Spanish Mass Media Research Articles

Испанская конкиста как культурная травма: легитимация травмирующего события в испанской прессе

The article examines the process of legitimation of the conquest in the Spanish mass media political discourse. The study appears to be relevant due to the recent intensification of controversy surrounding the justification of Spanish colonization, as well as the process of delegitimization of this historical event in the Latin American media. The scientific novelty of the paper lies in that it provides an analysis of cultural traumatization and legitimation as interconnected sociological processes that are linguistically represented in the Spanish political media discourse. The study is carried out on the basis of written and oral discourse of Spanish politicians and public figures legitimizing this traumatic event. In the course of the work, it was established that the process of legitimation of the conquest is most clearly manifested at the stage of theorization of the object of legitimation aiming to objectify its adequacy and is implemented through the strategy of moral assessment and the substrategy of analogy: the unpleasant facts of Aztec imperialism are described, there are references to the British, Arab and Dutch conquests, the expediency of which is not questioned by society. Where the Conquest is rationalized with the use of a predictive substrategy and a result-oriented substrategy, there are indicated potential negative consequences of the absence of Spanish conquest as well as the benefits of civilization that appeared in the conquered territory after the arrival of the colonizers. At the promotion stage, a strategy of appeal to authority is implemented – there are presented opinions of authoritative political and public figures and historical figures legitimizing the conquest and denying all accusations as well as the need to apologize to the former colonies. At the stage of final rooting, the conquest becomes a habitual social context.

Precedent phenomena of the contemporary Russian and Spanish mass media as cognitive structures of a linguistic identity

The present study is important since precedent phenomena, transmitting both traditional and newly created cultural values, are more widely represented in the mass media language. The paper suggests a cognitive approach aimed at identifying the role of knowledge (linguistic, non-linguistic, individual) in forming the precedent unit meaning, being the primary object of research in cognitive science. Examples of universal precedent names (Napoleon, Cinderella, Don Quixote, Adam) suggest that they store culturally valued (thematized) and implicit knowledge shared by communicants. Studying the binary structures (designator/designatum) of a concept defines the development dynamics of the precedent name’s meaning, relevant changes in structure of the core components of meaning, desemantization of the precedent name. Different Russian and Spanish interpretations show that prevailing content varies, and the language meaning of an invariant of universal precedent names reflects not the reality as such but the cognitive structures of a linguistic identity of a particular society.

Spanish Quality Press Coverage of the Pandemic Issue in Russia

The author analyses the features of media coverage of the new coronavirus infection (Covid-19) in Russia based on the material published from March 1, 2020, to May 15, 2020, in the Spanish high-quality press – daily social-political newspapers El País, El Mundo, and ABC. These papers are most read and influential in the modern media space not only in Spain but in the international market, and in particular in Latin America. The main goal of the study is to show how the image of Russia in the international media space affects the presentation of the pandemic in Russia in Spanish mass media. The author also studies the “quality press” concept and analyses this through the prism of Russian and foreign approaches. The analysis of the publications (152 articles), selected using the keywords “Russia”, “Moscow”, “Putin”, “Covid-19”, showed that some newspapers, being of high-quality and most read, do not reflect the pandemic situation in Russia widely (El País), or represent the sanitary situation in Russia partly and in the context of the domestic politics focused on the figure of the President (El Mundo). Another newspaper ABC corresponds to all the requirements for the status of quality press and covers the current situation of the pandemic in Russia objectively; 75 materials published during the analysed period draw the readers’ attention to the situation with the pandemic and not on the political situation in Russia.

Public Information, Traditional Media and Social Networks during the COVID-19 Crisis in Spain

This research presents a diachronic study of the information given about COVID-19 by the main Spanish mass media through their accounts on social networks. The time frame of the analysis ranges from 1 March to 21 June 2020. Data were collected from the days prior to the proclamation of the state of alarm in Spain, in order to observe the growth in the demand for information about COVID-19, and ended on the day that the Spanish government allowed mobility between provinces and, consequently, the expiration of the alarm. It begins with a quantitative and qualitative analysis, the results of which allow us to explain the demand for public information, the degree of interest in the news and the level of interaction that developed. By adapting the Kübler-Ross model, it has been possible to identify the different stages of this public health and communication crisis in relation to public information and media sustainability. It has established the effectiveness of Facebook as an information platform with direct links to news, superior to other networks; the users’ predilection for issues of a social nature over political and technical–health issues; or the relationship found between the rate of publication of messages and the number of deaths from COVID-19.

