Audiovisual Narrative

Storytelling is an essential urge of the human nature.

The human being is, as defined by Walter Fisher, a narrative animal. We invent and tell stories in order to make sense of the world around us, our society, our lives; to criticize, escape from or construct the reality we inhabit.

Cinema is, of course, the most common and also popular type of audiovisual fictional narrative. In my courses, I go with my students through the history of cinema analyzing film styles and genres. We discuss stories and how those stories both reflect and create the cultural values of the time.

I am especially interested in movies that deal with mass communication. There is a rich tradition of films that delve into the media industry. The filmmakers study through their characters’ fates the nature of mass communication and how media shape the life of the people who work for them or are exposed to them. Filmmakers do not want to establish theories, systematic explanation of what Mass Communication is and how it works. Their approach is much more intuitive. Narrators usually have a stronger sensibility that allows them to cast a personal glance on the issues they touch and describe in their stories. I analyze how advertising, public relations, TV, Radio or even film are portrayed in the media. All of them are professional fields with a tremendous impact on individuals and society. Most of those movies offer an excellent working material to discuss and understand the theoretical work of classic authors in Mass Communication. It is always insightful to measure to what extent the intuition of the filmmakers coincides with the observations of the experts in the field.New digital technologies are deeply affecting the way we produce and consume audiovisual stories nowadays. Larger screens and sophisticated sound systems allow us to have a truly cinematic experience in our living room. Traditional TV stations are forced, in a frantic race to keep the audience, to offer contents that live up to the new expectations of the audience. TV series, such as The Wire, Breaking Bad, or The Sopranos, combine complex contents and sophisticated aesthetics in a way that had been for many years exclusive for cinema.

Selected Publications

El Concepto y La Vivencia del Honor en Sagas Criminales Contemporáneas: Un Análisis de las Series Televisivas The Sopranos, The Wire y Sons of Anarchy. Revista Internacional de Humanidades. 11, 2. 2024. doi:/10.18848/2474-5022/CGP/v11i02/59-76

City and Fate: The narrative Function of the Baltimore’s Visual presence in The Wire. The International Journal of the Image, Volume 8, Issue 1

Bienvenidos a la máquina: Un estudio comparativo de la educación en el Baltimore ficticio y el Hartford real. In The Wire University. Ed. J. Cigüela, J. Martínez Lucena. Barcelona: Editorial UOC. 2016.

Visual Popular Culture and Political Power. Via Panorâmica, Via Panorâmica: revista de estudos anglo-americanos (Volume integral – série III, nº 3, 2014. Universidade do Porto, Portugal. Peer reviewed. Available online at