1. STRATEGIC AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION
The constitutive nature of communication is the innovative crossroads where strategic and organizational communication is reformulated. The transformative intersection between the different areas, sectors and dimensions as shown by the Masterdec after more than 15 years of deployment. It covers the areas of strategic communication in its broad sense such as political communication, communication and health, communication in the cultural and museum sector, planning in communication and campaigns, communication in organizations, or communication and environment, communication and gamification processes, among others.
1.1. Risk and crisis communication:
Public communication in industrial and environmental risk environments should show which are the responsible actors in their definition, management and decision making. The complexity of these processes, however, makes it difficult to discern what is true while concealing how and why crises break out. Understanding the underlying reasons and intervening in advance in these processes is a challenge of sharpened research, due to an environment of climate change, disinformation and greenwashing. An investigation is proposed that makes proposals for communicative intervention and harmonization of good practices for the strengthening of dialogue and the effective use of technologies, proximity communication and the media.
1.2.Political communication:
The field generates multidisciplinary research on communication derived from political and electoral processes. One of the specific areas of study is the analysis of discourses on conflicting issues in the public sphere, with special attention to metaphorical frameworks as a tool for the detection of ideological positions. This branch connects with research on polarization and on the generation and distribution of fake news or hate speech that can impact political activity and democratic societies. The area also bases teaching activity on this specialization and pays attention to network communication and the use of artificial intelligence.
1.3. Communication of health in the digital age:
Digitalisation processes have transformed the relationships and interactions between healthcare providers, health professionals and patients. Innovation in digital health, from AI and social networks to new care cultures, affects care processes when oriented towards humanization, ethics and proximity. These challenges place communication as an axis of articulation and transformation, with the analysis of strategies in 2.0 environments (medical-patient interactions) and the development of digital solutions to improve the effectiveness of health systems. This line of work also includes health literacy, health promotion and public health.
1.4. Digital corporate communication in organizations:
The web, blogs, social networks and artificial intelligence have transformed the communication processes of organizations. Corporate communication research has analysed the extent to which these technologies have fostered dialogue, participation and community building with audiences. In a context marked by automation, studies focus on how institutional communication contributes to building trust and sustainable relationships between organisations and internal and external audiences. This line of work also includes the analysis of strategies, social networks and the impact of artificial intelligence on companies, institutions and public bodies.
1.5. Communication of tourism, leisure and heritage:
The expansion of the internet and artificial intelligence have transformed the communication of tourist destinations and consumer habits, as well as the relationships between audiences and territories. This line of research focuses on the study of tourism promotion through digital technologies, with an emphasis on the construction and positioning of destination brands. It also addresses the analysis of discourses and strategies linked to sustainability, social responsibility and resilience to the challenges of climate change and social transformations. This line of work also includes the communication of heritage, leisure and sport in institutions and events.
2. IDENTITIES AND CULTURAL STUDIES
This line of research focuses on the analysis of media culture with an emphasis on the study of the media. The studies take into account the transversal dimensions of gender, ethnic origin, age and class, as well as the role of the media in the construction of identity. The research covers both the study of journalistic products and film analysis. The line has an important production in feminist studies. It also includes perspectives from posthumanism, memory and postmemory studies, and critical theories.
2.1. History, aesthetics and cinematographic circulation:
This field focuses on the study of cinema and television, with special attention to history, aesthetics, genres, formats and production and circulation systems in order to understand audiovisual as an agent that creates political, economic and cultural discourses. It includes approaches from semiotics, film analysis, textual analysis, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies. Special attention is paid to aspects such as cinema and television in Catalonia, Spain and other European or Latin American filmographies, women's cinema, documentary and non-fiction cinema, postcolonial cinema, the study of film festivals and the study of cinema and television genres.
2.2. Intersectional feminism and subaltern identities:
This area analyses inequalities in access and representation in the media, including the presence of women, minorities, migrations and the digital divide. The research emphasizes situations of exclusion and bias, and proposes actions of media education and ICT empowerment from a feminist and intersectional perspective. The dynamics of inequality in media production and representation are studied, especially in underrepresented groups and their social and symbolic effects. This line of work also includes the analysis of memory in contemporary culture, with attention to cinema, visual arts and documentary practices.
2.3. Communication, media and culture:
Study of the media and other cultural practices as spaces for the construction of social identities. The work analyzes the processes of production and reception of cultural products from a broad point of view, as well as the discourses that circulate. The approach includes currents such as constructionism, posthumanism and materialism, with extended approaches to environmental humanities and art. It has a multidisciplinary and reflective approach to the theories of culture and cultural studies. It studies the intersections between languages and disciplines, focusing on the creation, circulation and reception of cultural forms, from cinema and television to comics, board games, video games, dance and visual arts.
2.4. Diasporas, Mobility and Communication practices:
This line of work explores how diasporic experiences and transnational mobility shape new forms of production, circulation and reception of media discourses. The role of migrant or racialized journalists and professional practices that emerge in contexts of displacement, cultural hybridization and structural inequality are analyzed. The aim is to understand how diasporas construct mediated identities, generate their own narratives and challenge hegemonic representations, while investigating how traditional and digital media contribute to shaping transnational communities, spaces of resistance and alternative forms of citizenship.