Journalism in the Age of Hybridization: Los Vagabundos De La Chatarra ÂŒ

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Journalism in the age of hybridization: Los vagabundos de la chatarra – Comics journalism, data, maps and advocacy

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Miren Gutiérrez, María Pilar Rodríguez and Juan Manuel Díaz de Guereñu Universidad de Deusto

Journalism in the age of hybridization: Los vagabundos de la chatarra – comics journalism, data, maps and advocacy

Abstract Keywords The process of hybridization has pervaded all fields of human communication; hybridization journalism and activism are no exceptions. An example is the graphic project Los data activism vagabundos de la chatarra, an editorial undertaking that comprises observations, graphic novel drawings, data, a map, a video and accounts of the people who gathered and sold maps scrap metal for a living on the edges of Barcelona during the economic crisis that journalism started in 2007. This exploration is conducted and communicated in an extremely comics journalism hybrid manner: it visualizes data on a map, it strives for social change, it is jour- critical cartography nalistic and it has a comic design face. Relying on media literature and critical data studies, discourse analysis and qualitative interviewing, this article examines the multifaceted shapes that activism and journalism are taking in complex times and explores the potential for subversion that such formats offer. The findings suggest that activists and journalists around the world are embarking on unapologetic hybridization, crossing lines between journalism, campaigning and art.

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Introduction The graphic non-fiction journalistic advocacy report Los vagabundos de la chatarra (Scrap Vagabonds) is the result of a year-long project, from 2012 to 2013, that has produced a graphic book and a website showing commen- tary, a video and a map visualizing geolocated data (Norma Editorial 2015). The editorial project by journalist Jorge Carrión and illustrator Sagar Forniés includes observations, interviews and accounts of people who gathered and sold scraps of metal for a living during the economic crisis on the edges of Barcelona. The heart of the graphic novel is an occupied warehouse in Puigcerdà street in Poblenou (a vast neighbourhood of Barcelona), where a metal scrapping community of about 300 people, both nationals and immi- grants, lived. In Spain the number of court-ordered home evictions for non-payment of mortgages, rent or other legal reasons reached 67,189 in 2013 (Hernández 2014). The repossession of homes by banks does not necessarily translate into a cancellation of the former owner’s debt, as in other countries. By 2012, Spain’s unemployment rate reached 24.4 per cent, doubling the eurozone average (House and Roman 2012). Hopeless nationals together with immi- grants, who had contributed to the previous welfare, started to leave by the hundreds of thousands. By 2011, the total number of people leaving the country (Spaniards and non-Spaniards) had overtaken the number of arrivals, and Spain became a net emigrant country (Izquierdo et al. 2015). Those affected by the crisis who could not afford to leave had to fight for survival. Barcelona was heavily hit, and social gaps escalated. For example, neighbourhoods with very low incomes went from eight in 2007 to nineteen in 2014, and neighbourhoods with very high incomes went from five to eight (Ajuntament de Barcelona 2014). Although in Spain waste has been reduced

Source: Norma Editorial (2015). Figure 1: Los vagabundos de la chatarra.

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since 2003, we still produce about 460 kilograms of garbage per inhabitant per year (Cerezo 2015), of which nearly 3 per cent are metals (UNED 2002). Metal scrapping was precisely one of the activities that thrived in Barcelona during the crisis (Blanchar 2012). Being a semi-clandestine occupation, there is no official information about the number of people dedicated to this activity, but police reports on eviction operations in occupied buildings across Barcelona – such as the warehouse in Puigcerdà street that is the focus of Carrión’s and Forniés’s book – quoted by media, point to about 600 people solely to metal scrapping in 2015 (Altimira 2015). The recycling of metal scraps is a significant activity in Spain, and Barcelona is a crucial enclave regarding the numbers of companies dedicated to it, sales volume and people employed (UGT and MCA 2010). Los vagabundos de la chatarra was produced using journalistic techniques, including interviews, observations from reality and investigative techniques. However, the way of communicating the results of journalistic research is innovative because it incorporates a map geolocating and sorting the scener- ies of the graphic novel, pioneering the fusion of data and cartoons in Spanish (see Figure 4). As a result, the project can be interpreted through several approaches: the journalistic angle, the comic design angle and the activist angle. This article looks at the different readings that this work offers, focusing on the following research questions:

RQ1: what does hybridization mean for journalism today? RQ2: how is hybridization found in ‘comics journalism’ and other close activities such as advocacy?

This study’s methodology includes: a content and discursive analysis of the book that is the centre of the article, and qualitative interviewing of the authors of the book to probe the formula proposed by their work and ponder about its effectiveness and replicability. Accordingly, semi-structured interviews with open-ended queries were fashioned about the RQs and sent to the authors of the book (Flyvbjerg 2000). For example, one of the questions was ‘how have you mixed the methods from “comics journalism”, interactive mapping and advocacy in this book?’. The book is examined from the perspectives of journalism, comics and activism in three separate sections. This article includes an analysis of the book’s ‘Epilogue’ and reflects on the power of graphic expression and art to develop critical thinking and to promote social transformation in times of crisis. The conclusions bring the article to an end.

