Frames y agendas durante el proceso soberanista catalán (2013-2015)

Abstract

Social and political means of communication are key elements of public opinion construction. Dominant subjects in parliamentary debates are generally extensively covered by the media, sometimes to the point where it is the press itself that keeps the subjects in the limelight, offering consumers articulate and framed opinions. Despite the fact that the Catalan independence process enjoys wide media coverage and dominates national political debates, the subject does not seem to be considered of primary importance in most of Spain. In this sense, it is possible to consider journalists and media — regardless of editorial lines — as actors in the ongoing positioning of current news on Catalan independence in the press, and reproducers and amplifiers of politicians’ decisions and proposals. This study analyses how the press of Madrid and Barcelona treat the Catalan sovereignist process in order to observe how the intensity and the treatment of the subject in media influences its coverage and its links with Spanish and Catalan public opinion. To this end, we examined articles and editorials on this theme that appeared in the El Mundo, El País and El Periódico de Catalunya dailies between September 1, 2013 and February 1, 2015. We also analysed the opinion polls of the Centro de investigaciones sociológicas (CIS) and the Centre d’estudis d’opinió (CEO). In order to study the interaction between media content and its effects on both citizens and public opinion, we drew on theories from the communication field such as the concept of agenda setting and, more specifically, framing.