The Prevalence of Prejudice-Denoting Terms in Spanish Newspapers

David Rozado

doi:10.3390/socsci11020033

Abstract

Previous scholarly literature has documented a pronounced increase in the prevalence of prejudice-denoting terms in American news media content. Some have referred to this shift in journalistic discourse and related public opinion trends signaling increasing perceptions of prejudice severity in U.S. society as The Great Awokening. This work analyzes whether the increasing prevalence of prejudice themes in American news media outlets has been replicated in the news media ecosystem of a Spanish-speaking country. Thus, we computationally analyzed the prevalence of words denoting prejudice in five million news and opinion articles written between 1976 and 2019 and published in three of the most widely read newspapers in Spain: El País, El Mundo and ABC. We report that within the studied time period, the frequency of terms that denote specific prejudice types related to gender, ethnicity, sexuality and religious orientation has also substantially increased across the analyzed Spanish news media outlets. There are, however, some notable distinctions in the long-term usage dynamics of prejudice-denoting terms between the leading Spanish newspaper of record, El País, and its U.S. counterpart, The New York Times.

Highlights

A marked increase in the prevalence of prejudice-denoting terms in popular American news media outlets has previously been reported (Rozado 2020; Rozado et al 2021a).Some authors have referred to this dynamic in journalistic discourse and related social attitudes shifts like rising public perceptions of prejudice severity in U.S society as The GreatAwokening (Yglesias 2019; Ungar-Sargon 2021; The Economist 2021)
The denoting prejudice prejudiceagainst againstgender, gender,sexual sexualorientation, orientation, genidentity, ethnicity and religious sentiment has markedly increased in the Spanish newspaper der identity, ethnicity and religious sentiment has markedly increased in the Spanish of record, ElofPaís, since
This study has documented a marked increase in the prevalence of prejudice-denoting terms across a large and representative set of written news articles from Spain’s most popular newspapers of record

Summary

Introduction

A marked increase in the prevalence of prejudice-denoting terms in popular American news media outlets has previously been reported (Rozado 2020; Rozado et al 2021a).Some authors have referred to this dynamic in journalistic discourse and related social attitudes shifts like rising public perceptions of prejudice severity in U.S society as The GreatAwokening (Yglesias 2019; Ungar-Sargon 2021; The Economist 2021). A marked increase in the prevalence of prejudice-denoting terms in popular American news media outlets has previously been reported (Rozado 2020; Rozado et al 2021a). Some authors have referred to this dynamic in journalistic discourse and related social attitudes shifts like rising public perceptions of prejudice severity in U.S society as The Great. The journalistic trend was first identified in The New York Times (Rozado 2020), and it was later confirmed across. Terms denoting prejudice related to gender, ethnicity, gender identity, religious affiliation and sexual orientation have skyrocketed in prevalence in U.S news media content within the span of just 10 years (2010–2019). The trend preceded the political rise of Donald Trump in 2015, but it could have been reinforced by it. The trend appears to have continued unabated after Trump left office (Rozado et al 2021b)

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