The age of hybridization In genetics, hybridization means crossbreeding, mixing different species; in the context of this article, hybridization refers to the crossing of lines dividing genres, styles, repertoires of action and methods from journalism and activism. The result of hybridization is a cross-genre. Hybrid types are not new in literature; one of the most quoted examples is William Blake´s Marriage of Heaven and Hell (Blake [1790] 1975), composed in the early 1790s, which mergers engravings, poetry and prose. Although there is no consensus, hybridization in journalism could have emerged in the United States with the rise of the docu-soap (a portmanteau of ‘documentary’ and ‘soap opera’) in the 1990s (McNair 2009), which not only

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integrated the language of TV dramatization into journalism, but also blurred the lines dividing fiction and non-fiction, producing a ‘bastard union of several forms’ (Lünenborg 2002: 2). Since the 1990s, many forms of hybridization have been tried with the intention of communicating journalistic truths more effi- ciently, among them comics journalism. Dan Archer, a pioneer, is currently experimenting with immersive techniques, such as virtual reality (2017). The multifaceted nature of Los vagabundos de la chatarra calls for a theoretical examination of hybridization in different fields. First, hybridization in narrative and graphic genres has been linked to the crisis of news media organizations, the overlapping global socio-economic crisis and the technological progress. From this point of view, hybridization has been seen as a digital technology-related phenomenon (Madeira 2012: 87); as a product of the creative processes unleashed by crises (European Association of Social Anthropologists 2010); and as the result of cultural amal- gamation and globalization (European Commission 2014). Second, although Los vagabundos de la chatarra is not a data activist project, it shows some characteristics of data activism. Hybridization is one of the attributes found in ‘proactive data activism’ – understood as activism that uses the data infrastructure (i.e. interactive cartography) politically and proactively to foster social change (Milan and Gutierrez 2015). A study based on 40 cases and 30 qualitative interviews concludes that proactive data activists are ‘unapologetic and natural hybridisers’: business models, contents, repertoires of action, organizational structures, activities and objectives are constantly mixed depending on what the circumstances allow or demand (Gutierrez 2018). Heaney and Rojas conclude that ‘hybridization can augment the ability of social movement organisations to mobilize their supporters’ (2014: 1047). Third, science and policy are increasingly resorting to illustrations, easily tweetable infographics and poignant images to communicate complex research. For example, graphic facilitation is being used to guide scientific discussions on climate change and development (Arnau 2015), without lessening any of their rigour. Co-founder and chairman of the Gapminder Foundation Hans Rosling is probably one of the most well-known pioneers of this approach, mixing humour, charts and scientific evidence and statistics (Art in Science 2014). Los vagabundos de la chatarra is a perfect example of a cross-breed, as it shows hybridization at two levels. From the perspective of format, it mixes data and cartoon drawings, journalism and advocacy, blending some of the repertoires of action and conventions of journalism, comics and activism. Carrión, interviewed for this article, says:

The format was dictated by how flexible and effective it was to communicate complexity and how adequate it was to deal with people who might be intimidated by cameras […]. We are transmedia readers, and it is normal that our storytelling had resorted to any tool at hand to communicate the story.

Although different authors have different understandings of what transmedia is, it can be considered a practice of telling a story across multiple platforms and formats using digital technologies (Heick 2013). From the perspective of the story, it affords a number of interpretations as well: it is a chronicle on the recycling of metal waste; a Baumanian urban portrait of poverty and marginalization (Bauman 2007), with homelessness, junkyards

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and squatting as backdrops; an anti-tourist guide; and an essay about the miseries of Barcelona’s model of economic development (Ajuntament de Barcelona 2014; Buesa 2014). It is a journey across an unseen city that makes us aware of our reality through a powerful alliance between a graphic novel, data and journalism. The hybridization that can be observed in this project is the result of several factors, one of which is a vacuum left by the massive dismissal of journalists, and declining circulation and advertisement sales (Asociación de Periodistas 2015; Lorenz 2012). For a year, riding their bicycles, Carrión and Sagar (Forniés) interviewed people, visited metal scrapping sites, drew sketches, took notes and got data about the ‘scrap drifters’ of the crisis hitting Barcelona, and composed the work under consideration here. No media organization had dedicated a full year to observe and report on the stories of the ‘scrap drifters’ before. Similarly, in countries where data journalism has not been yet embraced by news media and journalists, individual citizens, artists and civil society organizations are filling the gap, producing the data for journalistic contents that the traditional journalists are not generating. In Spain, NGOs are practising more data journalism than journalists themselves (Gutierrez 2018). The civil society organization Civio – which provides data-based content and training – is an example (2017). Its projects include ‘El Indultómetro’ (‘The Pardonmeter’), dedicated to registering all the inappropriate legal pardons favouring corrupt officials. Most of these efforts are devoted to portraying the economic crisis and political decay in Spain, and demanding transparency and fairness, crossing lines between advocacy and journalism. Los vagabundos de la chatarra takes this trip from the other side of the equa- tion: starting from journalism, their authors cross the threshold of advocacy. This venture began with the idea of exploring the world of metal scrappers in the context of the economic crisis in a conventional story for a newspaper, La Vanguardia, but evolved quickly into a bigger project in the form of a book and a website, says Carrión in his interview for this article. The medium was dictated by the subject, and not the other way around. Sagar explains that drawings were the only option to illustrate this work since the introduction of cameras in a junkyard full of squatters who were occupying a building would have intimidated the interviewees and hampered the interviews (Constenla 2015). Although this is not a full-blown data activist undertaking, Los vagabundos de la chatarra exhibits some of its most common traits (Gutierrez 2018): apart from hybridization, the employment of unconventional means and its ultimate ambition to generate awareness and social change, as will be examined. Next, we explore the book from the journalistic, the comic and the data activist angles.

