Journalism, European Democracy and the Right to Information (Press-Forward)

The Main researcher and leader of the group we are proposing (Dr. Ms. Loreto Corredoira) has been Jean Monnet Chair from 2020-2023 in the field of audiovisual and its digital transformation; has also been a member of the FreuDe CoE at the University of Vienna (2019-2023) and is a current member of WP2 of the Reboot Project on European Film Competitiveness (HORIZON-CL2-2022- HERITAGE-01-06): whose commitments end in April 2025.

Recently has applied for a Jean Monnet Center of Excellence on this topic.

In order to broaden the impacts and generate new synergies, we have proposed in parallel in this Call: ERASMUS-JMO-2025-HEI-TCH-RSCH a Chair aimed at “Decoding i-Disorders” (ID: SEP-211119467), being the Chair more of teaching and research for young professors and doctoral students, and this CoE for cutting-edge research, with activities of social impact and transfer.
The Center's team has 28 researchers with extensive experience in R&D of Spanish and European competitive projects from seven Spanish universities (UCM, Pompeu Fabra, UNIR, Valladolid, San Pablo-CEU, UNED, Murcia), one Ukrainian university (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine), and one Venezuelan university (Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración). There is also a significant number of Ph.D. candidates and several collaborating entities from the area of communication and social media (ZonaWebsite, Dataestrategia), as well as educational institutions in which we carry out training activities with students, parents and teachers (such as the School Council of the Government of Madrid), State institutions (Ministry of the Interior, Spanish Parliament), digital supervision agencies (Data Protection Agency, National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) and international organizations (European Commission, European Parliament, Council of Europe, NATO, UNESCO).

The Kiev Institute of Journalism, represented by Kateryna Horska, Director of the Legal Journalism Programme, which has been collaborating with the coordinating university for three years, and the Venezuelan Institute of Higher Studies in Administration, the only accredited business school in the country, where Carmen Beatriz Fernández is a lecturer, will join the Center. Both countries will allow us to observe the processes of transition in the 21st century. And when peace and freedom allow, we will organise more mobility between the two countries.

The Project lead by Corredoira has a significant transnational dimension, ensuring an impact and interest not only at a national level but also in several European countries with which the members of this Center have strong ties. The project's impact is extended through the collaboration of the Complutense University and its Faculty of Communication with academic institutions and the possibility of applying the results obtained in other EU countries.
This is achieved through academic cooperation and participation in international networks that we actively maintain. A prime example of this complementarity is our collaboration with several key institutions in Europe and Latin America, which we are now expanding to Ukraine and Venezuela, thus ensuring even greater development potential.

Participation in International Projects

We emphasise the previous experience of the team members, which we consider fundamental for the success of the project. Loreto Corredoira and Mª Antonia Paz have been, respectively, chair and key staff in the Jean Monnet Chair Modern Times (2020-2023). Corredoira has been an active member of the FreuDe Center of Excellence at the University of Vienna, where Jorge Abaurrea also collaborated during the completion of his thesis. In addition, Corredoira is currently part of a REBOOT project —HORIZON-CL2-2022-HERITAGE-01, in particular in WP2 (which concludes in April 2025), to which she was invited for her expertise in European audiovisual law. Paz has been a member of the Erasmus+ European Union team –KA2 (ref. KA2_KA201_A_2.06)- and tutor to two Marie Curie scholarship holders.

On the other hand, Coello de Portugal has extensive experience in the Monnet Chair in European Law, which enriches the legal perspective of the project (621081-EPP-1- 2020-1-EPPJMO-CHAIR, Federal Loyalty for a Federal European Union). Our Faculty of Communication is currently collaborating with the UNA EUROPA network, especially through the teaching of Arturo Gómez in the first Bachelor of Arts in European Studies at the Complutense University, which reinforces the academic connection between various European universities.
Rubio and Coello have led (2021-2024) the Next Generation, ‘Guarantees against disinformation and other information disorders on platforms’ (TED2021-130876B-I00).
Similarly, several professors have taken part in Erasmus+ ‘mobility’ actions, such as Mª Antonia Paz (Paris, Rome, Perugia), José Mª Coello (Italy) and Loreto Corredoira (Bologna, Vienna), a key element for academic exchange and the strengthening of international networks that we would also like to encourage among young scholars and Ph.D. students.

