Free lectures examine press as witness to history
The University of Girona's Hipòlit Nadal i Mallol Chair in Journalism and Catalan Magazines has launched a public lecture series titled 'The Press as Witness to History'. The series, supported by the Girona branch of the Col·legi de Periodistes, runs from October to November 2026 at the Casa de Cultura de Girona and aims to deepen understanding of contemporary history through journalistic sources. The programme encourages critical media literacy, analysis of the relationship between information, power and society, and reflection on how media shape collective memory. It also explores the press's active role in major social and political transformations of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Full schedule of speakers and topics
The lecture series begins on Tuesday 13 October at 11:45 with journalist Francesc Canosa Farran discussing 'The press as an ideological apparatus of the state'. The following week, on 20 October, journalist and historian Gil Toll presents 'The power of major publishers'. On 27 October, historian Quim Nadal Farreras speaks on 'The press and the construction of Catalan identity'. In November, journalist Sílvia Espinosa Mirabet leads a session titled 'When paper felt the radio' on 10 November. The series concludes on 17 November with historian Josep Lluís Martínez Masferrer examining 'International news in La Vanguardia during late Francoism'.
All events take place at 11:45 in the Aula Magna of the Casa de Cultura de la Diputació de Girona. Attendance is free and open to the public. The series is organised in collaboration with the Catalan Society of Communication and the Casa de Cultura de Girona.
Primary sources: udg.edu. Reported by periodistes.cat, gerio.cat, lesrevistes.cat, form-compare.sc.staging.imprs.app, premsacomarcal.cat, casadecultura.cat, intranet.casadecultura.org, intranet.casadecultura.cat, Col·legi de Periodistes de Catalunya.