Precedent phenomena of the contemporary russian and spanish mass media as cognitive structures of a linguistic identity

The present study is important since precedent phenomena, transmitting both traditional and newly created cultural values, are more widely represented in the mass media language. The paper suggests a cognitive approach aimed at identifying the role of knowledge (linguistic, non-linguistic, individual) in forming the precedent unit meaning, being the primary object of research in cognitive science. Examples of universal precedent names (Napoleon, Cinderella, Don Quixote, Adam) suggest that they store culturally valued (thematized) and implicit knowledge shared by communicants. Studying the binary structures (designator/designatum) of a concept defines the development dynamics of the precedent name’s meaning, relevant changes in structure of the core components of meaning, desemantization of the precedent name. Different Russian and Spanish interpretations show that prevailing content varies, and the language meaning of an invariant of universal precedent names reflects not the reality as such but the cognitive structures of a linguistic identity of a particular society.

Метафорические модели дискурсивного конструирования негативного образа России в испанских СМИ

This article deals with the problem of discourse designing of the negative image of Russia in Spanish mass media using metaphorical models with the target domain “Russia”. Within the framework of this study, a metaphorical model is defined as a mental scheme of connections between different conceptual domains, which is formed and fixed in the minds of native speakers. The material includes Spanish articles from reputable sources (El País and BBC News in Spanish) mentioning Russia (over 500,000 characters in total). With the use of discourse, corpus and lexical-semantic analysis as well as conceptual analysis of metaphorical models, the author found that the negative image of Russia is constructed in Spanish political media discourse through the following metaphorical models: “Russia is the country of Putin”, “Russia is the heir to the USSR” and “Russia is a pseudo-saviour of the world”. The following frames can be distinguished within the structure of the model “Russia is the country of Putin”: 1) Russia belongs to Putin; 2) Putin is a lifelong president; 3) Putinism is an ideology of Russian citizens. The metaphorical model “Russia is the heir to the USSR” includes the following stereotypical scenarios: 1) authoritarian, undemocratic methods of governance; 2) “Soviet” way of living; 3) backward economy. The frame that exists within the model “Russia is a pseudo-saviour of the world” actualizes the scenario of providing humanitarian aid for show. Among the lexical and grammatical representatives of these metaphorical models are the following: prepositional construction with de and the proper name Putin; adjectives with the semes “infinitely long, eternal” and “entire”; adjectives containing semes of distance/separateness; lexeme soviético, etc. The nominative field of the considered image contains both direct nominations, represented by the toponyms Rusia, Moscú and Kremlin, and metaphors that are mainly related to the size of the state. The stereotypical features of the source domain make it possible to create a negative image of Russia as an authoritarian, undemocratic state with an almost monarchical system, outdated Soviet governance methods, saviour-ofthe-world ambitions, and ostentatious behaviour in the international arena.

Spanish press during Transit period

This article analyzes the role of Spanish media systems in the transit period in Spain. By research of the Spanish massmedia systems of the late 70s - early 80s and their interaction with the government, have been identified the basic features of a role of the Spanish media systems in democratization of a society, and also reconstruction of the information system which has become diametrically opposed to the information system of the previous time.

Лексические средства дискурсивного конструирования образа В. Путина в испанских и американских СМИ в аспекте пандемии коронавируса

The paper analyses lexical means of V. Putin’s discursive image development in the American and Spanish mass media political discourse with a view to identify culturally specific strategies of the Russian President’s personality representation. The article describes constitutive characteristics of the mass media political discourse and presents a survey of the existing studies on the problem of developing discursive images of political figures and states. Scientific originality of the research involves the comprehensive approach to analysing lexical means of a discursive image development, which includes discourse analysis and corpus analysis using ‘Sketch Engine’ manager. The findings indicate that both the American and Spanish mass media impose an image of a President-dictator who considers pandemic is an opportunity to glorify himself. At the linguistic level, this pragmatic intention manifests itself by the use of lexemes containing the seme “rigid authoritarian politician” (dictator, pharaoh, father/custodian). The American political discourse tends to identify Putin with the virus itself through the use of lexical representatives belonging to the lexico-semantic field with the hyper-seme “virus”. The Spanish-speaking journalists emphasize Putin’s minor role during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is linguistically represented by the lexemes with the seme “sidelines/secondariness”.

La producción del discurso escrito en redes sociales respecto a las desapariciones de personas y consiguientes juicios paralelos. Caso de Gabriel Cruz (España) en Twitter y Facebook

The aim of this article is to account for the analysis of the reality represented in the construction of discourse, from a case of a qualitative etnographic study which blends into a double aspect: the disappearance of a minor which ended in tragedy and the supposed guilt of an immigrant belonging to the black race in a murder which had a wide spread media impact. Thus, in this discourse analysis and categorization analysis of the actants, we will try to clarify the different features, components and treatment in the official sites of Twitter and Facebook of four Spanish mass media: @telecincoes, @laSextaNoticias, @NoticiasCuatro and @A3Noticias. The results bring to light how discourse in social networks has a much wider projection if it is based on aporophobia, revealing itself as a ‘parallel trial’ normalized before certain social events, approach which is boosted by mass media itself.