The journalistic perspective Los vagabundos de la chatarra is following in other graphic journalists’ foot- steps. A quarter of a century after Art Spiegelman won a Pulitzer for his Holocaust story in Maus, many journalists practice comics journalism (Archer 2011a). Sacco has published books on Palestine (2002); Archer has worked on a number of social justice topics, from homelessness and the financial crisis to human trafficking (2017); Matt Bors has talked about the proliferation of weapons, war and the death penalty in the United States (Axe and Bors 2010); and Susie Cagle has published works on wildfires and the effect of climate

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1. All translations by the change on drought cycles (2014), among others. All of them share the fact authors; the original is offered in footnotes. that they are committed to social causes, that they apply journalistic rules and ‘Lo que importa del methodologies to their job of gathering data and information, and that the periodismo es el content of their stories is real life. compromiso.’ In Spain, Los vagabundos de la chatarra has been a pioneer; other examples include La Grieta (The Crack), by Carlos Spottorno and Guillermo Abril, which is a graphic novel that relies on photographs instead of drawings, but in a comic format, to talk about stories in the cracks of the European Union’s borders (2016); Vidas Ocupadas (Occupied Lives), by José Pablo García, who tells the story of his trip from Nablus to Gaza in ten days (2016); and the interactive animation published by Ojo Público about the water wars in Peru, a project that is contained within a program dedicated to promoting Latin American comics journalism (2016). Its social commitment places comics journalism closer to advocacy journalism than to conventional reporting (Media Ethics 2013). The book under discussion here includes at the end a comic-stripped interview with graphic journalist Sacco, in which he says that ‘what is worthwhile of journalism is the commitment’ (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 100).1 Advocacy journalism intentionally and openly embraces a political perspective in reporting. It has to be fact-based, but it explicitly takes sides: ‘[However] being an advocate journalist is not the same as being a full-blown activist. No matter how dear a cause is to journalist’s heart, there are lines which should never be crossed by a professional journalist’ (Careless 2000). That is, in the convergence of journalism and advocacy, the former prevails, as advocate journalists follow the same principles as any other journalist. An example could be The Guardian’s coverage of climate change issues. This British paper does not hide the fact that it is campaigning towards global and substantive greenhouse gas emissions cuts, and uses journalism, and more often than not data journalism, to support its political stand to foster social and political change (Anon. 2015). Likewise, Los vagabundos de la chatarra takes sides, in an unsentimental manner, exposing the realities of the metal scrappers. Archer says the ‘real advantage of comics journalism’ is its flexibility: it can include ‘visual explainers’ such as ‘speech balloons’, ‘captions for inte- rior monologues’ and ‘infographics like maps’ (2011b). Archer deems comics journalism ‘the perfect way of synthesizing a lot of complex information in a very easily, intelligible and accessible way’ (2011b). That is, comics journalism affords an effective storytelling technique when dealing with complexity and stories on processes, as opposed to spot news. But where is the legendary editorial ‘objectivity’ in comics journalism? Hybridization in journalism has been associated with the crossing of lines dividing fiction and non-fiction. Carrión, who defines himself as a journalist, defends himself saying that total objectivity in conventional journalism does not exist anyway. He adds:

Absurdly, written and multimedia journalism are perceived as objective […]. In reality both languages are systems of representation, with their own codes, limitations and staging. Mediation in comics journalism is more transparent. The drawing denotes a distance. Non-fictional comics journalism that resorts to realistic portraits can also be perceived as ‘objective’. But objectivity in journalism does not exist. It does not even exist when it is algorithmic. Distance is necessary. A critical distance,

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which allows a journalist to decide what to tell and what not tell, and how to do it, with the aim of being fair and accurate. And that difficulty is embedded in all forms of journalism, also in those who resort to infographics, drawings or animations.

