Scientific Articles by Sofia José Santos
European Journal of Women's Studies, 2022
In September 2018, a controversial judicial sentence concerning sexual violence caused a public o... more 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 journalism is and what it should be are profoundly ideological and that notions of what it means to be and to behave like a woman and as a man have been developed (and altered over time) based on shifting realities within generalised patriarchal structures, this article intends to critically analyse the news media coverage of the controversial judicial sentence on this rape case in Portugal exploring the implications objective-based journalism entails for gender equality. As such, it will identify the shortcomings of objectivity and its leeway when covering sexual violence exploring how objective-based journalism provides room to (re)negotiate practices, norms, identities, and meanings concerning sexual violence, particularly rape and rape myths, and questioning whether a margin of maneuvre is enough to deconstruct patriarchal assumptions of feminity, masculinity and sexuality.
In September 2018, a controversial judicial sentence concerning sexual violence caused a public o... more 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 journalism is and what it should be are profoundly ideological and that notions of what it means to be and to behave like a woman and as a man have been developed (and altered over time) based on shifting realities within generalised patriarchal structures, this article intends to critically analyse the news media coverage of the controversial judicial sentence on this rape case in Portugal exploring the implications objective-based journalism entails for gender equality. As such, it will identify the shortcomings of objectivity and its leeway when covering sexual violence exploring how objective-based journalism provides room to (re)negotiate practices, norms, identities, and meanings concerning sexual violence, particularly rape and rape myths, and questioning whether a margin of maneuvre is enough to deconstruct patriarchal assumptions of feminity, masculinity and sexuality.
From the European South, 2021
This article deals with discourses about the Covid-19 pandemic in the Portuguese media from 2020-... more This article deals with discourses about the Covid-19 pandemic in the Portuguese media from 2020-2021. Through thematic qualitative content analysis, we explore how migrants, refugees/asylum seekers and Afro-descendants-that is, racialised people who are often read as non-Portuguese-have been portrayed by the media, and the idea of 'non-Portugueseness', constructed in relation to this phenomenon. The pandemic is an interesting context in which to analyse discourses reproducing the us/them divide, but also the 'us', given the heightened role security imaginaries have played in framing and reacting upon the pandemic. In this analysis, we examine (de)securitisation moves present in the Portuguese media when representing refugees/asylum seekers, immigrants and Afro-descendants, focussing on three main tropes: securitising said groups, explaining and deconstructing securitisation of these people, and shedding light on the threats and vulnerabilities faced by them.
European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults (RELA)., 2021
Feminist activism has always promoted informal learning opportunities for men and women. Internet... more Feminist activism has always promoted informal learning opportunities for men and women. Internet, along with ICTs, has expanded these opportunities by affording largescale feminist mobilisation and connection. Yet, the digital environment is not only enhancing feminist campaigning but also facilitating the contexts for abusive behaviours to flourish. Departing from the concept of social movement learning, we examine the significance of the large-scale reinvigoration of feminist activism to adult education in tandem with the surge of anti-feminist and misogynist ideas in the digital environment. We argue that just as online social media brought unprecedented opportunities to provide social movement learning, it offered the same tools to misogynists groups, mostly led by a toxic understanding of masculinity. By co-opting the same online opportunities the feminist movement enjoys, individualised and collective toxic masculinity agency is a potential foe to match, not only adding advantage to feminist movements but reinventing the same struggle and demanding an ongoing battle towards deconstructing patriarchy.
