Variety of Media Systems in Third-Wave Democracies

The number of comparative studies in the field of political communication increased considerably after Daniel Hallin and Paolo Mancini's publication of comparing Media systems. In this book, four dimensions are used to distinguish between the media environments in western countries around the year 2000: press market development, parallelism between parties and media outlets, state intervention in the realm of media, and levels of journalist professionalization. The authors conclude that in western Europe and North America three types of media systems coexisted: a polarized pluralist model (in southern Europe), a democratic corporatist model (in scandinavia and some western European countries), and a liberal model (Canada, USA, Ireland, and the UK). Within this framework, both Portugal and Spain are described as polarized pluralist media systems, given their weak press markets and low patterns of journalistic professionalization, as well as strong state intervention in the realm of media and parallelism between media outlets and political parties.

An Ever-Shadowed Past? Citizens’ Attitudes towards the Dictatorship in Twenty-First Century Portugal

Several years after the transition to democracy, positive attitudes towards the authoritarian past are still observable in Portugal: the belief that the previous regime had more good things than bad things is expressed by about one-fifth  of the Portuguese. What explains this nostalgic sentiment? Are factors such as socialisation under the regime, party identification or religiosity more important than satisfaction with democracy and the state of the economy? The empirical analysis suggests that the relevance of these factors varies considerably, but socialisation phases lead to different stances on the past both in routine times and in times of economic crisis.

Mediadores culturais em Portugal: perfis e trajetórias de um novo grupo ocupacional

O principal objetivo deste artigo é estudar os indivíduos que intervêm em atividades de mediação cultural. A nossa atenção circunscreve-se a mediadores que trabalham em serviços educativos e em programas promovidos por políticas públicas. O estudo recai sobre percursos de um conjunto de mediadores, tendo sido realizadas entrevistas aprofundadas. A análise salienta dois aspetos: por um lado, constata-se que é diverso o grau de centralidade deste trabalho nas trajetórias, e por outro verifica-se uma convergência nos atributos considerados cruciais para o desempenhar. O artigo ensaia um esboço de diversos perfis, ressaltando a heterogeneidade do trabalho de mediação das artes em Portugal.

Portugal's Quota-Parity Law: An Analysis of its Adoption

In August 2006, Portugal approved a new quota law, called the parity law. According to this, all candidate lists presented for local, parliamentary, and European elections must guarantee a minimum representation of 33 per cent for each sex. This article analyses the proximate causes that led to the adoption of gender quotas by the Portuguese Parliament. The simple answer is that the law’s passage was a direct consequence of a draft piece of legislation presented by the Socialist Party (PS), which enjoyed a majority. However, the reasons that led the PS to push through a quota law remain unclear. Using open-ended interviews with key women deputies from all the main Portuguese political parties, and national public opinion data, among other sources, the role of four actors/factors that were involved in the law’s adoption are critically examined: notably, civil society actors, state actors, international and transnational actors, and the Portuguese political context.

O discurso sobre o estado vegetativo nas notícias online em Portugal

Tese de mestrado, Bioética, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, 2014