Lack of objectivity, however, is ‘the most common critique’ against comics journalism, admits Archer (2011b). Some critics consider that including drawings is ‘an editorialisation’ of content. Sagar chooses, for example, to portray his subjects as people with long, pointed noses, in an attempt to distort physi- cal normative appearances and to show an alternative facial representation. The same allegations could apply to the examples mentioned earlier: they all include a degree of distortion without descending into falsehood. However, according to Archer, what comics allow you to do is ‘to include yourself […] as a participant in the story, really bringing to light the transparency in my journalistic creative process’ (2011b). This is something that can be observed in Carrión and Sagar’s book, too, as Los vagabundos de la chatarra shows them cycling around Barcelona, interviewing their sources, querying and observing in different scenarios. Besides, claimed objectivity in conventional journalism has been questioned as well. Even the photographs from unadulterated reality employed by Spottorno and Abril include bias; perhaps the bias in photography is subtler. While in cartoon image’s handcraftiness becomes apparent, the photographic image conceals its maker’s hand better (Pedri 2015: 7). What Roscoe and Hight say about documentary applies more generally here: though journalism is connected with facts and truth claims, not one journalistic endeavour offers an unmediated view of the world (2001: 8). Kovach and Rosenstiel, renowned bastions of journalism, do not talk about objectivity as a goal in journalism either, but about seeking the truth and being independent, and about exposing the facts confirmed by the method of verification (2007: 26). Observing this work from the perspective of alternative media studies is also interesting. Conventional journalism is based upon the ‘empiricist assumption’ that it is possible to identify facts that occur ‘accurately and without bias’; while the ideal of alternative journalism is ‘that reporting is always bound up with values (personal, professional, institutional) and that it is there- fore never possible to separate facts from values’ (Downing 2011: 18). But this set of practices does not invalidate alternative journalism’s truths. Alternative journalism argues that different forms of knowledge may be generated, repre- senting ‘multiple versions of reality from those of the mass media’ (Downing 2011: 18). Such journalistic values apply to what graphic journalists practice as well. Seen from Downing’s viewpoint, Los vagabundos de la chatarra, and in general comics journalism, is alternative not just in terms of ‘what is considered as news’ (i.e. the lives of marginalized people), but also in its approaches to news gathering, who writes the information and how it is presented (i.e. via drawings). Another commonality between Archer’s explorations and Los vagabundos de la chatarra is the inclusion of data visualizations ‘as a way of translating a lot of complex data into a single compelling image’ (2011b). Archer thinks comics can play the role of translators of complex issues into narratives that can be presented as ‘a metafictional way of perceiving different layers of what’s going on’ (2011b) – the way thought bubbles, speech balloons and other graphic conventions work. Correspondingly, Carrión and Sagar’s work resembles a map, where different information layers overlap in a dialogue though video,

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2. ‘Supongo que esa será map, textual information and drawings. That way, this graphic novel becomes la función del cómic: señalar el problema. not only a translator of a complex reality; it is a chart that allows us to navigate Eso es lo que debería a reality, in this case, a city trying to survive the economic crisis. hacer el periodismo: In 2011, Archer was already working on incorporating video, anima- poner el dedo en las llagas de la realidad.’ tion, maps and hyperlinked information that could pop out in his web-based comics. La Guerra por el Agua (The Water Wars), interactive, animated cartoons, 3. All page numbers provided in published by Ojo Público, are another example (2016). The inclusion of this type parentheses in this of elements is what makes the work of Carrión and Sagar unique since they section correspond to signal a sort of leap forward in the evolution of graphic storytelling in Spain. Carrión and Sagar 2016. Looking at storytelling, Segel and Heer identify ‘salient dimensions’, 4. ‘Todo cómic, toda including ‘how graphical techniques and interactivity can enforce various crónica, es un ejercicio de montaje.’ levels of structure and narrative flow’, and describe ‘seven genres of narrative visualisation: magazine style, annotated chart, partitioned poster, flowchart, comic strip, slideshow and video’, which are not mutually exclusive (Segel and Heer 2010: 1139). However, concrete cases can be examples of mixed approaches. These authors categorize the hybridizations as more ‘author- driven’, more ‘reader-driven’, or ‘a dialogue between the two approaches’. The first is linear, including ‘heavy messaging’ and ‘no interactivity’; the second has ‘no prescribed ordering’, including ‘no messaging and ‘free interactivity’; while the third combines both approaches (Segel and Heer 2010: 1145–46). Using this categorization, Los vagabundos de la chatarra looks like an example of the third type, leaning towards the first, since it includes a high degree of control on the part of the authors (i.e. the story is interrupted several times to insert written pages with side information and analysis), accompanied with some space for interaction and interpretation on the part of the reader, since the story can be read almost from any point. Los vagabundos de la chatarra owes a debt of gratitude to previous graphic journalistic endeavours: it shares their characteristic social commitment and criticism, flexibility and hybridization of both form and content, and cognizant ‘lack of objectivity’. But it also signifies a leap forward in comics journalism with its deliberate inclusion of data, maps and videos, together with drawings.

