Referees' reports - 2012

RLCS has decided to adopt the Open Peer Review system, which involves publishing the article's reviews and disclosing reviewers' names. This action is part of RLCS's editorial transparency and Open Access policies.

TV series play an important role in the lives of the contemporary audiences. They, undoubtedly, have the highest audience ratings, and therefore are a good means to strengthen society’s dominant values or those new values that require substantial changes, such as eating habits.

The study of the thematic content of television series, in this case the nutritional and gastronomic education of medical productions, helps understanding their fundamental role in the promotion of good or bad habits.
 
After the second review, the work has become better structured, and the conclusions comply with the requirements of this section.
 
There are few studies on the educational role of television on relevant issues such as nutrition, and this research opens a gap of research that would help improving the quality of televisual productions. - María Gabino, Ph.D. – Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi (Mexico).

This article is innovative due to the current importance of television series and the approach to the analysis. Thus, its publication would be of interest to the academic community.

The author performs a quantitative and qualitative analysis of nineteen USA television medical series transmitted in Spain between 1990 and 2010. The objective is to identify and describe the characters, plots and dialogues that contain important ideas about nutrition and healthy eating.

At a time when obesity is an ever-increasing problem in many countries, this research acquires greater relevance, because television content continues to have an important influence over the audience.

The sources in which the work is based are current and relevant and its methodology is suitable for the object of study. The article is properly structured as a research report and its wording is correct. - Blanca Chong-López, Ph.D. - Autonomous University of Coahuila (Mexico).