http://dx.doi.org/10.15198/seeci.2017.43.170-171
REVIEW

SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM. VOLUME II
Beatriz Peña Acuña and Juan José Jover López (Coord.)
ACCI Editorial Publishing House, Madrid, 2017

Graciela Padilla Castillo¹

¹Complutense University of Madrid. Spain. gracielp@ucm.es

Professors Peña Acuña and Jover López coordinate the second volume of a valuable and interesting collection on Specialized Journalism. As in the previous installment, they have the contributions, in the form of chapters, of professors and academicians from several countries of the world, including India. These names and institutions include: David Caldevilla (UCM), Francisco Cabezuelo Lorenzo (UCM), Adolfo Carratalá (University of Valencia), Juan Enrique Gonzálvez Vallés (CEU San Pablo), Devesh Kishore (Indian Institute of Mass Communication), Tasha Singh Parihar (Amity School of Communication) and Monica Viñarás Abad (CEU San Pablo). The reader will find a work that is necessary, timely and relevant to the times of current Specialized Journalism, where the audience wants to be informed about very diverse fields and, therefore, the journalist or communicator must have the tools and skills to write on broad and segmented fields at the same time. This multitude of topics, approaches and news forces the professional to have multidisciplinary training, according to what readers, spectators, listeners, followers and netizens demand.
According to what the book wisely points out in its first pages: “Specialized Journalism is the point of intersection of Social Communication and Science. Its contents are elaborated by professional mediators who use journalistic routines and language. This kind of journalism links the scientific community with the general public, and vice versa” (page 13). It also argues, considering the idea in the previous paragraph: “The advance of science and technology, transdisciplinarity, thematic pluralism in the contents of media communication, increasing accessibility to cyberspace, uncertainty, bewilderment, urgency and the implication to certain phenomena of the event forces journalists to chose an increasingly divided field” (page 15).
After this intelligent and inescapable introduction, Carlos Lozano Ascensio (King Juan Carlos University) and Marcia Franz Amaral (Federal University of Santa María), the one who approaches the work, whether a teacher or a student, will find information, history, recommendations, analysis, case studies and academic and professional perspectives from different fields of Specialized Journalism; which deserve to be analyzed and presented in well-defined chapters. They are, in order of appearance: Journalism specialized in Information on the European Union; re-specialization of sports information and communication facing the second wave of social networks; treatment of vulnerable groups in Society Journalism; opportunities of the independent local environmental journalist on the Internet; and researching-through-databases journalism.
To share some examples, although all are especially interesting, the chapter on Journalism specializing in Information on the European Union states: “The EU is unique. The communication of its activities and nature requires a specialization. If we reduce it to a mere transmission or retransmission of messages issued by politicians, to a mere mediation, it will be an easy task, but it will no longer be information, it will be propaganda” (page 25). According to this idea, the author adds: “The media must be aware of the transcendence of the process of European integration. Media editors face the challenge of increasing and fostering interest in community issues in order to increase knowledge of them, since it is current relevant news with many repercussions for citizens. Greater priority must be given to the European issues” (page 45).
Later on, the chapter on social networks and sports delves into the paradigm shift in this field: “The presence of sports stars in these social networks is indicative of their eagerness to control the flow of their messages and not depend on third parties that can modify or subtract the information” (page 69). Thus, the reader will be able to understand and analyze, on these pages, a new current communicative reality that is far from old outdated practices that do not take into account the customs of the audience.
In another chapter, which is especially interesting to teachers of ethics and professional deontology of Communication, their authors delve into the treatment of information where the protagonists are immigrants, LGBT people, people with disabilities, people affected by pathologies, minors, elderly, women involved in prostitution and the homeless. And they state: “The information of Society can be a result of the actions of civil or organized society (associations, groups and entities that know how to channel their demands and act as a counterweight to the State and the market) and the actions developed by the invertebrate or unorganized Society (sectors characterized by living outside of social structures and away from the associative fabric due to lack of opportunities or self-determination” (p. 75).

Graciela Padilla Castillo