The comic design perspective The authors make explicit their social commitment in the work itself; in one of their dialogues they state the purpose that moves them: ‘I suppose that is the function of the comic: pointing out the problem’, says Sagar. ‘That’s what journalism should do: put its finger on the sore aspects of reality’,2 says Carrión (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 83).3 The aforementioned epilogue, which adds to the content of the work an interview with Sacco (2012: 97–101), portrays the Maltese American cartoon- ist and journalist as a model for their task. Carrión and Sagar share with the interviewed author their will to denounce social injustices and the conviction that their tool, the language of the comic, is adequate to carry it out. They are interested in the formal resources that Sacco uses and, recognizing him as a maestro, even ask him for advice for beginners like them. The authors use the resources of the comic along with those taken from other media differently, hybridizing languages and incorporating them into their purpose. In another of their dialogues, while cycling, the authors write, ‘[e]very comic, every chronicle, is a montage exercise’ (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 54).4 This reflection clarifies essential aspects of the work, such as the accumulation of anchorages in concrete realities of Barcelona today, their

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way of using the formal tools of the comic at the service of a critical view of 5. ‘Que nacieron en la, pese a todo, bella these realities and the incorporation of these resources into other modalities Barcelona.’ and discursive practices. Montage is the technique that includes and relates 6. ‘Esta historia es data and testimonies; it hybridizes and lends new vitality to diverse forms of antigua y acaba mal.’ expression. 7. ‘El ruido de las ruedas From its very title, the work is located and immediately perceived by the de sus carritos de reader in the field of non-fiction. Thus, it distances itself with respect to what supermercado se ha is usual in commercial comics, which, like novels, movies or television series, convertido en la banda sonora de esta ciudad.’ usually offer stories of fiction, often strictly adjusted to the conventions of some thematic genres. The mention of the city in the title brings a first anchor- 8. ‘Llueve chatarra. El ruido es ensordecedor.’ age to reality. Then others are added, both in the para-text and in the comic book itself. The dedication of the book to the children of the two authors, ‘who were born in the, despite everything, beautiful Barcelona’ (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 4)5 in May and June 2014, is the first one. Another one is the prologue, entitled ‘This story is old and ends badly’ (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 5),6 which explains the reality of the ‘garbage world’ produced by the myth of progress. It presents the task undertaken by the authors, who, for more than a year, observed the metal scrappers of their city in the neighbourhood of Poblenou. ‘The noise of the wheels of their supermarket carts has become the soundtrack of this city’,7 he writes about the metal scrappers that carry their scraps in trolleys. The third is the double-page illustration that, before beginning the story, represents the massive march for the inde- pendence of Catalonia, on 11 September 2012, in Barcelona. Against the back- drop of the Arc de Triomphe in the city, a crowd of steadfast people carrying esteladas walks and turns their backs to the reader. Out of the crowd stands out the only figure that can be seen from the front: a scrapper with his cart. Seemingly connected and disconnected at once, two realities that ignore each other are represented. The following page contains quotations from Walter Benjamin, Agnès Varda and Ignacio Vidal-Folch about the people who make a living from the waste; these quotations accompany the drawing portraits of the three authors (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 8). The first page of the comic proper (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 9) establishes a way of approaching the subject through the image and the text. The page is composed of four panels, three of them placed in a horizontal strip and, under it, a large one, which occupies more than two-thirds of the page. Each one of them is offered with a superimposed text box. The first small panel is black and the two that complete the strip open the blackness with white and ochre formless stains. This sequence only makes sense visu- ally when the reader reaches the fourth and larger panel included in the same page, which represents a crane with an articulated arm that raises with its claw the black and ochre stains of the heaped scrap. The text that accompanies the drawings is also necessary to interpret this opening sequence. The text begins with sensorial brushstrokes: ‘It rains scrap/The noise is deafening’,8 and immediately places these brushstrokes about the data of the scrap traffic in the port of Barcelona and the international market. This first page operates as a presentation of the subject and of the journalistic way of approaching it (describing an immediate reality and adding context data) and as an introduction to the first testimony, the one given by Toni, a docker who works in the scrap yard (10–15). Thus, the pattern that will be followed along the whole work is estab- lished. The authors are represented in motion to various locations in their city (the port, the junkyards, the premises where illegal junkies are housed)

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to collect testimonies, which they complement with figures, data and reflections inserted through traditional narrative texts in the comic or interspersed in separate pages (there are three pages of annotations that quote the title of the prologue, ‘This story is old’: 22, 36 and 73–74). The interviews with the protagonists, the scrap vagabonds, constitute the nucleus of the work and include the conversations with Vasile (26–30), Kheraba (41–47 and 49–53), Juan (68–71) and Williams (84–85) (see Figure 2). The voices of the vagabonds tell a poignant story of injustice, increasing precarity, racism, police persecution, social oblivion and economic abuse. Kheraba states: ‘Spanish businessmen are making profit out of our misery’ (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 53). Scenes of transition are interspersed, in which the

Source: Norma Editorial (2015). Figure 2: Portraits of Vasile, Kheraba, Juan and Williams clockwise direction.

