Dr. Maria Gómez y Patiño, Ph.D. in Journalism (Social Communication) Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), is Professor at the Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain) where she is also researcher at the group (GICID) Grupo de Investigación en Comunicación e Información Digital. Generally, her research field is addressed in three branches, all of them related to the public opinion phenomenon: 1) digital and new technologies; 2) Gender studies. She founded and directed the Permanent Seminar for Women’s Studies (1997); and 3) Tourism as social phenomenon affecting world peace. Her latest book: Escapists of reality. The tourism intangibles (in Spanish, 2012). She has published several books, chapters, and different articles in various journals. She has gained a number of awards: best scholar-paper in Gender Studies (1998, 2000) and grants as principal investigator (1998, 1999, 2000) national prize on Women’s Equality Essay (2002). Her latest prize was rendered in 2010 for the best essay in Social Sciences. She has also won some prizes in different genres of literature.
