Team

Fernanda Pires (Principal Investigator) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Her research interests include algorithmic and media literacy, platform labor, and users’ media practices in digital environments.

Celina Navarro (Principal Investigator) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where she currently serves as Deputy Director for Faculty and Research. Her research focuses on digital platforms from a gender perspective and audience media practices.

Alanis Esther Marin Chan. PhD student in Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Master’s degree in Audiovisual Communication and Advertising Content at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Bachelor’s degree in Radio, Film, and Television Production and Direction from the University of Panama.

Gustavo Almeioda. Brazilian Communication professional since 1998, with extensive experience in public and private television, working as a producer, director, live broadcast director and manager, as well as a university lecturer at private institutions. He holds a Master’s degree in Communication and a Bachelor’s in Radio and Television from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE/Brazil).

Currently at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), he is an associate professor in the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, a member of the ALCOM research group, and a PhD candidate. His research focuses on the relationship between contemplative self-awareness practices and the digital platformization culture. Since 2012, he has served as Production Director at the UFPE’s University TV and Radio Center. He has worked at TV Globo Nordeste, TV Jornal/SBT, and was president of the state-owned enterprise – Empresa Pernambuco de Comunicação/EPC – responsible for the public broadcaster TVPE. He directed the documentary “Babá Paulo Braz – Conexão Ifé”, filmed between Nigeria and Brazil, and has taken part in various cultural and audiovisual advisory boards in Pernambuco, Brazil

Lluc Massaguer is a graphic designer (Eina – UAB), holds a PhD in Education (UAB), and is an associate professor in the Studies of Information and Communication Sciences at UOC, where she teaches in the fields of design, visual creation, and graphic production. She is a member of the Mediaccions Research Group (UOC), where she conducts critical studies in culture, design, and digital communication. Her research focuses on the intersection of design, teaching, and accessibility. In this regard, she collaborates with the Teaching Innovation Group Adaptabit at the University of Barcelona (Universitat de Barcelona).

Willian Fernandes Araujo is an Assistant Professor in Digital Journalism at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Information from the same institution. His research investigates digital platforms and algorithms, examining technological mediation, governmentality, and algorithmic literacy.

Priscila Álvarez-Cueva has recently joined the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising as a Serra Hunter Lecturer. She previously held a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral research fellowship at the Faculty of Information and Audiovisual Media at the University of Barcelona. She is also a visiting professor at the University of Porto (Portugal) and KU Leuven (Belgium).

She is a member of the Research Center in Information, Communication and Culture (University of Barcelona) and the Rotterdam Popular Music Studies group (Erasmus University Rotterdam). Her work has been published in high-impact journals such as Sex Roles, Sexuality & Culture, and Social Inclusion, among others. Her research interests encompass gender studies, cultural studies, and communication, with a particular focus on youth and decolonial perspectives.

Xavier Ribes Guardia. Associate Professor in the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). He served as the Rector’s Commissioner for the Information Society at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona from 2012 to 2016, where he coordinated the university’s educational project for the creation of online courses on the Coursera platform (https://www.coursera.org/uab). He was Director of the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising (2022–2024) and currently serves as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences at UAB.

As a researcher, he is a senior member of the Image, Sound and Synthesis Research Group (GRISS) and the Center for Research and Studies for an Inclusive Society (CERSIN), both based at UAB. His main research interests include the Internet, radio, interactivity, video games, artificial intelligence, and technological innovations applied to the media.

Di Jia is a PhD candidate in the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Hispanic Linguistics from Beijing Jiaotong University and a Master’Degree in Social Communication Research from Pompeu Fabra University. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the practices of travel bloggers on YouTube (Spain) and Bilibili (China), as well as their interactions with each platform’s algorithms. Her research interests include digital culture, platform studies, and the practices of creators with intercultural identities, approached from qualitative perspectives.

Jon Dornaletetxe. Senior Lecturer. PhD in Communication Sciences with a European Mention from the University of Valladolid (UVa), with a thesis entitled “Narrative and Rhetoric in Cinematic Trailers.” He teaches the module Editing and Multimedia Montage on the Master’s in Film, Communication and the Audiovisual Industry, as well as Introduction to Communication Technologies on the Undergraduate Degree in Advertising and Public Relations at UVa.