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authors move around the city in search of scenarios and protagonists, engage in conversations, and comment on the data they have gathered. These inquir- ies provide the work with the narrative thread that links the testimonies and the memories of the interviewees. The occasional annotation of specific dates locates all content in the present. The authors have chosen a realistic record, which does not detract from some graphic resources that obviously are foreign to it. As mentioned, Sagar portrays the characters with disproportionate noses, a peculiarity that is a feature of his graphic style and that does not disturb the perception of their well-individualized faces. The same is true for the very few graphic signs that emanate from some characters indicating their mood: clouds of anger (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 21, 81) and irradiations of tension (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 57) are graphical conventions of the language of the comic that serve to complete the description in certain scenes without hindering the reading of the whole as a report that informs about a real situation. The same can be said for the city in diagram that the authors tour on their bicycles; as a sign of their constant movement, they are represented three times in succes- sion over the same image (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 23). In the preface to his book Journalism, titled ‘A Manifesto, Anyone?’, Joe Sacco recognizes the obligations of the honest journalist, which include accurately reporting, citing adequately and checking the sources (2012: ix–xi), but adds to these the obligation of acknowledging one’s prejudices and not paying homage to a misunderstood equanimity, against which he claims Robert Fisk’s position when he defends that journalists ‘should be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer’ (Sacco 2012: xii). To make his own positioning visible in the work and his partial perspective, Sacco usually represents himself in his reports, often with a caricatured bias that follows the parody tradition of the underground comic (Daz de Guereñu 2014: 87–101). Carrión and Sagar adopt this resource and are drawn in their search for protagonists, dialoguing with their sources and, in the case of Sagar, often sketching notes from the natural to incorporate them into the story. The narrative voice that accompanies the drawings of their wanderings serves as a self-portrait and is expressed in the first-person plural, as a ‘we’ that includes meta-comic reflections. In reporting the vicissitudes of their journalistic task, like Sacco, the authors represent difficulties, awkwardness and errors, which increases the verisimilitude of the story. But there are also differences with the reports by Sacco, who tends to present his witness often through a portrait of the front and a label that iden- tifies him, as in documentaries or audio-visual information, and then immediately transfers the testimonies to a visual story, which dramatizes them. The panels of Los vagabundos de la chatarra, on the other hand, represent the encounter with the informants and collect their testimony through speech balloons. In the longest interview, the one to Kheraba (41–47 and 49–53), an expressionist treatment of the character and his environment is offered through penumbra and backlight, probably to avoid the monotonous effect of a talking head and to accentuate the drama of his testimony (see Figure 3). Moreover, the work incorporates into its drawn sequence numerous graphic and textual elements unrelated to the usual resources of the comic, which reinforce its attachment to the representation of the real. In addition to the interleaved annotation pages already mentioned above, it inserts in its panels photographs (64–65), aerial views of google maps (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 66), an e-mail (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 21), newspaper

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Source: Norma Editorial (2015). Figure 3: The expressionist treatment of Kheraba.

information (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 48, 74), a screenshot of a webpage (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 73) and tweets by the Barcelona city council (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 89–93). All of them contribute to the realistic appearance and the effectiveness of its denunciation. The montage of unexpected graphic resources and the hybridization of languages bring vitality to the critical representation of these realities. This work is not intended as a story, but rather as the portrait of a situation formulated as an accusatory testimony. And to better develop such intention, it uses an assem- bly of information and statements with other unexpected graphic resources, which together represent the complexity of the real. Formal hybridization thus is at the service of critical denunciation, which puts the finger on the sore aspects of reality.

The data activism perspective Data activism is the coincidence of data-based narratives and collective action (Gutierrez and Milan 2017). It sees people’s active engagement with technologies as a pathway to empowerment, equal participation and social change. It offers citizens the opportunity to exercise their democratic agency in the age of datafication (Milan and van der Velden 2016). As it crosses the line of advocacy and employs some geolocalized data visualizations in the form of a map, Los vagabundos de la chatarra can be observed from the point of view of data activism and social movement studies as well.

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Source: Norma Editorial (2015). Figure 4: The interactive map.

One of the characteristics of activists in social movements is the use of unconventional means (della Porta and Diani 2006: 159–80). Los vagabundos de la chatarra exhibits the use of unconventional means and the generation of disruption to a certain degree; paraphrasing della Porta and Diani (2006: 174), this project is alternative and disruptive in that it alters the ‘normal’ way in which journalism has been practised so far when it chooses to innovate in appearance and substance. It is disruptive too in that it presents a reality –that of metal scrappers– that conventional journalism has avoided so far. That is, it offers an alternative view of the economic crisis and of the city of Barcelona. The Google map published in Los vagabundos de la chatarra is straightfor- ward: it shows the landscapes where the story takes place. However, gathering data and publishing maps – a process of coding and recoding of information, and its synchronization – were once the sole privilege of the state (Denil 2011). Data activism often resorts to cartographic representation in order to offer alternative narratives, to enable communication and to foster action. In fact, this work could be considered a complex map where information strata presented by different methods (drawings, texts and video) intersect, converse and guide us through the city. Although this work is not a full-blown activist project, it shares some of the traits attributed to the latter: it is alternative in that it shows an unconventional representation of reality; and it is disruptive in that it employs new formats and gives a voice to the voiceless.

