Jose David Ortega

Profile

I have over three years experience in the field of strategic and corporate communications. Prior to joining the PhD, I worked for GlaxoSmithKline as a Communication and Public Relations analyst designing and implementing internal and external communication strategies (including media relation plans). I hold a BA in Communications from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and a MA in Public Relations and Society from the University of Leeds.

Research interests

The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - FARC - carried out a peace process that put an end one of the longest civil wars in recent history. After five years of intense negotiations, that included a plebiscite in which majorities rejected what had been accorded, both parties came to a historical agreement that was finally approved and ratified by congress.

My research project, then, attempts to analyse the degree to which the peace dialogues between FARC and the Colombian Government were mediatized, and how, if at all, this process influenced the peace negotiations. By employing a mediatization theoretical framework and following its institutionalist tradition (particularly the mediatization of politics), the research will mainly look at the dynamic relationship between journalists and politicians (including communication advisors) to understand the way in which ‘media logic’ and ‘political logic’ interacted with one another during the negotiations. Therefore, the ‘professionalization’ of political communication and ‘journalism culture’ notions will also be used to inform the study in regards the interplay between the strategies employed by the government to deal with the media during the peace process and the news production routines embraced by Colombian journalists to cover the negotiations (respectively).

Qualifications

• MA Public Relations and Society (University of Leeds)
• BA Communications (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana)