Media are the instruments of identities, cultures and civilizations construction. And also the scene where these are represented. The construction of a particular culture has an impact on how people interpret this culture, their own and also the foreign ones. In today's multicultural and globalized context, the representation of cultures is an essential element in this interpretation and has an impact on how individuals from different cultures interact. The construction of an Alliance of Civilizations (or, alternatively, the clash between them) is strongly influenced by the media as noted by the Research Base for the High-level Group Report. Analysis on Media (Alliance of Civilizations Secretariat, United Nations).

Most Spanish research from the last 10 years have treated cultural diversity in the media focussing almost exclusively on immigration. The limitations of this kind of approach are i) refer to a very specific, partial and singular topic and ii) the construction of images of civilizations and cultures goes far beyond the phenomenon of immigration.

The project proposes a broader approach, focusing on the civilization and culture, based on media as a builder of stories about civilizations and cultures. Specifically, the goal at the end of the project will be to have better communication strategies for intercultural communication. To do so, it is required to knowledge of how cultures and civilizations are represented by television, citizens and experts. How can it be considered a dialogue of civilizations without deepen into the representations of these three actors?

This shift moves away the project from the most research developed in the last ten years. But preserving, however, this body of knowledge and extending their reach, using larger current and generic categories, both in the methodology and in the object of study. This research is innovative and interdisciplinary. The expected impact of the project is i) to allow relating the analysis of television news discourses, interpretations of the citizen and expert opinion on the subject, ii) to identify if there are dissociations between the discourse of the media, the interpretation of citizens and the experts opinion, iii) to define communication strategies more favorable to the construction of realities that favor homogeneous social and political objectives for intercultural relations.