Epilogue: Why hybridization matters in times of crisis The epilogue of Los vagabundos de la chatarra works as a declaration of intent by the authors and becomes a fundamental section of the book to understand their project. Following the hybridity of styles and forms, it is not surprising for the reader at this point that a most significant message is included in this last contribution to the project. The epilogue opens with the title, ‘Interview with Joe Sacco’, and the quote already mentioned in the third section of this article, ‘Reality matters. Victims matter. Power must be questioned’ (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 97).

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9. ‘Sin ficción tú tienes Such succinct declaration of intent is reproduced in the content of the los hechos, los datos, pero no siempre los comic strips of this epilogue. Joe Sacco is interviewed by the authors, but puedes conectar. following the philosophy in which the project was conceived, his social Tienes el hecho A y commitment is conveyed in the manner of a comic-graphic documentary el B sobre un político corrupto, pero no story. Sacco’s biography is included in it; the reader learns that he was born in puedes relacionarlos. Malta in 1960, obtained a degree in journalism at Oregon University and has Con la ficción sí puedes developed his career as a rock singer, activist, graphic story writer, documen- hacerlo. Esa es su gran virtud. El espectador talist and journalist. The epilogue narrates his arrival in Barcelona, where he is no tendrá duda alguna met by the authors of Los vagabundos de la chatarra. sobre la profunda corrupción.’ The conversation in the first scene concerns the role of fiction and its relevance and significance in terms of effectively denouncing corruption. Sacco, 10. ‘¿Qué es lo que no se puede perder, lo que alluding to the TV series The Wire (2002–2008, United States: HBO) and its hay que preservar?’ denunciation of political and journalistic corruption, affirms, 11. ‘Lo que importa del periodismo es el Without fiction, you have the facts, but you can’t always connect them. compromiso. Los You have the fact A and B about a corrupt politician, but you can’t relate hechos importan. La realidad importa. Las them. With fiction, you can do that. That’s its major virtue. The audience víctimas importan. will not doubt about the deep corruption involved.9 Hay que cuestionar (Sacco 2002) el poder. Esos son los fundamentos morales que hay que defender.’ They comment on the television series The Wire and Sacco praises its inci- sive portrayal of the decadence of journalism. In the following conversation, non-fiction comics are defined as the new journalism, but they finally conclude that the formal revolution is happening in different languages and formats (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 100). Sacco’s answer to the question posed by the authors, ‘[w]hat is the thing that can’t be lost that must be preserved?’10 becomes the fundamental lesson of the coda and part of it, as has been mentioned, is reproduced in the opening of the epilogue: ‘What matters in journalism is commitment. Facts matter. Reality matters. Victims matter. Power must be questioned. Those are the moral principles that must be defended’ (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 100).11 Los vagabundos de la chatarra explores the relevance of hybrid non-fiction in times in which the financial crisis is promoting a lifestyle in which human rights and equality are being steadily undermined. As Txetxu Aguado and Annabel Martín note,

In times of crisis, in times of heightened systemic inequality, finding alternatives to how things came to be would seem to demand that we look for better methodologies of analysis and critique in precisely those terrains that are conducive to social change, to the hard questioning of the status quo of our times of precarity. (2016: 18)

The authors remark that identifying a language of activism that may cause an intervention in the social order is increasingly more difficult since we live in times ‘that brutally attack the value of the public sphere, the power of educa- tion, and the need for alternative modes of interconnectedness, of imagining our lives together’ (2016: 18). Precarity, Aguado and Martín claim, has become the new ‘normal’ in a system marked by unbridled markets and neo-liberal capitalism (2016: 18). In such a context, the authors vindicate the power of artistic practices to recuperate spaces in which vulnerable elements of the population live as subsidiary elements:

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Literature, philosophy, history, the fine arts, etc. provide us with the 12. ‘No les presiones; el periodismo es un language to understand the operative and abusive functioning of proceso lento. Necesita power and inequality, maybe not with quantitative methodologies but tiempo, constancia y certainly through other logics as equally important for understanding un poco de obsesión.’ the complexities of our times, namely, those of metaphor, abstraction, approximation, and, of course, emotion. These strategies are particularly relevant when trying to understand, for example, the effects of precarity. (2016: 20)

Precarity is exposed in several forms through the dialogues and testimonies collected by the authors of Los vagabundos de la chatarra, which talk about forms of dispossession, homelessness and urban transformation caused by triumphant neo-liberalism. Complexity is reinforced in a work that chooses a slow modus operandi; from the means of transportation to the detailed interviews in which listening is as important as any other action in the communication process. The last piece of advice offered by Sacco to the authors reinforces such conviction. He tells them that it is essential to let people tell their story, and concludes, ‘[d]o not press them; journalism is a slow process. It needs time, perseverance, and a bit of obsession’ (Carrión and Sagar [2015] 2016: 101).12 Journalism in a graphic form, or in a hybrid combination of languages and formats, may prove effective in times in which political and institutional discourses are progres- sively abandoning any ethical commitment to human dignity and replacing it by a painful indifference towards suffering and precarity.