Gender-Based Violence in Spain (Cultural and Ideological Approach)

The article is devoted to the one of the most important and actual issues of the modern society – the problem of gender-based violence. The country selection is explained by the position of Spain among the countries that have managed to minimize the gender gap (Spain is on the 8th position according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2020). On the other hand, Spain is a country where the tradition of the macho is grate. The typical form of macho’s behavior is demonstration of his power and despite towards women. This phenomenon of the patriarchal Spanish society gave rise to a great number of “new&8j1; types of gender-based violence (micromachisms, neomachisms and others). The problem of gender-based violence is talked in Spain, there are laws, state organisations and nongovernmental Foundations that try to eliminate the problem. This phenomenon is being studied within the framework of linguistics, first of all in the context of use in speech of terms. It is worth noting the paper of the Spanish media which not only inform us but form vision on any problem. The issue of gender-based violence is discussed in the Spanish mass media that’s why only a complex approach to the problem can help us to eradicate this problem and make our vision behaviour stereotypes free.

The analysis of citation in headlines in the Spanish press

Citation constitutes one of the most important components of text in all mass media, allowing for the concretization of events and serving to enhance media authenticity. The aim of this work is to study the structural features of the citation technique across headlines in the electronic editions of five leading Spanish mass media outlets between 2010 and 2018. Determined for the purpose of the study were the forms and frequency of three types of citation – direct, indirect and mixed – along with the structural features of the methods by which citation is integrated into a newspaper text. The conducted content analysis demonstrates that citation-driven headlines account for 15% of the total processed corpus and also clarifies the prevalence of direct citation (53%) among the three types. The division of source texts into two groups enables us to distinguish implicit citation as a special type tasked with citing the precedent text. In addition, three primary predicate groups are singled out: declarative, explicative and evaluative. These serve to introduce direct and indirect citations. The analysis of the narrating remark highlights the importance of the pragmatic function of citation in a newspaper text. The study confirms the significance and relevance of employing citation in headlines in the Spanish press and provides insight into the phenomenon of reported speech and the function of citation in mass media.

The Impact of Political Transformations on the Development of Spanish Culture After 1975

The Polish version of the article was published in Roczniki Humanistyczne 61 (2013), issue 2.
 The political transformations in Spain that ended with the free parliamentary elections of 15th June 1977 were a powerful catalyst for the activity of the Spanish nation in all walks of life. Between 1975 and 1990 a real revolution took place in the Spanish mass media and in culture. It resulted in the setting up of modern periodicals (among others, El País, El Mundo, Navarra Hoy, Diario la Rioja and many others), over 2,600 radio stations and a network of modern television channels broadcasting programs devoted to the culture and languages of the autonomous communities. The Ministry of Culture established in 1977 supported initiatives promoting the multiculturalism of the Kingdom of Spain, which resulted in the opening of several dozen modern museums, institutes of modern art and the organization of numerous festivals.
 The decentralization of the country made it possible to emphasize the multiculturalism of the Spanish autonomous communities that today act as a magnet for 70 million tourists from all over the world.

Spanish mass-media on Latin American migrants: between fear and pity

Mass-media discourse is a “mirror” of sorts, which reflects general opinions and allows for understanding society’s mindset concerning migration issues. This article is devoted to analyzing the images created by Spanish mass-media regarding Latin American immigrants residing in Spain. Such a vision ultimately led to the emergence of an enduring perception of said immigrants by Spanish society from two main points of view – fear and pity. Columbians and Ecuadorians served as the prototypes for all Latin Americans who illegally entered Spain. The author reveals the reasons for the “divide” in Spanish mass-media’s perception of Columbia and Columbians, who became synonymous with danger, as well as Ecuador and Ecuadorian immigrants, who are primarily associated with Испанские СМИ о латиноамериканских мигрантах: между страхом и жалостью 110 № 4, Том 10, 2019 compassion and pity. This article examines the main stages of Latin American migration to Spain at the end of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century, which were primarily comprised in succession by immigrants from Columbia, Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba. The author characterizes the most numerous of Spain’s Latin American Diasporas. It is revealed that immigration is a collectively constructed social phenomenon. In turn the host society attributes certain characteristics to visitors (“others”) which they in fact do not possess. Such artificially assigned qualities are the result of a so-called “symbolic structure”, attributed to each “imaginary migrant”. Latin American migration to Spain is a result of a multitude of factors lying on various levels. However, it is very uncommon for the news to carefully examine the regional and global aspects of this process. This article reveals the specific image of Latin American migrants which developed in Spain towards the beginning of the 21st century. The author attempts to define the hidden ideology supporting the vast majority of those negative Latin American migrant stereotypes broadcast by national mass-media.

