learning in non-conventional contexts, such as social networks or video platforms, courses, and tutorials. This research aims to diagnose the role of participatory culture, digital resources, social networks, and, specifically, YouTube, in learning processes and the acquisition of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) skills, specifically in mathematics, also analyzing the role of youtubers and, in contrast, teachers, both learning leaders in the formation of these skills. In order to accomplish this, mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) were used, based on a survey applied to 4845 Italian adolescents, as well as a content analysis of the videos and YouTube channel of the Italian educational influencer Elia Bombardelli, one of the most followed and best rated in this country. Also, an in-depth interview has been applied to 12 Italian secondary school teachers. Among the main findings, it is highlighted that all adolescents value YouTube videos as a key resource to improve their school performance, rating youtubers better than teachers. However, it is remarkable that in the processes of learning and acquisition of STEM competencies, they prefer to interact with teachers rather than with youtubers.

Information Quality in Latin American Digital Media

The current communicative ecosystem has profoundly transformed journalistic work and the media, generating with great eagerness the emergence of digital native media that do not follow the logic of their conventional peers. Although the advent of these media is not entirely negative, as they create multiple voices that contribute to pluralism, their quality has undoubtedly been questioned on several academic fronts. This work analyzes the most important Latin American digital native media by number of accesses (traffic), using a taxonomy of evaluation of dimensions of the informative quality, in which aspects such as informative sources, uses of international news agencies, correction of contents and factuality levels, ideological plurality in their opinion contents, among others, are taken into consideration. Of the emerging results, the ‘use of statistical indicators’ was the least rated (32.5%), mainly due to a lack of data journalism in the media studied. It is also worth noting that the indicator ‘comments and monitoring’ obtained the second-lowest rating, indicating an absence of conversation between the media and its audience through the comments section of each content.