News interests and quality: Preferences and audience perception in Spain

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/rlcs-2025-2374

Keywords:

journalistic quality, information consumption, news interest, politicization, ideology, media, survey, partisan media bias, selective exposure

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this article is to analyze the information preferences of the Spanish population, the media they trust and their perceptions of journalistic quality. Methodology: A quantitative approach based on the survey technique is used for the purpose of this study. The online questionnaire was completed by 1,200 people aged over 16 from all over Spain between March 8 and 15, 2023. The sample was distributed proportionally by autonomous community, gender, age and population size. Results: Spanish citizens consider themselves to have a high level of information and interest in national current affairs and highly relevant issues such as health (46.1%), economy (38%) and politics (33.9%). Respondents see politicization as the main media problem and journalistic quality as low or very low (63%). Among the measures that could improve quality, they identify better contextualization, greater diversity of opinion, more relevant topics and more varied information. They identify television as the medium that provides the highest quality of information and the most contrasting news. Discussion and conclusions: This article focuses on the weight that self-ideology has on the perception of the media and its ideological positioning, as well as on the perception that Spaniards have of the quality of journalism in the Spanish media.

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Author Biographies

Tatiana Mukhortikova, Universitat de València

Tatiana Mukhortikova is a Graduate in Journalism from Moscow State University (2010), Master (2013) and Doctor (2017) from the University of Valencia. She has focused on research lines related to media representation of current issues, such as migration or terrorism. She was hired as an Assistant in the research group “Migrations, Interculturality and Human Development” at the San Jorge University (Zaragoza, Spain). She did a postdoctoral research internship at the Jaume I University (Castellón de la Plana, Spain). She was hired as Senior Doctoral Researcher at the University of Valencia. Currently, she is a researcher at the Mediaflows group (University of Valencia).

Dolors Palau-Sampio, University of Valencia

Dolors Palau Sampio is Professor of Journalism at the University of Valencia and coordinator of the double degree in Audiovisual Communication and Journalism. She has been Vice-Dean of Communication at the School of Philology, Translation and Communication and she coordinates the Journalism and Quality Information Working Group of the Spanish Association of Communication Research. D. in Journalism (2008, Extraordinary Award) from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), where she has worked as a journalist for nine years. Her lines of research focus on journalistic quality and ethics, narrative and digital journalism, and media discourse analysis. She has done research stays in universities in Europe and Latin America.

Vicente Fenoll, University of Valencia

Vicente Fenoll holds a doctorate in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Valencia, where he has been a professor of the Department of Language Theory and Communication Sciences since 2014. He has vast professional experience in electoral campaigns and television news. He is a member of the research groups DigiWorld (international research network for the analysis of political communication in social media), CamforS (comparative analysis of the electoral campaign in European Union countries) and MediaFlows (study of communication flows in Spain). His research interests are populism, social media, political communication and disinformation. He has carried out research internships in several American and European universities.

José Gamir-Ríos, University of Valencia

Degree in Audiovisual Communication (UV, 2005) and Journalism (UV, 2007). Doctor in Communication (UV, 2016) with Extraordinary Award. Assistant Professor Doctor of the Department of Theories of Languages and Communication Sciences, teaching in the Degree in Audiovisual Communication, in the Master's Degree in Audiovisual Content and Formats, and in the Master's Degree in New Journalism, Political Communication and Knowledge Society. Coordinator of the Audiovisual Communication and Advertising teaching unit, and of the Degree in Audiovisual Communication. Member of the interuniversity R&D group Mediaflows. Main lines of research: political communication, communication structure, disinformation and new audiovisual and/or multimedia media.

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Published

2024-12-20

How to Cite

Mukhortikova, T., Palau-Sampio, D., Fenoll, V., & Gamir-Ríos, J. (2024). News interests and quality: Preferences and audience perception in Spain. Revista Latina De Comunicación Social, (83), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.4185/rlcs-2025-2374

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