Proyects

Transmedia Gender & LGBTI+ Literacy (TRANSGELIT) was an interdisciplinary research project within the fields of Communication and Education. Its main objective was to research and develop innovative educational proposals to address the affective and sexual education of adolescents and young people from a critical, inclusive and transfeminist perspective. To this end, the project focused on analysing representations of gender and sexualities in the media and how these influence young people’s perceptions, identities and experiences.

TRANSGELIT adopted an ethnographic approach, based on the principles of short-term ethnography (Pink and Morgan, 2013). To this end, various methodological tools were employed: reflective and participatory workshops, co-viewing workshops, audiovisual creation workshops and interviews. This strategy enabled a predominantly qualitative approach, based on active collaboration with adolescents, who participated as co-researchers and co-creators of the products and resources developed.

Throughout the project, educational materials were designed for use in both formal and non-formal school settings. One of the main outcomes was the production of the White Paper, which brings together theoretical frameworks, empirical findings and practical recommendations aimed at teachers, researchers and professionals in the fields of education and communication. We also produced an Educational Kit, a teaching resource that combines media literacy tools, transmedia narratives and participatory activities, with the aim of fostering critical reflection on gender, sexualities and affections among adolescents in formal educational settings. We also produced the feature report ‘Media and Sexualities: The Voices of Young People’. In the report, three young people explain their experiences with affective-sexual education through the media. Guillem talks about pornography and dating apps, Laia explains the world of video games and gaming, and Ona reflects on fictional TV series.

CanVIHa el rostre is a project funded by the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI) that investigated the knowledge, attitudes and prejudices of young people in Catalonia and Spain regarding sexual health. It also explored the media references young people draw upon when thinking about and making sense of their sexuality and sexual health, and the false myths these references generate. The project’s findings gave rise to the video podcast L’Estigma No És Sexi (@estigmanoessexi), whose aesthetic and thematic approach emerged from a process of action research involving young people in Barcelona.

‘Creating Feminist Audiovisual Content: Promoting Audiovisual Culture with a Gender Perspective’ (CAVGEN) was a project carried out at the University of Barcelona, which aimed to incorporate a feminist and gender perspective into university teaching and audiovisual culture. Its main purpose was to create feminist audiovisual content that reflected on the representation and presence of women and men in audiovisual and interactive media. These materials were produced with the active participation of students from the Faculty of Information and Audiovisual Media (FIMA) and were disseminated via an open-access digital repository.

The project was framed within a Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology with an ethnographic focus, combining participant observation, field diaries and a qualitative socio-semiotic analysis of the audiovisual pieces created. This approach enabled the integration of research, teaching and social transfer, promoting a more equitable and critical media culture.

Throughout the project, workshops on audiovisual creation with a gender and feminist perspective were held, led by experts and partner organisations such as Dones Visuals and La Bonne (Francesca Bonnemaison Women’s Cultural Centre). These activities gave rise to a variety of audiovisual pieces developed by students on the Audiovisual Communication and Digital Information and Documentation Management degree courses, with the support of FIMA’s Centre for Audiovisual Production and Entrepreneurship (CPEA).

CAVGEN made a significant contribution to integrating gender, feminist and LGBTI+ perspectives into university-level communication studies, promoting more inclusive and equitable representations in students’ audiovisual productions. It also highlighted the importance of involving all students, particularly those who do not initially feel drawn to feminism, in participatory processes of creation and critical reflection on gender inequalities in the media.