PROJECTS

ObCom - Intermunicipal Public Communication Observatory

ObCOM defines itself as an observatory on the communication of public policies developed by the 21 inter-municipal communities spread across mainland Portugal. It provides a non-profit service that aims to play an important role in terms of documentation and information, by collecting, systematizing and critically reflecting on the quality and effectiveness of the communication of public policies to the population in the different regions of the country.

SPECULUM – Filming and looking at oneself in the mirror: the use of self-writing by Portuguese-speaking documentary filmmakers

The project "SPECULUM – Filming and looking at oneself in the mirror: the use of self-writing by Portuguese-speaking documentary filmmakers" is funded by the Science and Technology Portuguese Foundation (EXPL/ART-CRT/0231/2021) and is dedicated to research the autobiographical cinema made by women in Portugal and Brazil. We start from the hypothesis that some women documentary filmmakers have been assuming self-writing, the narration of their private histories and the search for their own definitions as a means of artistic expression that we understand to be important to analyse and creatively encourage.

MEDIATRUST.LAB - LOCAL MEDIA LAB FOR CIVIC TRUST AND LITERACY

MediaTrust.Lab is a pioneering study on disinformation in proximity contexts in Portugal, which will seek to identify and analyze fact-checking strategies and practices by regional media journalists and the potential collaboration of audiences in the process. Through training, promotion of digital tools and apps, this action-research project also aims to educate journalists and the public to fact-check more effectively and efficiently

Strategic Communication Conference

Under the theme "Public and Political Communication", the Strategic Communication Days will be a forum of excellence where academics and professionals from different countries will debate the importance of communication in mobilising citizens on issues of collective interest. Communication is proving increasingly fundamental to strengthening democracy, providing the public with clarification on public policies and electoral processes.

Remedia.Lab – Laboratório e Incubadora de Media Regional
Remedia.Lab aims to contribute to the diagnosis of the current situation of regional media, promoting experimental tools and strategies to strengthen its business model, increase the degree of innovation and improve its relationship with the public.
EMaDeS- Energia, Materiais e Desenvolvimento Sustentável – Work Package 4 (WP4)
EMaDeS – Energy, Materials and Sustainable Development is a research project that, through highly innovative processes, aims to increase scientific knowledge in areas related to energy, materials and sustainable development and, subsequently, transfer the generated knowledge to the industrial fabric of the Central Region, thus contributing to improve the productivity and competitiveness of industries in this area of ​​the country.
AKADEMIA – Tecnologia da informação e novas formas de jornalismo on-line
The Akademia project was the initial project of the LabCom genesis in 2000. Its main objective was to explore new types of journalism based on new information technologies.
BOAL – Online Audio Book Library
The main objective of the BOAL project is to promote the reading of classic Portuguese authors, through a new form of access – online access.
Communicating science and publishing cultures in the humanities
Communicating science involves complex procedures, even when this knowledge is presented to specialized audiences and scientists. This complexity has been little studied in Communication Sciences and is the main interest of this project.
Information and Persuasion on the Web
The research group “Information and persuasion” aims to study the various ways in which, in various areas, information and persuasion play a relevant role.
Media, Citizenship and Proximity
The Media, Citizenship and Proximity project had 4 main objectives:
1. Observe civic and community media in order to identify, analyze and discuss their importance in public participation in a context of proximity.

2. Discuss the conditioning factors of regional and community media;

3. Create a proximity media observatory;

4. Develop a citizens' forum, creating a space where the associative structures of civic society and local and regional institutions can debate issues of public interest.
Media, receção e memória: público feminino no Estado Novo

The project “Media, reception and memory: female audience in the Estado Novo” aims to launch research on the history of media reception in Portugal – a well-studied field – through a series of case studies on media reception (press , radio and television) by women between the 30s and 60s, in a context of female cultural subordination.

New media and politics: citizen participation on Portuguese political party websites

The aim of this project is to investigate whether the participation allowed to citizens by Portuguese political party websites meets their expectations.

Citizen's Agenda Project

The Citizen's Agenda Project intends to study some concrete procedures developed by public journalism, at the level of the regional press, in order to understand if there is going to be an effective reinforcement of democratic deliberation in the public sphere.

Public and Private in Mobile Communications

The objective of this project is to identify how cultural, ethical and political uses and attitudes towards mobile and online communications are articulated with the notions of public and private in different generations; namely with regard to the production, dissemination and reception of messages by audiences, including especially iconic messages.

Documentary Film Theory and Aesthetics

The main objectives of the Theory and Aesthetics of Documentary Film Project are to contribute to the dissemination of film studies already carried out or still ongoing in Portugal, Brazil and Spain and to develop the theory and aesthetics of cinema, reactivating it with special emphasis on documentary cinema.