Just over three decades ago, Jesús Martín Barbero (1989) spoke of the need to shift the concept of communication to the concept of culture. He talked about moving from a concept of communication caught in the problem of media, channels and messages, to a concept of culture in a more anthropological sense that allows us to think about the new processes of socialization. Processes through which society is reproduced with its codes of perception, assessment and symbolic production of reality. These allow us to think about communication processes from the problems and operations of social exchange, from their identity matrices and from conflicts that articulate culture (Martín-Barbero, 1989), a culture seen as a driving force of society and the economy. For its part, Bustamante (2008) leads us to seek an expansion of communication and culture:
(…) that carries with it a cultural and informative democratization not only of the consumer's ability to choose (on different merchandise), but also of authentic citizen pluralism, which is necessarily based on maximum diversity of creative voices and expressions of social life values (ideology) accessible to the whole society. (p. 24)
Meanwhile, Carey (2008) argues that communication is not merely the transmission of information, but broadens its definition by including the ability to unite people by remembering the link between communication and community, which is culture. Thus, communication cannot be reduced solely to symbolic exchange because it also includes the material, emotional and affective dimensions that shape how meaning is shared and transformed over time and space. In summary, culture is not an epiphenomenon of values and norms that shape human behavior, but is entangled and represented through different moods, beliefs, desires and practices through which order is imposed upon chaos and uncertainty (Blue, 2019).
This monographic number 18 of Obra Digital clearly shows that the displacement that Martín-Barbero (1989) refers to has happened and that we think of culture with its processes of socialization and codes in a broader sense, far from being trapped in communication as a purely media problem. Our first article takes as its main theme the educational digital games, about which Sánchez i Peris (2015) commented:
The use of game methodologies for “serious work” is an excellent way to increase concentration, effort and motivation based on recognition, achievement, competence, collaboration, self-expression and all educational potentials shared by ludic activities. (p. 13)
Within these "serious works" for which the methodology of the game is used, we present an analysis on gender, technology and video games. On the other hand, the article we publish on culture, heritage and tourism as fields of study for communication presents us a systematic review of recent Hispanic literature. This allows us to observe the increase in research and publication of topics on this area. Literature is also present in the article with the representation of women as a cultural historical subject in two literary works: No me agarran viva by Claribel Alegría and Darwin J. Flakoll; and La mujer habitada by Gioconda Belli. On the other hand, the oral tradition of some groups of the Amazon in this era of globalization is addressed in an article that comes to us from the Czech Republic, highlighting the dangers they are in and the importance of their conservation as a fundamental part of a cultural wealth that belongs to the planet.
The creativity put at the service of the most vulnerable is shown in the article: Innovation conceived as resistance in design: a twist in the concept in contrast to the guidelines of the Oslo Manual. This article presents a design case of a type of adjustable size sandal designed for children living in extreme poverty. Finally, our miscellaneous section presents two articles that we invite you to read. The first is about the university fact checking of the presidential debate in Chile 2017 and the second is about a characterization of the master's program degrees in mathematics in Brazil.
Thus, this monograph on “Communication and Culture”, corresponding to the months of February - August 2020, presents eight articles sent from five countries (Portugal, Czech Republic, United States, Brazil and Chile) and published in its original versions in Portuguese, Spanish and English. In addition, they are presented in a full version in English for greater reach and dissemination. It is a small window to everything that communication and culture, as intimately linked issues, present to us today. We hope you enjoy them.
References
Blue, G. (2019). Science communication is culture: foregrounding ritual in the public communication of science. Science Communication, 41(2), 243-253. doi: 10.1177/1075547018816456
Bustamante, E. (2008). Comunicación y cultura en la era digital: industrias, mercados y diversidad en España (Vol. 24). Editorial Gedisa.
Carey, J. W. (2008). Communication as culture, revised edition: Essays on media and society. Routledge.
Martín Barbero, J. (1989). Comunicación y cultura. Telos, 19, 21-26.
Sánchez i Peris, F. J. (2015). Gamificación. Education in the Knowledge Society, 16(2), 13-15.