COMMONS. Revista de Comunicación y Ciudadanía Digital, 2020
Dominant literature on media and communication studies
has insistently equated mediascape and hig... more Dominant literature on media and communication studies
has insistently equated mediascape and high technology
media as interchangeable concepts and realities instead
of high technological media as part of a broader and more
dynamic media pallet. By subscribing to this “technology-driven Darwinism”, we argue that existing dominant
literature explicitly and implicitly excludes forms of mass
communication that go beyond the media in its Western
liberal form and procedures and, consequently, other voices,
knowledge and messages. This article analyses the modern
conception of media by exploring the “abyssal exclusions”
(Santos, 2007) it creates. To illustrate this further, we have
selected the top five 2018 SCOPUS-indexed journals, from
which we gathered a sample of 116 research articles that were
published between 2016-2018, to shed light on some of the
most recent research trends in media studies. The definition of
media used by the articles contained in our sample shows that
there is a technological and modernity-driven spectrum which
is fundamental in defining what is and what progressively
is no longer labelled, and hence considered, media. This
understanding of the media fails to include forms of mass
communication that go beyond the media in its western liberal
form and, consequently, exclude subaltern voices, knowledges
and messages
Socioscapes. International Journal of Societies, Politics and Cultures, 2020
The authors address the role played by digital media in developing an ideological and identitaria... more The authors address the role played by digital media in developing an ideological and identitarian discourse characterized by fear and moral panic about Others across Europe. In “Online social media and the construction of sexual moral panic around migrants in Europe”, they begin with analysing the securitization devices introduced in many countries of the EU and their work along specific gendered, sexual, and racialised lines. The article examines the role of digital media in amplifying the “sexual moral panic” about migration. Taking Italy and Germany as case studies-sites, we argue that digital media have strongly contributed to the dissemination and escalation of fears of invasion and of dangerous sexualities framed by constructions of race and gender. Their contribution unveils the ways in which colonialist and racist legacies that are historically sedimented in both Italy and Germany get reorganised “online” (i.e. through social media). These, in turn, produce a very specific post-colonial dimension reinforcing widespread hatred of the Other and new processes of racialisation, which include, among others, gender stereotyping.
Europe Now: a journal of research and arts, 2020
Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Social Media, Games and Assistive Environments. HCII 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11593., 2019
Social representations stem from wider processes of socialization within which the media perform ... more Social representations stem from wider processes of socialization within which the media perform a simultaneously reflective and co-constitutive role. Embedded in society, mainstream media discourses tend to legitimize and convey social representations in line with hegemonic ideologies. By doing so, mainstream media shed light on what are considered to be valid representations and roles and render invisible those which are not hegemonic and, hence, dismissed as less important or actively invisibilized. As European democratic societies are becoming increasingly older and gender equal, it would be expected for mainstream media to go in line with these trends, giving increasing visibility to seniors and to both women and non-hegemonic representations of what it means to be a man. This paper intends to explore whether media representations go on par with this course. To put it forward, this paper will identify how media are representing men and aging in Germany and Portugal through a quantitative content analysis of four national weekly news magazines.
JANUS.NET ejournal of International Relations, 2019
This article seeks to explore the role Russian and Ukrainian conventional media played as agenda-... more This article seeks to explore the role Russian and Ukrainian conventional media played as agenda-setters and producers of subjective framings within the context of the Crimean crisis, exploring at the same time the relationship between state and media and the impact of media representations on national public opinions. The analysis shows that agenda-setting and framing at the level of states’ policies have a fundamental role in decision-shaping and perception-building, highlighting that the manipulation of information through narrativeconstruction is a powerful tool at the service of politics. This study contributes to validate the idea that media can be perceived as key influencers of the public agenda as they emerge as the most relevant agents in mediatising politics, becoming hence a functional gatekeeper that might either facilitate the official discourse or instead obstruct it.
Contexto Internacional, 2018
This article focuses on media representations of 'the South in the North' crosscutting the Europe... more This article focuses on media representations of 'the South in the North' crosscutting the European mediascape in 2015 and the beginning of 2016. Assuming that both identities and perceptions of in/security are socially constructed, particularly by means of discourse, that security is gendered and gender constructions are in turn built on dynamics of in/security, and that gendered power relations and representations are always entangled with other structures of inequality and domination such as racism, this article argues that gendered categories of othering in the media's representations have been critical to produce and justify 1) hegemonic narratives of securitisation that aim to protect an imagined European identity and 2) counter-narratives denouncing the racial and cultural discrimination tied to the 'North's' hegemonic representations of refugees. Theoretically , the article proposes a dialogue among critical, feminist, and postcolonial peace and security studies. Methodologically, it analyses through discourse analysis three highly mediatised cases by examining the social representations of the refugees, namely their gendered components put forward by representative European media outlets based in the UK. It explores their implications in terms of the consolidation of stereotypes and hierarchies of suffering according to criteria of cred-ibility/suspicion and vulnerability/threat, and identifies some examples of media counter-narratives on refugee flows through specific gendered and racialised representations.
