Spanish Politics and Society Hispanic & European Studies Program Fall 2009 Raimundo Viejo Viñas Office

Institutions of Spanish Democracy, 1 The Spanish mass media as political actors

Historical background, 1  The origin of newspapers is linked to the development of capitalists societies.  First newspapers were just a piece of paper with some basic informations relating to maritime traffic (The Gazette of Amsterdam)  In Mediterranean countries, however, the development of a modern public opinion was not protagonized by a revolutionary, bourgeois class, but by the aristocracy  The media developed more as a cultural hegemonic institution than as a pluralist market of free ideas

Historical background, 2  Both dictatorships of Primo de Rivera ( ) and Franco (1936/ ) hindered the formation of mass political parties and party press  During the first period of Franco’s dictatorship, the media were merely a propaganda tool of the totalitarian regime  In the 1960s and early 1970s things begin to change, and the Catholic media became more influent.  By the times of the transition to democracy, a pluralistic public opinion was finally formed in Spain

The Spanish Press today  In the 1970s and 1980s emerged a new democratic press oriented to the market (El País, Diario 16, or El Periòdic de Catalunya)  As a result of their historical background, newspapers in Spain are today a mixed product: On the one hand, they focus on political issues in a very ideological manner On the other hand, they are also interested on social, economic, and cultural issues  The succes of democratization explains that Spain and Portugal were among the only countries in the world with increases in newspaper circulation during the 1990s

The sociological dimension of the Press  Newspapers in Spain have relatively minoritarian audiences. Only people with a higher education level read the newspapers daily  Most of daily newspapers’ readers are male (47%) while women remain excluded from the public sphere. In fact, only a 26% of the Spanish women read the newspapers daily.  There is also a poor quality press focused on gender roles both for men (Sport dailies like Marca, As, etc.) and women (the so-called “prensa del corazón”: Hola, Lecturas, etc.)

Press and Politics  The Spanish press is strongly politized: newspapers tend to represent the different political tendencies and to express more or less explicitly support to political parties or party factions  Some examples of newspapers’ political orientation: Gara: left (pro-ETA) Público: center-left (pro-Zapatero) El País: center (in the 1980s pro-PSOE, now critic and pro Ruiz Gallardón –PP’s major of Madrid) La vanguardia: center-right (pro conservative catalan nationalism) El Mundo: center-right (pro PP) La Razón: right (pro monarchic, pro Church)

Spanish TV  TVE (Televisión Española, today “La primera”) was the first TV channel (1956)  Ten years later, a second public channel was founded (TVE2, today “la 2”). Both channels, TVE and TVE2 were strictly controlled by Franco’s rule  During the transition to democracy and the first years of democratic rule, however, television was always controlled by the government  In the 1980, as a result of the decentralisation process, three new channels were created, but also following the public television pattern: ETB (Basque), TV3 (Catalan) and TVG (Galician)

Private Television  In 1989 the Spanish government will liberalize the audiovisual landscape. At the same time the executive will also give up direct control of public television.  Three new, private channels began to broadcast: Antena 3, Telecinco and Canal + (today Cuatro)  The last phase of television liberalization takes place today with the Terrestrial Digital Television  The decentralisation process iniciated by the Catalan, Basque, and Galician televisions, also continues with the creation of the regional and local televisions (whether they are public or private)

Political orientations  Like the Press, TV channels in Spain also are strongly politicized  La primera and La2 tend to justify governmental political positions, even if La primera is more conservative than La2  Antena 3 is a very conservative (like Fox in the U.S.)  Telecinco is also conservative (it partially belongs to Berlusconi)  Cuatro (before Canal +) is center (it belongs to the PRISA group, like El País)  LaSexta is center-left (it belongs, among others, to Zapatero’s friend, the catalan Jaume Roures)

New media  The internet has also impacted significantly on the configuration of the Spanish public opinion  The