Research group focused on the analysis of the changes and mutations caused by the digitalisation process in the contents and structures of the media and the public. The group arose from the activity of most of its researchers, since 2007, within the framework of the ‘Analysis Group of the Valencian Digital Media’ (since 2007), which has led to the achievement of three R&D projects (financed by the Generalitat Valenciana and the Universitat de València) and an annual congress (Digital Communication Congress in the Valencian Community), which began to be held in 2009. All this resulted in five monographs and an abundant number of partial publications in congresses, journals and book chapters.
In addition, the group has obtained a R&D project of the National R&D&I Plan, granted in the 2013 call, and which covers the period from 2014 to 2016. The title of the project is ‘Communication flows in political mobilisation processes: media, blogs and opinion leaders’ (reference CSO2013-43960-R). The research related to this project constitutes the critical point of the group's research. This group’s research mainly focuses on influence: who influences whom, in what way, and with what effects. We focus on the flows through which information circulates because they will allow us to see this process of translating messages and combining agendas, which all try to influence the public space. We seek to see which ones are more influential and in which direction, or directions, the flow of information transmission takes place.
The research group in Public Opinión and Elections aims at analyzing, studying and finding solutions to all issues and questions related to electoral processes and/or the measurement and monitoring of public opinion, applying the most advanced quantitative techniques.
The most relevant research fields of the group include (but are not limited to) the following: the generation of electoral predictions, inference of individual voting behavior, analysis of polls and surveys, the search of new methodological approaches to improve (reducing costs) the quality of sampling methods, semantic analysis of opinions and monitoring of the internet sentiment, the study of the consequences of non-response and of the biases introduced during the whole inference process, the solution to the gaps in the databases, the integration and pooling of local and global information to obtain multilevel responses, and the development of statistcal theory and methodology.
The approach used in the research group in Public Opinión and Elections is open, not being limited by any particular methodological tendency, and makes extensive use of whatever sources of information. Thus, we use classical and Bayesian techniques, we apply from simple linear regression models to complex approaches based on neural networks, wavelets or auto-binomial models, we use the spatial and/or temporal component of the data explicitly, we perform simulation via Markov chain Monte Carlo or directly by Monte Carlo methods, and we introduce in our models survey data, reported election results, news reports, internet messages and/or official statistics.
The members of the group are open to working with other research groups, companies and institutions and encourage interested parties to contact us in order to explore possible avenues of collaboration.
The Research Group on Scientific Culture (RGSC) was founded in 2002, when Journalism studies were introduced in the UV. Since the beginning, I take part in postgraduate and PhD programmes of various Spanish universities, in research areas revolving around scientific culture. In 2007, our university made an agreement with the RGSC, CIEMAT’s unit for scientific culture in Madrid, to enable research in Science and Technology Studies. This framework project includes researchers from the Universities of Oviedo, Balearic Islands, Valladolid, Salamanca and CSIC’s Institute of Philosophy. The main goal of the Research Group on Culture is the research on scientific culture, on acting as an interface mechanism between actors and on environments for the creation of scientific knowledge and the unproductive appropriation of knowledge (social demand or regulating agents, to name a few). It participates in elaborating technical forms for foundations such as FECYT through Surveys for Social Perception of Science and Technology and it’s present in numerous international congresses such as the PSCT, held every two years. The group’s project is currently financed by the National Plan and it’s titled: Analysis of institutional campaigns for vaccination against the Human Papillomavirus (CSO2011-25810). The research group focuses on the different aspects and approaches taken by the news coverage of science and technology through media.
Cotino (Director) has been the PI for three consecutive national projects on these issues, one focused on e-government (2005-2008), another on freedom and participation in the social web (2010-2012) and the current one on Open Government (2013-2015), a subject on which continuity is sought. The new R&D&I project of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness is pending resolution. It is entitled “The progress of Open Government. Constitutional legal regime of the implementation of transparency policies, access to information, open data, collaboration and participation, especially through ICTs and e-government” DER2015-65810-P (pending resolution). Cotino is also PI. The results are more than evident, both on the web and in hundreds of publications and papers. Besides some readjustments, this time the internationalisation is boosted by strengthening the foreign team. All the members of the team have worked and cooperated actively in recent years.
This UV group also includes two members who are not part of the Ministry’s project, two point researchers in Spain, Fernández Salmerón and Valero Torrijos, from Administrative Law.
The legal treatment of contents and freedoms on the Internet, liability of providers, hate speech, limits, censorship, etc. will continue to be addressed. On the other hand, given the relatively ethereal concept of open government and the predominance of other disciplines, a constitutional legal treatment is needed to legally decant, sediment and distil all these changes and advances that have just taken place in the last few years with respect to the contents of the concept of Open Government (transparency, participation, collaboration, open data, etc.) and its projection in the legal framework as well as the fundamental rights that are involved. Continuity is sought as we are at a crucial moment in the development of the Open Government. We are on the culmination of a process of fundamentalising the right to transparency and access to public information. This process has not been completed neither by the ECHR, nor the CJEU, nor, especially, by our Constitutional Court and Supreme Court. It is going to be especially important to analyse the interpretation by data protection authorities, transparency authorities, ombudsmen with jurisdiction over this area, and, of course, the ordinary and constitutional courts.
The aim is to analyse and monitor both the application of the transparency law and new administrative laws and reform of the law on re-use, the decree implementing the law on transparency, 2015, as well as the wave of regional laws in the 2013-2015 period in the autonomous community.
Beyond the mere normative analysis, it is a matter of taking into account the practical implementation and policies of open government policies, especially in Spain at the different town, region and state levels. It is a booming issue in 2015-16 in Spain. However, given the transnational nature of the phenomenon, it will also be monitored from a comparative and supranational European and Latin American perspective.
The aim is not only to analyse the constitutional legal development of open government, but also, as far as possible, to influence it on the different legal operators.
It has a solid experience in the dissemination of high quality legal content in classic formats (more than nine collective works and ten congresses), partly through www.derechotics.com or the Cyberlaw clinic and highly visible Twitter profiles of some of the members. In addition to generating and disseminating academic knowledge, it will be conducted an observatory of e-administration 2.0, an analysis of websites of Spanish and international reference; a document of practical legal recommendations and precautions.