La comunicación en los movimientos sociales y el Derecho a la Comunicación: señales de un derecho... more La comunicación en los movimientos sociales y el Derecho a la Comunicación: señales de un derecho de ciudadanía de quinta generación Media intervention in post-war setting: Insights from the Epistemologies of the South Produçao audiovisual nas lutas dos movimentos sociais do campo no Brasil:
Cabo dos Trabalhos, 2010
O estabelecimento de meios de comunicação social para a paz em cenários pós-conflito constitui um... more O estabelecimento de meios de comunicação social para a paz em cenários pós-conflito constitui uma iniciativa que se tem vindo a desenvolver desde os finais da década de oitenta e que conheceu os seus maiores passos na primeira décadado século XXI. Contudo, a proliferação deste tipo de projectos, em diversos países, contrasta ainda com uma evidente escassez na análise académica das possibilidades e dos limites dos media para a paz nestes cenários, bem como na análise crítica desse tipo de intervenção. Este trabalho assume como objectivo identificar pistas de agenda de investigação que contribuam para colmatar essa lacuna. Partindo do registo de uma clara contradição entre o mandato formal que tem legitimado, do ponto de vista intelectual e político-institucional, a acção dos media para a paz, em contextos de reconstrução pós-bélica, e ascondições de paz que estes, na realidade, promovem no terreno, proponho-me desenhar um paralelismo entre a intervenção no âmbito das missões de peacebuilding
e as missões que se inserem no sistema da ajuda internacional, usando, para tal, dois conceitos: ideologia e tecnologia.
Revista de Comunicación y Ciudadanía Digital - COMMONS, 2016
Over the past two decades, international intervention
in post-war settings has strictly followed ... more Over the past two decades, international intervention
in post-war settings has strictly followed liberal
assumptions and practices. Efforts to build and
shape the media in the aftermath of armed conflict
are no exception. In setting the foundations for
the rule of law, liberal democracy and free market,
external actors have (re)defined what constitutes
the mediascape – that is, the various spheres of
communication within public discourse – and how to
(re)construct it. Imprinted with modernity’s tenets
and western assumptions about the public space, this
approach has understood the mediascape narrowly
as limited to traditional, established, liberal media,
serving to validate particular actors and processes
whilst obscuring, neglecting and shutting off global
diversity. Law and technology, this paper argues, are
the two main axes through which legitimation and
exclusion are effected. A myopic focus on legal and
technological aspects of the media reduces a rich
space of local discourses, norms and practices to
western-like media legislation, training and outlets,
narrowing in turn the sites for addressing violence
and building peace.
Portuguese Journal of International Affairs, 2009
Universitas: Relações Internacionais, 2010
Este artigo apresenta uma análise crítica às "rádios para a paz" integradas no modelo de reconstr... more Este artigo apresenta uma análise crítica às "rádios para a paz" integradas no modelo de reconstrução pós-conflito das Nações Unidas, à luz da tensão entre a estandardização do modelo que as integra, e tendem a reproduzir, e a exigência da especificidade das comunidades locais às quais essas missões se dirigem. Defende que só tendo em conta a realidade local é que se pode construir uma paz sustentável e duradoura, já que esta apenas se apresenta possível quando é inclusiva, auto-reflexiva e participativa. Para estudo de caso foi escolhida a Radio Okapi na República Democrática do Congo, uma emissora criada e apoiada pelas Nações Unidas em parceria coma ONG Fondation Hirondelle.