We would like to highlight the participation of young female doctors (A. Moreno and E. Gutiérrez) with the methodology of the Teaching Innovation Projects ‘Netflix as a generator of content for the teaching of Law in non-legal degrees’ (2024/2025) and ‘Cinema as a learning tool. Design and development of a film database for teaching and learning Constitutional Law for Information Science students’ (2023/2024), in which other colleagues are also involved.

Likewise, Professors Paz and Cáceres are contributing to this chair with a Teaching Innovation Project entitled “You and AI. Artificial intelligence against hate crimes” (Complutense University).
Professor Serrano Maíllo is leading another educational innovation project: ‘The podcast as a tool for teaching and learning law: el derecho a viva voz’ (2024/2025 and 2023/2024 academic years) and previously directed: ‘Cinema as a learning tool. Design and development of a film database for teaching and learning Audiovisual Communication Law (2022/2023 academic year), ‘Film as a learning tool. Design and development of a film database for teaching and learning Information Law’ (2021/2022 academic year). Professor Serrano Maíllo has also directed several Service Learning (APS, Aprendizaje-Servicio) projects, specifically: ‘Communication strategies through audiovisual materials for the media literacy of teenagers in fake news’ (23/24 and 22/23 academic years). Professors Serrano and Moreno direct a collection of educational innovation at the COLEX publishing house: ‘Colección científica Innovación Docente en Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas’ www.colex.es/coleccion-innovacion-docente-ciencias-sociales-juridicas. Dr. Corredoira is a member of the editorial board.

The collaboration between the group specialising in the field of research on hate speech of WP2 dates back to 2020, following the achievement of a national competitive research project led by Professor Paz (PID2019-105613GB-C31) and in which Francisco Segado and María Dolores Cáceres were incorporated. Paz and Cáceres have jointly addressed the different moderation systems that the digital press applies in Spain (Paz, Cáceres and Martín, 2021) to stop hate speech in readers' forums. This research has been complemented by Professor Segado's work on journalistic ethics with regard to the treatment of vulnerable groups (Díaz, Gómez, Segado & Remacha, 2021). These researchers have worked together on the perception of hate speech among Spaniards, through a national survey (Cáceres, Brändle and Paz, 20223; Brändle, Cáceres and Paz, 2024) and on the presence of right-wing populist parties on TikTok (González, Segado, Makhortykh, 2023). The full results of their publications, some with a large number of citations (Paz, Montero and Moreno, 2020), can be found at https://historiadelacomunicacion.net/2022/07/10/resultados-proyecto-cartodiocom/

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES/LINES

The Press-Forward project wants to put our specialisation at the service of European democracies, being aware that one of the means of strengthening European belonging is to generate resilience in the face of polarization, but it is also essential to have a solid, free and independent press and media, since the right to information is one of the external guarantees of any constitutional system.

General objectives
1. To examine the impact of risks such as polarization on the crisis of credibility of institutions, political disaffection and the breakdown of liberal democracies to the detriment of fundamental rights from the perspectives of journalism, sociology, information law and ICT (WP2 and WP3).
2. To restore the centrality of press freedom and information rights as the core of European democratic values
3. To identify the legal, ethical and social challenges to the right to information and journalism posed by new information disruptions, in particular hate speech and the use of 'deep fakes' in news sources
4. To evaluate the European Digital Package on Media and Social Network Governance and its effectiveness in protecting fundamental rights and acting as a counterweight to the arbitrariness of platforms. Measuring the effectiveness of the DSA in the most serious cases ('systemic risks')
5. To develop, test and disseminate scientific evidence on these issues for policy makers and stakeholders to incorporate into their agenda. The aim is also to promote internationally a new multidimensional definition of democratic participation and the role of the press in the context of information disruptions

Curriculum vitae, publications from the last 5 years, a letter of motivation (in English and in Spanish) from the candidate indicating his/her interests and lines of research, and a letter of recommendation from a professor/researcher.

Previous experience or publications in the field.

Be Bilingual (Spanish/English) it"s not necessary but it will be very well considered