Inês Amaral

University of Coimbra | UC · Department of Philosophy, Communication and Information

This paper focuses on the appropriation of computer-mediated interaction tools, through techniques of semantic indexation, in order to understand whether there is an emergence of new forms of sociability with new practices and social relations that represent an unterritorialized thermometer of society. The empirical research developed focuses on h...

The history of Libya is parallel to that of other once-colonized nations. Therefore, it displays economic, class, gender, religious, and ethnic inequalities. Libya gained independence from Italy in 1951. The country became The United Kingdom of Libya, a constitutional and hereditary monarchy. After the discovery of oil reserves and a large income f...

Os media sociais e os sites de rede social têm sido um elemento chave na acção colectiva através da Internet. E introduzem novas características ao conceito de "networking" online: interacção através da acção colectiva e interacção baseada nas práticas sociais promovidas pelas novas ferramentas técnicas. Os sites de partilha de conteúdo e as redes...

No presente artigo defendemos uma mudança para um paradigma da comunicação orientado para a sociabilização, baseado em plataformas de software social e conteúdo criado pelo utilizador comum. Pretendemos reflectir sobre o panorama das redes sociais na Internet e dos seus suportes, equacionando a emergência de uma nova sociabilidade. Assumindo que a...

Considerando os desafios que a falta de cobertura noticiosa impõe, em particular numa fase de definição de identidade e participação como a juventude, este artigo procura compreender como é que a (in)existência de jornalismo regional impacta o consumo mediático dos jovens residentes em Portugal, com idades compreendidas entre os 15 e os 24 anos. At...

This exploratory study presents the main results from the analysis of the tracking of mobile application use by 342 young adults (18-30 years old) in Portugal considering the gendered power relations that may be reflected in those uses. The results indicate that Social Media and Messaging apps are predominant, while the tracking of the self categor...

There is nothing new about how the news ecosystem has undergone significant changes in recent years, especially with the rise of digital media and the consequent growth of news apps and social media platforms. News apps often prioritise popular and viral content, which may lead to a focus on sensationalism and entertainment-based approaches rather...

This paper presents thoughts on the use of online semi-structured interviews in a participatory format. On one hand, in the process of interviewing and on the other by using complementary methods such as media diaries and its associated online ethnography techniques. One of the challenges of audience research is the capture of the "audiencing" proc...

O jornal digital Observador destaca-se no panorama mediático português como um importante disseminador da contestação à “ideologia de género”, nomeadamente através de artigos de opinião. O presente estudo faz um mapeamento dos tipos de argumentos avançados nesses artigos. Apesar de a contestação à “ideologia de género” ter entrado em Portugal atrav...

Recents studies suggest the existence of a European Public Sphere, especially in the face of events of significant importance. In the scope of the Covid-19 crisis, this paper aims to study the platformization of the discussion on European topics by political agents such as politicians and political parties. Focusing on four Southern European countr...

Apps e Jovens Adultos: Contributos para um Mapeamento de Práticas Mediadas explora teorias, práticas, críticas e perspetivas no uso de aplicações móveis por pessoas de 18 a 30 anos. Estruturado em três partes, o livro inicia-se com uma base teórica sobre práticas digitalmente mediadas em jovens adultos/as. O primeiro capítulo critica os média digit...

Apps e Jovens Adultos: Contributos para um Mapeamento de Práticas Mediadas explora teorias, práticas, críticas e perspetivas no uso de aplicações móveis por pessoas de 18 a 30 anos. Estruturado em três partes, o livro inicia-se com uma base teórica sobre práticas digitalmente mediadas em jovens adultos/as. O primeiro capítulo critica os média digit...

Apps e Jovens Adultos: Contributos para um Mapeamento de Práticas Mediadas explora teorias, práticas, críticas e perspetivas no uso de aplicações móveis por pessoas de 18 a 30 anos. Estruturado em três partes, o livro inicia-se com uma base teórica sobre práticas digitalmente mediadas em jovens adultos/as. O primeiro capítulo critica os média digit...

Nos últimos anos, com a rápida expansão das plataformas de comunicação digital, vimos emergir com significativa robustez diferentes formas de política alternativa. Desde ativistas que constroem nas redes sociais campanhas contra a violência, o sexismo e o assédio, até vítimas que partilham online as suas experiências pessoais de injustiça, o contri...

Better theories and practices are constructed through a deep understanding of the subjects involved. In Portugal, young adults aged 18 to 30 are a group sometimes left out because the Portuguese official statistical data does not treat this as an age category by itself, dividing it either into young people or the general idea of adults. Through a s...

This research focuses on social media mobile applications as mediated interfaces of identity performances and interrogates to what extent everyday young adults’ uses are remaking gender scripts. We analyze young adults’ self-reported experiences on preferred social media apps and discourses of rejection of others, the technologies themselves, and h...

This paper focuses on the intergenerational solidarity perceptions of young adults (aged between 18 and 30) in Portugal regarding how solidarity is intertwined with digital media uses, appropriations, and embodiments during the pandemic context. Therefore, this research departs from the following questions: (RQ1) Do Portuguese young adults perceive...

The rise of the mobile era has brought ubiquity in media access, constant connection to other people and interconnectedness with devices as part of life. Considering mobile devices and mobile applications (m-apps) as an environment that allows multitasking, this article is interested in understanding the performance of popular m-apps in the daily l...

A decade after the end of the Gaddafi's regime in Libya, the country remains mired in a civil war and a humanitarian crisis. After more than 40 years under an autocratic rule, the Arab Spring was the promise of a transition to democracy with the guarantee of ensuring human rights and freedom of expression. In 2011, several actors advocated regime c...

Acknowledging the importance of technology in the mental health and wellbeing of individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper aims to analyse the uses of mobile health applications by young Portuguese adults focusing on the following research question: How do the uses of m-apps by young adults interact with health and wellbeing from a gende...

Depois de a pandemia de COVID-19 ter sido declarada pela Organização Mundial de Saúde em março de 2020, um conjunto de medidas sanitárias foram adotadas internacionalmente para controlar a expansão do vírus. De entre estas, os confinamentos e isolamentos tiveram como consequência a adoção generalizada de tecnologias de comunicação como mediadoras e...

Considerando o grupo específico de jovens adultos(as) em Portugal, o artigo visa perceber se e de que forma as aplicações móveis interferem com as identidades de género e as práticas sexuais. A abordagem metodológica adotada é quantitativa, operacionalizada através de um inquérito por questionário a uma amostra representativa (N=1500) de jovens (18...

The Covid-19 pandemic created an unprecedented scenario in terms of public health, with the determination of unprecedented social isolation measures and massive information sharing on social networks – classified by the WHO as an “infodemic”. However, in the context of political communication on the pandemic, several mistakes were made in an early...

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo determinar las formas y la prevalencia de la violencia digital y el discurso abusivo contra mujeres periodistas portuguesas. Para eso, consideramos el daño y el impacto de la violencia en línea como una experiencia de género y una forma de discriminación contra las mujeres periodistas. Este es un fenómeno que...

As the Covid-19 pandemic intensified the digitisation of everyday lives and violent behaviours on many mainstream platforms, online violence against women raised renewed concerns. Across the literature, there has been an emphasis on survivors’ experiences and actions to cope with technology-facilitated abuse. Still, little is known about how people...

In this chapter, we explore the symbolic nature and the experiential dimension, of self-tracking apps to stress the importance of the ideas and discourses conveyed by popular self-tracking apps, as well as the sensations, emotions, and human embodiment enacted in daily uses and their connections to gendered power relations.

Stemming from a process of non-linear narratives in a digital convergence landscape, interactive documentary proposes an innovative change in the documentary realm by allowing the user to choose how to consume the contents and produce a universe of narrative possibilities where the stories begin and end by linking to each other. This paper examines...

A investigação tem mostrado que as interações e os processos narrativos coletivos que delas decorrem em plataformas baseadas em aplicações móveis (m-apps) aprimoram as relações sociais de poder, perpetuando masculinidades e feminilidades hegemónicas ancoradas à heteronormatividade (Amaral et al., 2021). As masculinidades e as feminilidades represen...

This paper debates and describes how the use of participatory methodologies were useful and flexible to engage and access the digital attitudes and practices of different generations of participants - from young people to older people - involved in two research projects in Portugal: DiCi-Educa and SMaRT-EU. The paper also describes the methodologic...

Considering the issue of population ageing, its differences and inequalities, also in a pandemic context, this paper aims to explore intergenerational digital mediation relations and practises in Portugal. Therefore, this research departs from the following questions: (RQ1): How do Portuguese young adults interact online with family members over 65...

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a real-time laboratory for a technological future that Anderson, Rainie and Vogels (2021) describe as "tele-everything". Among other mediated practices, online shopping, virtual schooling, teleworking, telehealth, online workout, and even virtual parties were adopted in unprecedented ways to avoid physical contact dur...

The social isolation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic was a challenge to the ongoing digitisation of societies. The massive use of the Internet and mobile applications has (re)configured social practices, relationships, and labour routines in unprecedented ways. Facing the challenges brought by social isolation, the uses of mobile apps have also cha...

