María del Pilar Martínez-Costa

María del Pilar Martínez-Costa is Associated Professor of Journalism at the School of Communication of the University of Navarra. Since 1994 her research has been focused on the processes of innovation, production, contents, distribution and marketing of digital media, and also the trends in audio and radio storytelling. Actually, she is Coordinator of Digital News Media Group and member of the Center for Internet Studies and Digital Life, whose mission is to foster research on the forms and impact of digital activity in the complex, changing field of communication.
Degree in Information Sciences (1990) and Doctor in Communication (with Honors, 1994) from the University of Navarra. Her doctoral thesis was about Transformations of sound broadcasting in Europe: scenario for the introduction of digital satellite radio. This work received ‘Apto Cum Laude’, and an award from the Center d'Investigació de la Comunicació de Catalunya in 1996. In 2005, she obtained from the National Agency for the Evaluation of the Quality of Teaching (ANECA) the accreditation ‘Profesor de Universidad Privada’ and in 2013 the corresponding accreditation as ‘Profesor Titular de Periodismo’.
She has published more than 50 articles in national and international indexed publications, such as Media and Communication, Communications, Hypertext, AdComunica, Profesional de la Información, Comunicar, Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación, Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, Comunicación, Estudios del Mensaje periodístico, International Journal of Hispanic Media, Revista de la Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación, Comunicación y Sociedad, Recherches en Communication, Anagramas, Doxa, Global Media Journal and The Radio Journal. She has published more than 48 book chapters in prestigious publishers, and she is author or co-author of 3 books and 6 editions or book coordinations. Her book La radio en la era digital (El País Aguilar, 1997) is a reference for national and international researchers. At the same time, she has presented papers and communications in nearly 80 national and international conferences. She has directed 5 PhD dissertations, and currently is supervising another 1. As director of doctoral theses, she has contributed to the training of young researchers and has contributed to their academic development by accompanying them in their first speeches at conferences and high-impact publications.
She has participated in 9 research projects, four of them with national public funding and and in two of them she has been Main Researcher: Digital native media in Spain: characterisation and trends - DIGINATIVEMEDIA (RTI2018-093346-B-C3, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades/FEDER); Uses and information preferences in the new media map in Spain (CSO2015-64662-C4-1-R MINECO/FEDER); Innovation and development of cyber media in Spain (CSO2012-38467-C03-02); and Evolution of Spanish cybermedia within the framework of convergence. (CSO2009-13713-C05-03). As responsable investigator, she has contributed to consolidate research groups and to develop the professional careers of her teams. She is part of the group RRSSalud - Dynamics of dissemination in social networks of false news about health (2020-2022), with the support of the BBVA Foundation, where she investigates the type and dynamics of the dissemination of false health news on social networks in Spain. Since september 2021, she is member of the IBERIFIER - Iberian Digital Media Research and Fact-Checking Hub (2021-2024; ref. 2020-EU-IA-0252), project funded with 1.47M€ by the European Commission under the call CEF-TC-2020-2 (European Digital Media Observatory). She has participated in three competitive projects funded by the Research Plan of the University of Navarra (PIUNA). She has been an evaluator of the ANEP and the AVAP.
She has developed an intense undergraduate and postgraduate teaching activity, well valued by the students, at the University of Navarra and other national and foreign centers. Over the last 25 years she has held relevant university leadership and management positions: Secretary of the Culture and Audiovisual Communication Department (1995-2000); Secretary (2000-2004), Vice Director (2004-2005) and Director (2005-2008 and 2014-2020) of the Journalistic Projects Department; and Vice Dean of Students and Academic Organization of the School of Communication, University of Navarra (2008-2014).
She holds three six-year research periods (1995-2004, 2005-2010 and 2011-2019) awarded by CNEAI, the Spanish National Commission for the Evaluation of Investigative Activity.