Sebastián Valenzuela
Sebastián Valenzuela is an Associate Professor in the School of Communications at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He is also an Associate Researcher with the Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data (IMFD), Principal Investigator for the Millennium Nucleus on Digital Inequalities and Opportunities (NUDOS), and Chief Science Officer for the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE). Additionally, he serves as associate editor for Human Communication Research and the International Journal of Public Opinion Research.
His research primarily focuses on the intersection of media, politics, and society, with a particular emphasis on digital political communication. His work consistently explores topics such as media effects on individuals' political knowledge, attitudes, and behavior; the spread of misinformation and strategies to counter it; and the evolving media landscape, including the role of new media technologies in shaping news consumption patterns.
Valenzuela has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications. In 2021, he co-authored the third edition of "Setting the Agenda: The News Media and Public Opinion" (Polity Press) with Max McCombs. His research has garnered awards from the International Communication Association (ICA), the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR), and the Association for Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). Some of his work has been featured in international media outlets such as The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, the New Yorker, Huffington Post, and NPR, as well as in specialized publications including Journalist’s Resource, The Conversation, and Fast Company. Both in 2020 (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000918) and 2023 (http://doi.org/10.17632/btchxktzyw.6) he was ranked as one of the most cited authors in communication science.
From 2018 to 2019, Valenzuela served as Tinker Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Previously, he was an Associate Researcher with the National Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN), editor-in-chief of Cuadernos.info (Latin America's leading communication journal), and chair of the Latin American advisory committee for Social Science One.
Valenzuela is on the editorial boards of several scientific publications, including the Journal of Communication, Digital Journalism, Political Communication, and the International Journal of Press/Politics. He is actively involved in professional associations such as ICA, WAPOR, AEJMC, and the Chilean Association of Communication Researchers (INCOM).
He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses related to his areas of expertise, including mediated communication theory and social media.
Valenzuela earned his Ph.D. in 2011 from the University of Texas at Austin, focusing on political communication and digital media. He previously earned an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin on a Fulbright scholarship, and a Journalism degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Before entering graduate school, he worked for several years as a journalist for in Santiago, Chile.
Supervisors: Maxwell McCombs and Homero Gil de Zúñiga
Phone: +56 2 354 19 59
Address: Facultad de Comunicaciones,
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile,
Alameda 340, 7° piso
Santiago, C.P. 8331150
Chile
His research primarily focuses on the intersection of media, politics, and society, with a particular emphasis on digital political communication. His work consistently explores topics such as media effects on individuals' political knowledge, attitudes, and behavior; the spread of misinformation and strategies to counter it; and the evolving media landscape, including the role of new media technologies in shaping news consumption patterns.
Valenzuela has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications. In 2021, he co-authored the third edition of "Setting the Agenda: The News Media and Public Opinion" (Polity Press) with Max McCombs. His research has garnered awards from the International Communication Association (ICA), the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR), and the Association for Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). Some of his work has been featured in international media outlets such as The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, the New Yorker, Huffington Post, and NPR, as well as in specialized publications including Journalist’s Resource, The Conversation, and Fast Company. Both in 2020 (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000918) and 2023 (http://doi.org/10.17632/btchxktzyw.6) he was ranked as one of the most cited authors in communication science.
From 2018 to 2019, Valenzuela served as Tinker Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Previously, he was an Associate Researcher with the National Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN), editor-in-chief of Cuadernos.info (Latin America's leading communication journal), and chair of the Latin American advisory committee for Social Science One.
Valenzuela is on the editorial boards of several scientific publications, including the Journal of Communication, Digital Journalism, Political Communication, and the International Journal of Press/Politics. He is actively involved in professional associations such as ICA, WAPOR, AEJMC, and the Chilean Association of Communication Researchers (INCOM).
He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses related to his areas of expertise, including mediated communication theory and social media.
Valenzuela earned his Ph.D. in 2011 from the University of Texas at Austin, focusing on political communication and digital media. He previously earned an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin on a Fulbright scholarship, and a Journalism degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Before entering graduate school, he worked for several years as a journalist for in Santiago, Chile.
