A team led by the Faculty of Communication at the University of Navarra will investigate how controversies surrounding diversity and representation arise, transform, and amplify in audiovisual fiction. The REFIGURA project is funded by the State Research Agency under the 2025 Knowledge Generation Projects call from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
Alberto Nahum García, a professor at the Faculty of Communication and the project's principal investigator, explained, “Our hypothesis suggests that many identity conflicts in audiovisual fiction do not arise solely from a clash of values, but from an intensification of interpretative conflicts, caused by failures in aesthetic mediation.”
The initiative will evaluate whether some of the backlash faced by certain films and series can be attributed not only to ideological disagreements but also to issues in how the story is told or promoted. This includes mismatches between what the promotional campaign promises and what the work delivers, as well as inconsistencies in its narrative construction. In essence, the study will explore the impact of aesthetic mediation on cultural controversies within the audiovisual environment.
To test this premise, the team will relate three elements of each work: the promise made by the official promotion, the form of the production, and the audience's response. In their analysis, researchers will look for three types of fractures: narrative inconsistencies, emotional dissonances, and breaks in the audience's identification with characters. They will then examine whether the public detects, discusses, or amplifies these fractures in public discourse.
The study will compare between 10 and 12 Disney productions released from 2015 to 2025, including live-action versions of The Little Mermaid and Snow White, alongside two or three Spanish cases that have sparked debate over representation, diversity, or historical fidelity.
With the findings, REFIGURA aims to develop an evaluation model to identify potential mismatches in the development and promotion of content that could provoke adverse reactions or image crises. This model will be tested with professionals from the Spanish audiovisual sector, such as Ramón Campos, executive producer at Bambú Producciones.
The project also seeks to provide social returns. Identifying which formal aspects of a work contribute to controversies can help clarify the terms of disagreement in public debate and develop media literacy resources.
The team includes researchers from the University of Navarra, Rey Juan Carlos University, Universitat Politècnica de València, Francisco de Vitoria University, Carlos III University, The University of Queensland, and Queensland University of Technology in Australia. The Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Institute (DATAI) at the University of Navarra will provide technical and computational support.