After facing an intense negative reaction to their accumulation of social, political and economic power and influence, several tech and social media companies rolled out ‘digital wellbeing’ tools during the second half of 2018. This article examines the technological and discursive construction of ‘digital wellbeing’ as enacted through operating sy...

This book explores the dynamic landscape in contemporary newsrooms across three continents by investigating the impact that the processes of searching, processing, and distributing data and information and the use of big data, with secure, automatic, and agile retrieval of information all have in this context. Journalistic organizations have underg...

The development of Design as a discipline in Portugal was slow. Therefore, only in the ‘80s, visual culture was implemented through Communication Design. Its rises were just at the beginning of the twentieth century, which constrain the identification of Communication Design as a specific field of Design, isolated from other areas of knowledge such...

This empirical research aimed to analyze the newsroom of a newspaper as the center of operation, place of daily decision-making, and where convergence and integration actions are facilitated by using information and communication technologies (ICT). The starting point of the research is the analysis of the workflow of the newsroom at La Nación, a C...

Within media and gender studies, while the study of women's representation is critical to attaining gender equality, the deconstruction of patriarchal structures requires examining gender portrayals in a relational sense. The inclusion of masculinities and, specifically, the way boys and men are represented in the media is essential to understandin...

In September 2018, a controversial judicial sentence concerning sexual violence caused a public outcry in Portugal. The court decision invoked the alleged environment of mutual seduction, the use of much alcohol consumption, and the lack of serious injuries to justify the suspended penalty. Stemming from the idea that understandings of what journal...

In September 2018, a controversial judicial sentence concerning sexual violence caused a public outcry in Portugal. The court decision invoked the alleged environment of mutual seduction, the use of much alcohol consumption, and the lack of serious injuries to justify the suspended penalty. Stemming from the idea that understandings of what journal...

There are times of paradigm-breaking in journalism, either through the connections of readers' social networks, changing mass communication or through mobility and ubiquity in the use of cell phones. We certainly live unexpected moments in social communication, for those who have been on this road for a long time as well as for new professionals in...

Este capítulo reflete sobre as condições sociais de estabelecimento da relação com a verdade que originaram o aparecimento do fenómeno da desinformação, os seus processos mediáticos e a mimetização de rotinas e práticas jornalísticas. O texto aborda as notícias falsas enquanto fe-nómeno que resulta da transformação das condições de relação com a ve...

De Que falamos Quando Dizemos “Jornalismo”? Temas Emergentes de Pesquisa, é um título pensado deliberadamente para chamar a atenção para a diversidade de percursos e de problemas que o novo ecossistema mediático ou “capitalismo jornalístico”, como um dos contributos para este volume sugeriu baptizar de modo sugestivo, gerou. É um título em forma de...

Online and offline realms are not detached one from the other but are rather convergent and mutually reinforcing. Over the past decade, as the so-called “digital era” emerged and expanded, expressions of misogynist beliefs started to burgeon within the online realm. On par with male misogynist individualised agency, there has also been a growth of...

The last decade witnessed great transformations concerning the internet with the perils of disinformation becoming key concerns among political actors. Within this framework, the EU has developed efforts to approach these digital challenges taking into account the political challenges. These challenges are related with elections and trust in inform...

Age and gender intersect within power relations dynamics from which arise social hierarchies. Ageist and patriarchal systems perform power within an institutionalization of normative gendered hierarchy, validated by the media and legitimized through the hegemonic social culture. Aging masculinities have been mainly studied in health and social scie...

From a feminist perspective, mainstream media representations have always performed disciplinary functions. Particularly, regarding ageing women. On digital platforms, individuals would have a greater agency to perform and shape gender norms and sexual roles. However, scholarship has been expressing scepticism with the liberatory promise of the onl...

Feminist activism has always promoted informal learning opportunities for men and women. Internet, along with ICTs, has expanded these opportunities by affording large-scale feminist mobilisation and connection. Yet, the digital environment is not only enhancing feminist campaigning but also facilitating the contexts for abusive behaviours to flour...

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought considerable challenges to higher education institutions around the world. Everywhere, during the spring of 2020, students and teaching staff were sent home to implement non-presential classes, which were seen as an emergency solution for the outbreak. However, the new academic year brought a mixed approach with co...

Over the years, the European Union (EU) has steadily tried to forge a European identity. But how successful has been the EU’s course of action? Building on the concept of European identity (and the values associated to it), this exploratory study aims to answer two main research questions: do higher education students perceive themselves as Europea...

COVID-19 brought tremendous challenges to the world during 2020. The consequences of the pandemic are still hard to estimate. However, the socio-economic crisis that hit every nation, from major developed economies to least developed countries is transversal and quite visible. Despite the existence of various context-specific approaches, there is a...