Supervisors: Maxwell McCombs and Homero Gil de Zúñiga
Phone: +56 2 354 19 59
Address: Facultad de Comunicaciones,
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile,
Alameda 340, 7° piso
Santiago, C.P. 8331150
Chile
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Papers by Sebastián Valenzuela
an issue with key policy-making implications: Mexican immigration. Results indicate conservative Republicans are more likely to watch FOX News, which is associated with negative perceptions of Mexican immigrants and higher support for restrictive immigration policies. Findings also suggest that liberals who get exposed to FOX News also show less support for Mexican immigration.
2012), este trabajo dará cuenta de que la exposición a contenidos noticiosos sobre delincuencia en Chile sí está asociada a percepciones de las personas en torno al problema de la seguridad ciudadana, aunque en forma moderada y menos significativa que otros determinantes actitudinales, de predisposición política, vulnerabilidad y experienciales. Con ello, la percepción frente al crimen aparece situada en la realidad social y delictual, en tanto no se puede inferir que la representación que realiza la televisión sobre la delincuencia se desarrolle con total independencia a la ocurrencia real del crimen, y que la exposición a medios de comunicación sea la única causante de las opiniones de la ciudadanía sobre el tema, sino que emerge como un factor más –entre otros determinantes sociales– que actúa de manera heterogénea según el tipo de actitud o juicio ciudadano. Estos resultados han sido alcanzados a través de un trabajo conceptual y metodológico que integra múltiples indicadores y metodologías acordes a los desafíos que impone un fenómeno complejo como la opinión pública sobre la delincuencia. En particular, se realizó (1) un análisis de contenido de amplio alcance sobre la presencia de la delincuencia en los noticieros centrales de la TV chilena entre 2001 y 2012; (2) un análisis de series temporales sobre la relación entre los noticieros y la evolución del temor y preocupación por la delincuencia en encuestas públicas agregadas entre 2001 y 2012; y (3) una encuesta original a más de 1500 personas realizada a mediados de 2012 que estima a nivel individual los determinantes de la opinión pública sobre delincuencia, especialmente los asociados al consumo de medios. Con estos datos se examina hasta qué punto son aplicables algunos aspectos de las teorías de cultivación (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan y Signorelli, 1994; Romer, Jamieson y Aday, 2003), como los efectos de la TV en juicios de primer y segundo orden (Shrum, 2004), y de la agenda setting de primer nivel, referida a la influencia de los medios en la agenda temática de la opinión pública (Gross y Aday, 2003; Lowry, Nio y Leitner, 2003; McCombs, 2004; Scherman y Etchegaray, 2013). El propósito, en este caso, es explicar la opinión pública chilena en torno a la delincuencia, poniendo especial atención al tipo de percepciones más proclives a verse influidas por los medios de comunicación.
A continuación revisaremos los principales hallazgos de las investigaciones realizadas a partir de la encuesta “Jóvenes, participación y consumo de medios” entre 2009 y 2012. El análisis de estos resulta- dos lo dividiremos en cuatro áreas: a) medios de comunicación y participación electoral; b) medios de comunicación y participación no institucional; c) diferencias de Facebook y Twitter en su impacto sobre la participación política; d) otras variables de interés.
Finalmente, se analizará la consistencia de los hallazgos obtenidos en las distintas investigaciones desarrolladas a partir de la encuesta y se discutirán las principales áreas donde sería recomendable concentrar los futuros esfuerzos de investigación.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses cross-sectional Latin American Public Opinion Project survey data from 2012 representing the adult population of 17 Latin American countries. It presents binary logistic regression models with protest participation as the dependent variable, social media use for political purposes as the main independent variable, control variables, and interactions.
Findings – Using social media for political purposes significantly increases protest chances – it is the second strongest predictor. Additionally, social media reduces protest gaps associated with
individuals’ age, gender, psychological engagement with politics, and recruitment networks.
Originality/value – First, the paper shows that the contribution of social media to collective protest travels beyond advanced democracies – it also holds for more unequal regions with weaker democratic trajectories like Latin America. Second, it shows that social media may mitigate participatory inequalities not only, as shown by past research, regarding institutional participation (e.g. voting), but also regarding contentious tactics.