Research Outputs

The dataset integrates the Portuguese funded project “Female Online Participation: redefining the public sphere” (2010-2011). The team has focused on a variety of online public spheres, ranging from the traditionally political to the more unconventional political. The diverse case studies that integrated this project were subjected to a common analysis grid, with variables designed to define the discursive mode of the messages exchanged in the analysed fora, such as rationality of argumentation, civility or degree of rational legitimacy, among others. In this particular case, we chose to observe the readers’ comments in the news focused on the Brazilian presidential campaign, taking mainly into account the research of Tsaliki and other theoretical/empirical proposals that incorporate Habermas’ ethics of discourse in the analysis of online political forums. Additionally, we aim to introduce new dimensions for both theoretical and empirical researches on this matter, in order to seek for complementary academic approaches that go beyond habermasian ideals of deliberative democracy. The Brazilian presidential campaign gained substantial journalistic coverage in Portugal (71 articles in Público online; and 60 news stories in Expresso online), due to the cultural proximity news value. We have focused only on the articles (six) that received the greatest number of comments in both websites; we have analysed 303 readers’ comments (139 in Público and 164 in Expresso), using Nvivo, a qualitative and quantitative data analysis software. The unit analysis chosen for coding was the paragraph; each one was coded into one or more categories/subcategories. We also observed the word frequency among the readers’ comments analysed. Restricted access - COST members only (corpus will be made available on the restricted area)

This corpus consists of a collection of tweets of Members of the European Parliament and candidates at the European Elections of 2014 and 2019, coming from Belgium, France, Spain and the United Kingdom. The tweets are classified per account. Restricted access - contact author for more information or specific conditions

This databases consists of newspaper articles that were published in Croatian newspapers and that were related to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) issues between 2002 and 2013 - this is the period between first ever Croatian Pride Parade in 2002 and the referendum for constitutional definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman in 2013. The articles were published in nine Croatian newspapers (24sata, Glas Slavonije, Globus, Jutarnji list, Nacional, Novi list, Slobodna Dalmacija, Večernji list, Vjesnik) during perods of the increased public interest in LGBT-related issues: Pride Parades (Zagreb 2002-2013, Split 2011-2013), International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT; 2005-2013), pertinent parliamentary sessions (Same-sex Unions, Gender Equality and Family Law in 2003, Medically-Assisted Reproduction in 2005, Registered Partnership in 2006, Anti-Discrimination and Gender Equality in 2008, Medically-Assisted Reproduction in 2009, 2011 and 2012, Anti-Discrimination in 2012), and the key events of the 2012/2013 sex education campaign and the 2013 marriage referendum campaign. For regular or announced events (e.g. Pride, demonstrations) the coverage typically includes the week before and after the event. For parliamentary debates, press conferences and similar events, the coverage is examined for reactions during the event and in the week afterwards. Some time-limited events (e.g. IDAHOT) were covered only for that day. Restricted access - contact author for more information or specific conditions

Interviews were conducted with Maltese participants in Malta, concerning their views on the integration of Arabs. The interviews were aimed at eliciting the main claims and argumentation structures of participants concerning integration. Interviews were analysed using argumentation analysis (Sammut et al., 2018). The interviews were conducted in Maltese and subsequently translated into English.

Interviews were conducted with Arabs in Malta, concerning their views on the integration of Arabs in Malta. The interviews were aimed at eliciting the main claims and argumentation structures of participants concerning integration. Interviews were analysed using argumentation analysis, based on Sammut et al. (2018) and further work. The interviews were conducted in Maltese and subsequently translated into English.

EU legislation, EU soft law instruments, EU press releases = data is available on EUR-lex, website of DG COMM of the European Commission. The data are in English but official EU translation are available through the EU websites (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/homepage.html; https://ec.europa.eu/info/about-european-commission/contact/press-services/press-releases-and-notifications_en). When data is transcribed by researcher (in case of interviews), it cannot be made publicly available.

Post-level data of posts made by a series of european parties - from AT, BE, CH, DE, DK, ES, FR, GB, HU, IL, IT, MT, PT, RO, RS, SE and TR - to Facebook. Metadata includes text, datestamp and N of engagement (such as likes, shares and so on) that each post had yielded at the time of archiving. See https://socialscience.one/crowdtangle-codebook for information on metadata, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444819887700 for an example of analysis that is possible. Please note that similar data can be collected from Instagram and that data collection is quick and therefore can be repeated if need be. Restricted access - COST members only (corpus will be made available on the restricted area)

The interviews were conducted in the period of my post-doctoral research (2012-2015), which focused, among other aspects, on the Portuguese journalists’ views and attitudes on audience participation, particularly online comments. The main purpose of these interviews was to explore the ways by which diverse Portuguese print media outlets are handling audience participation in the online environment, drawing on the perspectives of journalists and editors-in-chief in what concerns their practices, self-perceptions, expectations and policies on user contributions management strategies, workflows and relationship with the audience and editorial/corporate goals and interests. All interviews took place in Lisbon, lasted between 1 and 2 hours and were recorded electronically. I have the audio files (but not the transcripts). Restricted access - contact author for more information or specific conditions  

The corpus describes the main arguments found in French articles based on a research on Europresse. We selected articles based on keywords (carbon+capture+storage and/or geological+storage). We coded each article depending on the actors mentionned in the text (one line per actor) and the arguments they broadcasted. Arguments which were not attached to a specific actor were attached automatically to the journalist. The corpus shows aggregated arguments but we started from a variety of arguments and then synthetized them into broader categories. Restricted access - contact author for more information or specific conditions

Interviews by researchers to migrant women with children; participants come from different countries and all live in the greater London area (UK, 2010-2012). Interviews are focused on inner dialogue and argumentation in processes of personal decision-making.