Book Chapters by Sofia José Santos
Maria Raquel Freire e Daniela Nascimento (org.), União Europeia como Ator Internacional: Paz e Segurança nas Narrativas e Práticas, 2022
Raquel Cabral e Larissa Pelúcio (org.), Comunicação, contradições narrativas e desinformação em contextos contemporâneos. São Paulo: Gradus Editora - Cultura Acadêmica, 197-212, 2021
Este capítulo pretende analisar a relação entre democracia, (des)informação e literacia mediática... more Este capítulo pretende analisar a relação entre democracia, (des)informação e literacia mediática e digital face às medidas de biovigilância que vários Estados implementaram no contexto da sua resposta à propagação do SARS-COV-2, em 2020. Usando como recorte metodológico o contexto do estado de exceção que a pandemia COVID-19 legitimou e cruzando debates teóricos com casos ilustrativos, o capítulo argumenta que a natureza tecnicista dos atuais mecanismos de biovigilância digital, a par de um contexto de securitização, tende a facilitar a normalização de práticas e políticas de vigilância, para além da exceção que as legitima, impactando de forma diferenciada a garantia e proteção dos direitos humanos e, consequentemente, a qualidade democrática das sociedades. Pretende, assim, explorar as implicações do que designamos por "desinformação tecnopolítica" para a democracia e a garantia e proteção dos direitos humanos digitais.
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Scientific Articles by Sofia José Santos
has insistently equated mediascape and high technology
media as interchangeable concepts and realities instead
of high technological media as part of a broader and more
dynamic media pallet. By subscribing to this “technology-driven Darwinism”, we argue that existing dominant
literature explicitly and implicitly excludes forms of mass
communication that go beyond the media in its Western
liberal form and procedures and, consequently, other voices,
knowledge and messages. This article analyses the modern
conception of media by exploring the “abyssal exclusions”
(Santos, 2007) it creates. To illustrate this further, we have
selected the top five 2018 SCOPUS-indexed journals, from
which we gathered a sample of 116 research articles that were
published between 2016-2018, to shed light on some of the
most recent research trends in media studies. The definition of
media used by the articles contained in our sample shows that
there is a technological and modernity-driven spectrum which
is fundamental in defining what is and what progressively
is no longer labelled, and hence considered, media. This
understanding of the media fails to include forms of mass
communication that go beyond the media in its western liberal
form and, consequently, exclude subaltern voices, knowledges
and messages
e as missões que se inserem no sistema da ajuda internacional, usando, para tal, dois conceitos: ideologia e tecnologia.
in post-war settings has strictly followed liberal
assumptions and practices. Efforts to build and
shape the media in the aftermath of armed conflict
are no exception. In setting the foundations for
the rule of law, liberal democracy and free market,
external actors have (re)defined what constitutes
the mediascape – that is, the various spheres of
communication within public discourse – and how to
(re)construct it. Imprinted with modernity’s tenets
and western assumptions about the public space, this
approach has understood the mediascape narrowly
as limited to traditional, established, liberal media,
serving to validate particular actors and processes
whilst obscuring, neglecting and shutting off global
diversity. Law and technology, this paper argues, are
the two main axes through which legitimation and
exclusion are effected. A myopic focus on legal and
technological aspects of the media reduces a rich
space of local discourses, norms and practices to
western-like media legislation, training and outlets,
narrowing in turn the sites for addressing violence
and building peace.
Book Chapters by Sofia José Santos
has insistently equated mediascape and high technology
media as interchangeable concepts and realities instead
of high technological media as part of a broader and more
dynamic media pallet. By subscribing to this “technology-driven Darwinism”, we argue that existing dominant
literature explicitly and implicitly excludes forms of mass
communication that go beyond the media in its Western
liberal form and procedures and, consequently, other voices,
knowledge and messages. This article analyses the modern
conception of media by exploring the “abyssal exclusions”
(Santos, 2007) it creates. To illustrate this further, we have
selected the top five 2018 SCOPUS-indexed journals, from
which we gathered a sample of 116 research articles that were
published between 2016-2018, to shed light on some of the
most recent research trends in media studies. The definition of
media used by the articles contained in our sample shows that
there is a technological and modernity-driven spectrum which
is fundamental in defining what is and what progressively
is no longer labelled, and hence considered, media. This
understanding of the media fails to include forms of mass
communication that go beyond the media in its western liberal
form and, consequently, exclude subaltern voices, knowledges
and messages
e as missões que se inserem no sistema da ajuda internacional, usando, para tal, dois conceitos: ideologia e tecnologia.
