Presentation

The group of researchers and lecturers listed below, led by Loreto Corredoira (UCM), has been awarded the Jean Monnet Chair Decoding-i-Disorders (European Information Law Responses: press, audiovisual and social media) (Project number: 101238458) under the ERASMUS-JMO-2025-HEI-TCH-RSCH Call for the 2025–2028 period. This Chair will continue to work in collaboration with the Complutense Observatory of Disinformation, founded by Corredoira together with Rafael Rubio in 2020 through the national project SN-Disorders and currently continued through Dir-Politics. Several academics are involved in both initiatives (Serrano, Moreno, Gutiérrez, Rubio, Coello, Abaurrea, Gaete), as well as scholars from other institutions such as Congosto, Fernández, Cetina, and Horska.

The Jean Monnet Chair Decoding-i-Disorders has as its main objective contributing to the improvement of digital competences in education and training, one of the priorities identified by the Council of the European Union (2023). To this end, we work to identify the factors that hinder undergraduate and postgraduate students ability to access reliable information, communicate effectively, exercise their rights, critically consume content, and create or share digital educational materials.

Since 2020, our team has specialized in the analysis of information disorders and their impact on democratic processes, as evidenced by the work carried out by the UCM Observatory of Disinformation. This experience enables us to address phenomena that threaten the functioning of liberal democracies and that are amplified through digital tools and platforms, generating hostile narratives that are difficult to detect and counter. We also study the expansion of hate speech in digital environments. Although these spaces are conceived to guarantee freedom of expression, they frequently become settings in which essential values such as dialogue, tolerance, and respect for diversity are weakened. The spread of racist, xenophobic, or homophobic content is increasingly common on social media, and its regulation represents a growing challenge. Academic research agrees on the importance of strengthening media and ethical literacy to confront this phenomenon.

In line with Erasmus+ priorities, the second objective of this Chair is to support digital transformation and contribute to addressing emerging social challenges, such as artificial intelligence and disinformation. To this end, we rely on a highly specialized teaching team in Information Law, Journalism, and Sociology. Europe needs education systems that are prepared for the challenges of the digital era. Our project responds to this demand from the oldest School of Communication in Spain, where we are promoting new methodologies and forms of learning. The planned activities will reach approximately 2,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, in addition to around 500 people who will participate in complementary training actions. The proposal builds on the experience of eight permanent professors in Information Law and Constitutional Law, together with the more than 30-year trajectory of the Chair Director in Internet Law (Cyberlaw Clinic: https://www.ucm.es/cyberlaw ). We integrate results from two previous national projects (SN-Disorders, 2020–2023; Dir-Politics, 2023–2026), directed or co-directed by Professor Loreto Corredoira, in which researchers such as Drs. Rubio, Serrano, Moreno, Bel, and Cetina participate, as well as doctoral candidates Abaurrea and Gaete, whose work can be consulted through the Observatory of Disinformation.

This team has consolidated over time. It originated within the Complutense research group on democracy and technology (Rubio, 2005), grew through the projects of the DerechoTics Network (directed by Cotino Hueso), and was strengthened by the Cyber-Elections project of the Next Generation EU programme (co-directed by Rubio and Coello from Portugal), which concluded in 2024. Based on this experience in research and teaching, we start from the evidence that disinformation has a significant impact on electoral processes—as seen in Brazil and Romania—and generates public concern and new regulatory responses. The European regulatory package framed within the Digital Strategy will serve as a key reference. Nevertheless, we identify less attention to the study of these phenomena when they occur in Spanish. For this reason, our research will focus on Spain and Latin America, without losing sight of its European dimension.

Chairholder

Loreto Corredoira, PhD.