His main areas of interest include semiotics, rhetoric, etymology, audiovisual language, graphic design, musical composition, internet culture, and the use of gamification in educational projects, among others.

Gemma San Cornelio is a Full Professor in the Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), where she teaches and conducts research in the fields of communication, design, and visual culture.

She currently serves as the Academic Director of the Master’s Program in Design, Visual Identity, and Brand Construction, and she is the coordinator of the research group Mediaccions: Critical Studies in Culture, Design, and Networked Communication at UOC.

Her scholarly work has been widely published, focusing on creative practices and participation in digital media, personal narratives, art and identity on the internet, and, more recently, forms of environmental activism on social media platforms.

Dr. Òscar Coromina is a Serra Hunter Lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, specializing in digital methods applied to research. He holds a PhD in Communication Content in the Digital Era, and his work focuses on the analysis of social phenomena at the intersection of technology, media, and society.

His scholarly production addresses topics such as the creator economy on YouTube, algorithmic mediation, and the role of social platforms in shaping public narratives. He is recognized for his innovative approach to digital methods, data visualization, and participatory research practices such as data sprints, with his findings regularly published in high-impact international academic journals.

He is currently a member of the Science and Technology Studies – B Research Group at UAB and actively collaborates with international institutions and research teams. Previously, he served as a Senior Lecturer at Malmö University (Sweden).

Andrea Angulo. Researcher and lecturer. Holds a PhD in Communication from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (2024), a Master’s degree in Cultural Studies with a specialization in Communication from Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar (UASB) (2016), and a Bachelor’s degree in Communication with a focus on Journalism from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE) (2014). Her academic work focuses on the reception processes of music on digital platforms from a Cultural Studies perspective. She has worked as a research assistant in the Communication area at UASB and is an associate researcher at the Latin American Institute of Arts Research (ILIA) at Universidad de las Artes. Currently, she is a full-time professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at Universidad UTE.

Carles Llorens Graduated in Information Sciences in 1992 from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), he also holds a PhD in Audiovisual Communication from the same university since 2001, with a thesis on media concentration and pluralism in Europe. Since January 2003, he has been an Associate Professor of Audiovisual System Structure at the Faculty of Communication Sciences at UAB. From 2010 to 2013, he was the Degree Coordinator of the Audiovisual Communication program, and from 2013 to 2020, he served as Vice Dean of the Faculty. Subsequently, he was the Coordinator of the Doctoral Program of the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, and since 2024, he has been the Director of this department. His main research interests include media concentration in Europe, radio in Catalonia, and EU communication policies. He was a ‘Marie Curie’ Fellow from 1996 to 1998 at the Centre de Recherches Informatique et Droit (CRID) of the University of Namur in Belgium. He was also an “Academic Visitor” at the University of Oxford, at the Center for Socio-Legal Studies, from March 2006 to February 2007, and a visiting professor at the Mohyla-School of Journalism in Kiev, Ukraine, in 2013.

He has been a member of the consolidated research groups of the Autonomous University of Barcelona GRISS since 1998 and a collaborator with INCOM since 2005. Additionally, he worked as a journalist from 1993 to 1996 at Europa Press, Marca, and Onda Cero Barcelona—Onda Rambla. He is a member of the academic communication associations as ECREA and IAMCR.

Liana Haygert Pithan. PhD candidate and holder of a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), with an emphasis on human resources management and labor relations. Her research focuses on the intersection between social media platforms and professions — both traditional and emerging ones — and on the unique aspects of labor management exerted by these platforms on their users. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) and in Management Processes from Uniftec University Center, bringing over 20 years of experience as a hard news journalist, having worked for regional newspapers and a national digital news outlet.

Adrián Padilla (PhD, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2023) is a communication researcher and lecturer specializing in the social, cultural, and political impact of digital platforms and emerging media. His academic work focuses on the analysis of digital audiences, disinformation, and algorithmic mediation in environments such as YouTube, Twitch, and X (formerly Twitter), using computational methods, digital methods and digital ethnography.

He combines a strong technical foundation in programming (Python), data mining, and big data analysis with a critical perspective rooted in communication theory and science and technology studies (STS). Currently a full-time faculty member at Euncet Business School (UPC), he also collaborates with interdisciplinary research teams and projects funded by public institutions. Member of UAB-GRISS research group.