Department: Information and Communication Sciences Department

Unit: Culture, creativity, social justice, critical thinking, humanities

Research group: GAME Learning, Media and Entertainment Research Group

Email: darandaj@uoc.edu

Doctor by the Universitat Ramon Llull with the thesis Estudis de recepció i consum cultural Comunitats interpretatives i fans. El cas de Gran Hermano. 2007. Supervised by Dr. Josep Lluis Fece Gómez.

My research focuses on the analysis of digital cultural consumption from a sociocultural perspective, exploring how people—particularly young individuals—interact with media and digital entertainment in their everyday lives. I address topics such as gaming, media literacy, popular culture, and leisure, paying attention both to reception practices and to processes of domestication and re-signification. This approach seeks to understand how these experiences shape individual and collective identities, as well as their potential for social participation and citizen empowerment. My work is situated within a critical framework that challenges the ideological and economic structures of the current media ecosystem. Drawing on the non-media-centric paradigm, I am particularly interested in incorporating material, historical, and geographical dimensions into media studies, as well as reflecting on the concept of technodiversity.