Loreto Corredoira is a tenured Full Professor of Information Law (Constitutional Law) at the Faculty of Information Sciences, Section and Department of Constitutional Law, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She holds a PhD in Information Law and a Law degree. She is a qualified lawyer (non-practising) and a journalist. She has been a Visiting Fellow at the Universities of Berkeley and UCLA, California. She has coordinated several key books on Internet Law, information freedoms, and the guarantees of a free press in democracy. She has served as a visiting professor in Chile, Peru, and at Syracuse University (New York). She has advised the Spanish Parliament, the Parliament of Peru, and Directorate-General X of the European Union on Internet policy. She is a specialist in Information Law and has recently worked on research lines and seminars on disinformation, fake news, and liability on social networks. She is the author of ten books (two as co-editor), has coordinated six volumes, and has written more than forty articles or book chapters on media law, the press, and social networks (especially Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube). She is a contributor on legal issues to newspapers and journals and the director of the blog Cyberlaw.ucm.es, which has been online for 22 years.

Team

The team of the Jean Monnet Chair Decoding-i-Disorders brings together established specialists in communication law, journalism, sociology, media history, and digital analysis, alongside early-career researchers in training. Their work is structured around the areas of democratic governance, media regulation, media literacy, and the analysis of disinformation, integrating national and European competitive research projects.

Académicos

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  Loreto Corredoira (UCM)
  Chairholder. 
  Professor of Information Law and principal investigator of national projects on institutional guarantees, electoral oversight, and disinformation.

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  Isabel Serrano (UCM)
  T1.2 Lead
  Professor of Constitutional Law and Information Law. She leads teaching innovation initiatives in podcasting and the UCM group on digital participation and regulation.

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  Ángela Moreno (UCM)
  T1.2 Staff
  Professor of Information Law. She leads innovation projects on cinema and the teaching of law, and participates in competitive projects on electoral oversight and disinformation.

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  Elisa Gutiérrez (UCM)
  T1.4 Lead
  Professor of Communication Law and Advertising Law.

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  M.ª Antonia Paz (UCM)
  T1.3 & T1.5 Lead
  Professor of Journalism and History of Television. Principal investigator of the national project Defying Hate.

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  M.ª Dolores Cáceres (UCM)
  T1.3 Staff ; Chair quality assessment.
  Professor of Sociology and lecturer in Communication Theory. Member of the national project Defying Hate.

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  Rafael Rubio (UCM)
  T1.6 Staff
  Professor of Constitutional Law. Co–principal investigator of the CYBER-ELECTIONS project and of the national project on institutional safeguards against disinformation.

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  José M.ª Coello de Portugal (UCM)
  T1.6 Staff
  Associate Professor of Constitutional Law and Vice-Rector for Institutional Relations at UCM. Researcher in projects on electoral cybersecurity and disinformation.

PhD candidates

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  Jorge Abaurrea (UCM)
  Doctoral candidate and lecturer. Specialist in digital media and marketing. His dissertation analyses the implementation of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive in Spain.

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  Catalina Gaete (UCM)
  Doctoral candidate and journalist. Chair webmaster. UCM predoctoral researcher (2024–2027). Member of the national project on electoral oversight and disinformation.

Visiting Faculty and Experts

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  Ignacio Bel (UCM)
  Emeritus Professor of Information Law and a leading author in journalistic ethics.

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  Arturo Gómez (ESIC/UCM)
  University lecturer and journalist, with teaching experience in Spain and Latin America. T1.6 Expert.

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  Rodrigo Cetina (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
  Researcher in Communication Law, visiting scholar at UCM, and Chair of the Law Section at IAMCR. T1.6 Expert.

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  Kataryne Horska (Taras Shevchenko University, Ucrania)
  Professor and specialist in legal journalism. T1.6 Expert.

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  Carmen B. Fernández (DatastrategIA, Venezuela)
  PhD in Political Communication and international expert in strategic communication. Curator of the Task newsletter. T1.6 Expert.

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  Mariluz Congosto (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)
  Researcher at the Department of Telematics, specialist in social media analysis and virality dynamics. T1.6 Expert.