Conflictivitat comunicativa en episodis d'emergència : aproximació a la cobertura informativa i a la gestió institucional de l'esfondrament d'un túnel del metro al barri del Carmel de Barcelona

Abstract

The present study analyzes information production and institutional communication management during emergencies; particularly, negotiations among those affected, information sources and the deontological ethics involved in informing the public. As a case to study the dynamics of such a scenario, we chose the collapse of the underground tunnel in the Carmel neighborhood of Barcelona, in January 2005, which we approached from a multidisciplinary theoretical perspective. We considered certain theoretical sociological postulates put forth by authors such as Beck, Giddens, Lash and Luhman, thus providing comparison between the concept of modernity and a new paradigm that Beck referred to in 1998 as the society of risk. Also taken into account in our study were perspectives from the standpoint of sociology of communication and communication theory in particular, journalism theory and public relations theory.