Until just a few months ago, I was not sure about the approach I wanted to give my final grade work. I had always wanted to do it related to some type of empirical research with which to be able to provide some revealing information within the area of advertising communication, because I don´t like the financial aspects related to marketing and business creation.
I considered doing it about the rise of the extreme right; advertising communication from companies such as Mercadona (which do not broadcast advertisements on television); and I even valued doing it about the commercials and their communicative efficiency, but seeing the extension of the project and my limited research environment, I preferred to leave it behind. It was not until my university offered a collaboration grant in the Department of Communication when I decided that it was best to focus on the research they were doing at that time on the reputation in the third sector.
At first I thought about doing it related to the reputation variables and that my research served to complement that of the department, but the metrics do not end up getting my attention either and it still seems to me a very commercial aspect and far from the functions that are actually performed In the third sector. Even so, the notoriety did seem more relevant and related to the advertising career, so my main interest was on the top of minds of Spanish NGOs.
I chose Proactiva Open Arms because throughout the summer I was very attentive to the refugee crisis and the obstacles that were imposed on the organization to be able to carry out its rescue work in the Mediterranean Sea, which generated a constant tension, and more with the investiture debate that at that time was being forged in the Congress of Deputies.
I think it is worth studying how an organization with a staff that does not exceed 10 people have been able to be on the Spanish media agenda for almost more than two months, involving actors from various political ideologies and all kinds of fields, such as Santiago Abascal, Richard Gere or James Rhodes, among others. It was thanks to a tweet from the latter when I understood that Open Arms was not a simple rescue boat like the Aquarius under the MSF organization, but operated as an independent NGO and was open to donations to continue with its work. I do not know to what extent the media treatment affected that aspect, beyond the yellowness and superficiality with which they treated such a social aspect and as urgently as that of a humanitarian crisis.
For now, I have not inquired much more in the investigation. Now that I have time is when I am reviewing all the documents in detail to start writing the study framework and delimiting the field of research, but I have a real interest in knowing if my hypothesis is correct and if the message has similarly penetrated my environment despite the fake news and facing the attempts by the media and journalists to discredit the humanitarian work they do. Luckily, the truth always ends up winning and justice is already sought in the Spanish courts (Gutiérrez, 2019).
Guitérrez, E. (2019). Òscar Camps (Open Arms) denuncia a Periodista Digital y OK Diario por acusarle de "negrero" y "esclavista", En línea. Disponible en: https://www.eldiario.es/desalambre/Oscar-Camps-periodistas-comunicacion-intromision_0_978502247.html. Recuperado el 30 de diciembre de 2019.
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