Discussion and conclusions Many questions remain unanswered. In the times of the post-truth, the matter of truth in journalism continues to be an open discussion. The formula offered by Los vagabundos de la chatarra is also in question. Although data visualization is not new in comics journalism, Carrión and Forniés were the first to use it in Spanish as far as we know. Whether its formula becomes a category – like ‘romantic comedy’ – or stays a unique case still remains to be seen. However, there are some interesting ideas that can be extracted from the thorough examination of both its format and its content. Mixed techniques and hybridization are invading one of the functions of journalism, which consists of reporting about injustices and shedding light on the painful aspects of reality that in most cases remain hidden. In Los vagabundos de la chatarra, when Sacco is asked if it is difficult to narrate poverty, he answers, ‘[y]es, without a doubt. People are afraid of the poor’. Nevertheless, this work chooses poverty as one of the principal topics for its exploration and refuses to be complicitous with a system that prefers to notice only the excellence of a city that has experienced a success in touristic revenues and international projection. It exposes the invisible, dark side of a, despite everything, most beautiful city, and it does so in innovative, alternative, hybrid ways. Mixing advocacy journalism, data and graphic novels, Los vagabundos de la chatarra exhibits an undeniable commitment to forms of precarity and thus follows the, in the words of Judith Butler, ‘time-honored tradition of investigative journalism’ (2004: xi). Butler claims that dissent and debate in the public sphere depend on the inclusion of those actors that maintain critical views, particularly in times of crisis. She concludes: ‘The foreclosure of critique empties the public domain of debate and democratic contestation itself so that

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debate becomes the exchange of views among the like-minded’ (2004: xx). In an effort to extend the public debate beyond the narrow confinements of conventional journalism, Carrión and Sagar experiment with a new formula, providing their readers with an opportunity to think critically about the effects of capitalism and urban policies on the inhabitants of Barcelona.

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Suggested citation Gutiérrez, M., Rodríguez, M. P. and de Guereñu, J. M. D. (2018), ‘Journalism in the age of hybridization: Los vagabundos de la chatarra – comics journalism, data, maps and advocacy’, Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies, 10:1, pp. 43–62, doi: 10.1386/cjcs.10.1.43_1

Contributor details Miren Gutiérrez holds a Ph.D. from the University of Deusto and is the director of the postgraduate program ‘Data Analysis, Research and Communication’. She is a lecturer on communication and a member of the communication research team at Deusto, and associate researcher at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London and at Datactive in Amsterdam. With twenty years of experience as editor, correspondent and reporter worldwide, she has been executive director of Greenpeace Spain and editorial director of the international news agency Inter Press Service (IPS). Contact: Universidad de Deusto, Camino de Mundaiz, 50, 20012, San Sebastián, Guipuzkoa, Spain. E-mail: [email protected]

María Pilar Rodríguez is associate professor in the Department of Communication of the University of Deusto and Director of the Ph.D. programme in leisure, culture and communication for human development. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Until 2002 she taught at Columbia University (New York, USA). She has published extensively on literature, film, culture and gender studies. She is the principal investigator of the communication research team, recognized by the Basque Government. She regularly participates in evaluations of academic journals such Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Hispanic Review or Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies. She is a member of the editorial board of European Visual Cultures and Feminism(s). She is regularly invited to teach in North American universities such as Dartmouth College, University of Chicago and Columbia University. She has been awarded three sexenios by the CNEAI and in 2015 she obtained the Koldo Mitxelena Chair by the Basque Government. Contact: Universidad de Deusto, Camino de Mundaiz, 50, 20012, San Sebastián, Guipuzkoa, Spain. E-mail: [email protected]

Juan Manuel Díaz de Guereñu is full professor at the Department of Communication at the University of Deusto. He is the author of several monographs on contemporary literature, including Fernando Aramburu, Narrator (2005) and has edited texts and letters by Juan Larrea, Gerardo Diego, Gabriel Celaya, Luis Álvarez Piñer, Emilio Prados and Fernando Aramburu, among

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others. He has also published 100 articles in specialized and academic journals about the authors cited and others, such as Eugenio Imaz, Rulfo, Baroja, Alfonso Sastre, Rafael Alberti or Buñuel. He also regularly researches in the field of comics and graphic storytelling, in which he is the author of several monographs. Contact: Universidad de Deusto, Camino de Mundaiz, 50, 20012, San Sebastián, Guipuzkoa, Spain. E-mail: [email protected]

Miren Gutiérrez, María Pilar Rodríguez and Juan Manuel Díaz de Guereñu have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

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