La mediatización de la agenda política: la discusión del pacto social como conflicto de agendas, 2009-2011

Palmira  Chavero; Juan Jesús  González; Fermín Bouza; Antón R. Castromil; Raquel Rodríguez

doi:10.4185/RLCS-2013-994

Authors

Palmira Chavero Complutense University of Madrid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8310-3600
Juan Jesús González National University of Distance Education http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1106-8847
Fermín Bouza Complutense University of Madrid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3563-5201
Antón R. Castromil Complutense University of Madrid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9461-6647
Raquel Rodríguez Rey Juan Carlos University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8097-6585

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2013-994

Keywords:

conflict of agenda, frame, thematisation, mediatisation, polarised pluralism

Abstract

In the framework of mediatisation research, this article analyses the way in which the media agendas and politics interacted during the process of social dialogue that took place in Spain during the second legislature of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (2009-2011). Method.The analysis is based on an exhaustive analysis of the front pages and editorials published by eight of the main Spanish newspapers (El País, El Mundo, La Vanguardia, El Periódico de Cataluña, El Correo, Levante, Abc and La Voz de Galicia) during the whole 2008-2011 legislature. Framing and discourse analyses were performed on those informative units in order to identify the thematic frames of each of the newspapers. Results.This analysis allowed us to detect the ways in which the press managed to block the political during the process of social dialogue, which initially stopped Zapatero from getting the budgetary adjustment measures approved. The study also verified that the government used the media to test the acceptance of the adjustment measures and that the press acted as a polarising agent. Conclusions. The study provided empirical evidence that supports the premise that the media transcend their information function and mediate the public debate, as they influence the political agenda setting on certain relevant issues. In this way, the media become political actors.

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Author Biographies

Palmira Chavero, Complutense University of Madrid

Palmira Chavero holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Complutense University of Madrid and a Doctoral degree in Communication Sciences and Sociology (2012).

Her main research line is Political Communication; particularly, the composition and functioning of the current media systems and their relation with voting and public opinion.

She is part of the Agenda and Vote Research Group, coordinated by Fermín Bouza (UCM) and Juan Jesús González (UNED), and of the Research Group in Government, Management and Public Policies, which is linked to the Ortega and Gasset University research Institute (IUIOG).She has collaborated in other research projects, such as the Culture of Legality programme (Trust-CM), and is an associate Professor of the Master’s degree programme in Political and Institutional Communication of theIUIOG.

In 2011, she received the FirstJoan Prats Young Researchers Award, awarded by the IUIOG.

She is the co-author of the following collective books: España en crisis. Balance de la segunda legislatura de Rodríguez Zapatero (“Spain in crisis. Balance of the second legislature of Rodríguez Zapatero”) (2012); Ciberpolítica. Las nuevas formas de acción y comunicación colectiva (“Cyberpolitics.The new forms of collective action and communication”) (2013); and Partidos, medios y electores en procesos de cambio (“Parties, media and voters in processes of change”) (2013). She is also the author of several articles published in scientific journals.

Juan Jesús González, National University of Distance Education

Honorary Fellow of the Department of Sociology of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, course 1992-93. Program for the Improvement and Mobility of Research Staff: DGICYT-92-181. Visiting Research Scholar of the Social Sciences Department (California Polytechnic University), San Luis Obispo-CA, year 2000-01. His main lines of research are Social Structure and media systems in their relationship with voting and public opinion. He has participated in around twenty investigations, being responsible for half of them and coordinating two of a collective nature (the project on "Class Structure, Conscience and Biography", funded by the Community of Madrid and the INE, and a project on "Rational vote and media agenda", financed by the CIS) and jointly responsible for other projects. Co-editor of three collective works (Three decades of social change in Spain, Agriculture and Society at the turn of the century and Agriculture and Society in Contemporary Spain) that have been considered excellent by specialized critics and that are reference works in their respective field . He has authored or co-authored half a dozen published books and reports, among which, in addition to the works cited, the “Base Report of the ECBC survey” stands out; Author or co-author of around thirty articles published in professional journals and book chapters. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the CIS and of the Editorial Board of Empiria magazine. Journal of social science methodology.

Fermín Bouza, Complutense University of Madrid

His main research interests are Public Opinion and Political Communication.

He has participated in numerous research projects, many of which he directed or was jointly responsible for, including: Agenda de los medios y agenda ciudadana: Análisis temporal desde un enfoque cualitativo (“Media agenda and citizens’ agenda: Temporal analysis from a qualitative approach”), funded by the Spanish Centre for Sociological Research(CIS), and the Observatorio Cultura de la Legalidad (“Observatory of the Culture of Legality”) of the CAM.

He is evaluator of research and projects on various levels and specialties (Micinn and AECI), including projects funded at the highest level and in local and international journals in Spanish and English.

His latest publications include a book co-authored with Juan Jesús González: Las razones del voto en la España democrática. 1977-2008 (“The reasons behind the vote in the democratic Spain.1977-2008”), Ediciones de la Catarata, Madrid, 2009.

Antón R. Castromil, Complutense University of Madrid

Professor of Public Opinion and Sociology at the Department of Sociology VI of the Complutense University of Madrid.His main lines of research arethe political effects of the media in representative democracies.

Appointed visiting professor at the Technical University of Lisbon and the University of Cape Verde.

He has participated in numerous research projects related to his research lines.

His most recent publications are:“Negativismo mediático y pluralismo polarizado en la vida política madrileña”(“Media negativism and polarised pluralism in Madrid’s political life”), in Capdevila, Arantxaet al(eds): Estudios de Comunicación Política2012. Madrid; Continuidad y cambio en la cobertura de unacampaña electoral: De la prensa de referencia a Twitter en las elecciones del 20N (“Continuity and change in the coverage of an election campaign: from the quality press to Twitter in the elections of 20November”),in Cotarelo, Ramón (ed.): Ciberpolítica. Las nuevasformas de acción y comunicaciónpolítica.

Valencia:Tirant lo Blanch; “La circulación social de los encuadresperiodísticos en tiempo de campaña electoral: Transmisión, influencia y atribución de responsabilidad” (“The social circulation of the journalistic frames during election campaigns: Transmission, influence and attribution of responsibility”). ZER.Vol. 15 N° 29, with Raquel Rodríguez (2010).

Raquel Rodríguez, Rey Juan Carlos University

Raquel Rodríguez holds Bachelor’s and Doctoral degrees in Information Sciencesfrom the Complutense University of Madrid with studies of third cycle at the Universityof Trento, the University of Texas at Austin, and Harvard University.

He has worked at the Complutense University and the National Distance Education University (UNED) and currently works at the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid (School of Communication Sciences).

He is specialist in the study of the media effects. His line of research arepolitical communication, election campaigns, framing theory, agenda setting and the Spanish public agenda.

Some of his publications are: “Mitjans, partitsiconfrontació a Espanya: eleccions europees 2009”, in Anàlisi.Quaderns de comunicación i cultura; “Terrorismo con y sin tregua: Políticos, ciudadanos y medios de comunicación” (“Terrorism with and without truce: Politicians, citizens and the media”),i n Telos, with Antón R. Castromil; “La agenda de los alumnos en clase, profesores como medios y agenda-setting” (“The agenda of students in class, professors as the media and agenda-setting”), in Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico (2009).

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