The relations between gender, power and politics resonate deeply in the media representation of women in the political field, normalizing models of femininity and conceptions of participation in the public sphere. Based on this assumption and using an intersectional approach anchored to a feminist perspective, this article draws on critical themati...

The recent wave of disinformation has been posing enormous challenges to an already complex information ecosystem. People feel overwhelmed by the amount of information that is consumed every day. It is increasingly harder to navigate the sea of information in empowering forms. That is why digital and media literacies have been emphasized as key too...

The knowledge society is currently characterized by an intrinsic disorder caused by several kinds of wrong or misused information. It is increasingly difficult for both students and professors to safely navigate in this highly complex ecosystem, that was transformed by the rise of new players and practices, as well as new mechanisms of participatio...

Media and social media perform a pivotal role in the construction of social reality and shared meaning. As social representations, gender and age identities are included in those dynamics, per se and interacting with each other. This article aims to analyse the complexity, non-linearity and hybridity of representations of men and age within today’s...

Gender identities and roles do not stand alone but rather evolve while intersecting with other traits, namely age, resulting in cross and hybrid (gender and age) identities. Media are one of the pivotal formative spaces where audiences learn role models and the way they should express and behave: Therefore, media environments influence the way one...

This paper aims to theoretically explore and discuss intergenerational perspectives on audience studies, shedding light on trends and invisibilities. Literature on the topic has been especially concerned either with interactions between children and young people, or among themselves and with other age groups, or with elders’ engagement. This paper...

Journalism education, as we know it, has its roots in the United States, during the late 19th century, when some universities started to discuss how journalism should be taught. Throughout the 20th century, journalism education became widespread through higher education institutions around the world. However, teaching aspiring journalists still pla...

Community media have been used for empowering fragile or at-risk groups for decades. Radio has a long tradition in this field, precisely for its capabilities for overcoming distances and lack of instruction, as well as for its easiness of use. Participatory radios are produced exclusively by the community and for the community. Since the advent of...

As problemáticas inerentes às dinâmicas de produção, distribuição e consumo de informação de teor noticioso têm sido alvo, nos últimos anos, de inúmeros estudos académicos. Salienta-se, porém, a especial relevância, no presente, de haver uma maior produção científica em matérias que se dediquem a compreender e a analisar os novos panoramas mediátic...

The evolution of Portuguese civil society after the post-revolution period (1974) is framed in a normalization of the concept of democracy, significantly reducing civic participation. In a period of severe austerity (2011‒14), civic and social movements emerged strongly in Portuguese society and organized protests throughout the country and abroad....

Social Media Marketing is the best defined in the context of the previous industrial media paradigm (Zarrella, 2010). With the democratization of internet access and the popularization of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, our ways of communicating and relating to both people and brands have changed a lot. New ways and platfor...

This paper is focused on gender, media and information and communication technologies (ICTs). Through the analysis of relevant policy documents about the media, the access to and use of ICTs adopted by European institutional players in the last twenty years, we identify and discuss the presence of gender-focused principles and the media dimensions...

The experience with space is achieved through projects developed according to a design perspective. In addition to collaborating on the creation of spatial narratives by promoting the experience, the design also acts in the sense of enhancing accessibility in both the physical and cognitive domain. Wayfinding systems as well as informational techno...

The nation of Cape Verde, also known as Cabo Verde, is a former Portuguese colony located on an archipelago on the west coast of Africa. Among African nations, it ranks highly on indices of development, literacy, and freedom of the press. Although the development of the media in Cape Verde has been limited, the country has seen major advances in ca...

The Internet and new technologies may represent a chance for social inclusion, empowerment, and improvement of the quality in the lives of many citizens. However, demographic and sociocultural differences often push senior citizens toward social and digital exclusion. The digital divide is particularly pronounced when it refers to citizens 60 years...

Cyberculture is an umbrella term for the emergent and evolving forms of engagement with the Internet, the World Wide Web, and the vast array of virtual environments, digital networks, devices, interfaces, formats, and software known as cyberspace. The concept of cyberculture defines all the social-communicational space that is created through compu...

The media ecosystem has evolved towards a hybrid ecology where social networks form (inter) active consumers who develop new practices and relationships with brands in a collaborative logic, which represents the era of Communication 3.0. Higher education institutions deal with these issues by addressing an audience that is permanently connected thr...

Historically, media were mostly considered as a means of reinforcement of the generational gap, commonly in a family context. However, the intergenerational gap has been diminishing over time (Bolin and Skogerbø, 2013), and the digital era is contributing to bridge the generational divide. Antonija Čuvalo and Zrinjka Peruško (2017) discern media re...