in post-war settings has strictly followed liberal
assumptions and practices. Efforts to build and
shape the media in the aftermath of armed conflict
are no exception. In setting the foundations for
the rule of law, liberal democracy and free market,
external actors have (re)defined what constitutes
the mediascape – that is, the various spheres of
communication within public discourse – and how to
(re)construct it. Imprinted with modernity’s tenets
and western assumptions about the public space, this
approach has understood the mediascape narrowly
as limited to traditional, established, liberal media,
serving to validate particular actors and processes
whilst obscuring, neglecting and shutting off global
diversity. Law and technology, this paper argues, are
the two main axes through which legitimation and
exclusion are effected. A myopic focus on legal and
technological aspects of the media reduces a rich
space of local discourses, norms and practices to
western-like media legislation, training and outlets,
narrowing in turn the sites for addressing violence
and building peace.
information and communication softwares and
devices that can produce, gather, store, analyze,
and share information over the Internet. The term
includes devices such as smartphones, animal
chips, GPS, and drones, as well as crowdsourcing
and crisis mapping software, to name but a few.
What these “new technologies” have in common
is their digital nature, their data-based and datadriven activity, and their immediateness, interconnectivity, and traceability. These specific features
and the possibilities they entail have
been influencing the way conflicts – the
management of opposite positions through the
explicit use of violence – are waged, prevented,
and approached in order to be deconstructed,
solved, and, ultimately, overcome.
giving campaign – in its engagement of men as involved, non-violent fathers for the
advancement of gender equality in six Latin American countries – Brazil, Chile, Guatemala,
Mexico, Nicaragua, and Uruguay. According to this study, fatherhood is a key entry point for
discussions around household labour, childcare responsibilities, and gender equitable
relationships. It can also serve as a gateway to involve men in other domains concerning
gender equality. By analysing each country’s approach and implementation of the MenCare
campaign, this study draws lessons learned from the best practices and innovations of each
case in order to inform future programming on men’s caregiving in different contexts across
the region and globally.
(De)Othering: Deconstructing Risk and Otherness: hegemonic scripts and counter-narratives on migrants/refugees and ‘internal Others’ in Portuguese and European mediascapes
November 18 and 19, 2021, 09h00
Online (1st day) || Online + CIUL | Centro de Informação Urbana de Lisboa (2nd day )
Overview
The project’s Final conference aims to present its field work in dialogue with members of its consultants, advisory board, and other stakeholders. Its team will thus discuss findings and published insights with activists, journalists, artists, early career scholars and intellectuals from the five case studies: Portugal, Italy, Germany, France and the UK. In this conference, organised with the collaboration of ITM (the Inter-Tematic research group on Migrations at CES), the first day – entirely online – is dedicated to the internationalisation of the project's research, and the second – mixed format: hosted by the CIUL Lisboa and also accessible online – is dedicated to Portugal.
Day 1 - 18 November 2021 | From 09:00 (GMT)
To enter in the zoom room
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88605558713?pwd=SHBzRzFtZ0RLSk93VWVTQldLdDhwZz09
ID: 886 0555 8713 | Password: 193779
Day 2 – 19 November 2021 | From 09:30 (GMT)
CIUL – Centro de Informação Urbana de Lisboa + | Free registration, but mandatory > [email protected]
To enter in the zoom room
Online
zoom | https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87392343510?pwd=cFp4emg3R09qaEY2blpjUHdYMWtNQT09
ID: 873 9234 3510 | Password: 368095
Activity within the research project «(De)Othering | Deconstructing Risk and Otherness: hegemonic scripts and counter-narratives on migrants/refugees and 'internal Others' in Portuguese and European mediascapes» (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029997)