Actual processes in the Spanish journalist discourse: Grammar and Syntax

In the article on the basis of practical examples the author consideres a number of actual processes and features of grammatical character in a discourse of modern Spanish mass media.

Las enfermedades poco frecuentes en los medios - Informe Abril - Junio 2014 - Observatorio sobre enfermedades raras FEDER (OBSER)

This report presents the analysis of how Spanish mass media dealt with the so-called rare deseases during the months of April, May and June of 2014. The report has the same general objective of the first one for the previous three months: understand how rare diseases are presented in the Spanish media and, correspondingly, how that media representation evolves. In this report, the data of the first trimester is compared to the second one.

Subtitulado, videosignado y audiodescripción en la España televisiva actual

The Broadcasting Act 2010, and subsequent amendments, was designed to facilitate disabled the access to the national audiovisual landscape. Through clearly defined quotas, Spanish mass media are required -among others- to subtitle for people with hearing problems, Video Marked for people with severe hearing impairments and audio description for the blind. To this end, the research shows an X-ray on the passage of legislative theory to actual practice with incidence of the following discrepancies: 1. Subtitled. Not always carried out in the case of environmental indications, limiting the work to mere text subtitles. 2. Video marked. Deaf Associations prefer the translator’s image superimposed on the left of the screen image, detail that goes unnoticed on a recurring basis. Moreover, in some cases, the programs offering this service are not varied and there are several passages to the same product to cover the required quota. On the other hand, the broadcast hours are late at night or at dawn. 3. Audio Description. The audio tracks 1 and 2 are ordinarily kept for the channel itself audio, being tracks 3 and 4 those used for the dual system, ie, for the program audio together with audio description system. Doing so implies that the television channels lose the ability to broadcast original version since they are using those tracks for audio description, that’s why there is the possibility of adding a 5th audio track only for audio description (on broadcast file, on tape it only has four channels). The latter problem is based on the fact that not everyone at home can select the 5th audio (which in TV audio means a 3rd audio option: the standard, the dual and an additional one).

Pensar y comunicar la ciencia en femenino. Notoriedad de las mujeres científicas en Internet

The article focuses on the treatment of men and women as protagonists of specialized scientific information in the Spanish mass media. The obtained results are part of the research project I+D+i nº 2011-004-INV-00016, Proyecto de Investigación para el Fomento de la Igualdad de Género en la Información Científica (Research Project for the promotion of Gender Equality in Scientific Information). In order to achieve the set objectives, the following are analysed and studied in the project: the presence of women scientists in the Internet and in the Spanish press, the image of women scientists in the national press and the gender prejudices and stereotypes in the media representation of women scientists, the correspondence between the media representation of women scientists and their real situation in Spain, and the social perception of women scientists in Spain. In this article, we will only focus on the results of the analysis of women scientists in the Internet. The corpus of information is what was published about science, research and technology in the period June-October 2012. The software programme used for the search and analysis of the information was the programme Swotti Premium. The analysis includes a mixed, quantitative and qualitative methodology: analysis of the texts on scientific topics, focusing on gender inequality and the use of certain words. Thus, for example, we noticed that men researchers are mentioned in a 61% of the cases, 39% in the case of women. After presenting the quantitative data, on mentions and opinions, we continue with the qualitative research by seeking the nouns and adjectives that accompany the researchers depending on their gender. The dangers of this inequality directly affect citizens, who construct sexist gender stereotypes also when thinking of Science.

The birth of a new resultative construction in Spanish: A corpus-based description

Abstract The Spanish prepositional phrase hasta la muerte ‘to death’, in addition to its emphatic and intensifying function (e.g. Hay que animar al equipo hasta la muerte ‘The team must be supported wholeheartedly (lit. to death)’), over the last few years developed a resultative function (e.g. Las mujeres fueron torturadas hasta la muerte ‘The women were tortured to death’; Lo apedrearon hasta la muerte ‘They stoned him to death’), equivalent to the one displayed by the English resultatives dead and to death (e.g. He shot the president dead; He stabbed the president to death). Until recently, however, the construction containing the prepositional resultative hasta la muerte was considered ungrammatical, a literal calque from English. Its attested presence in the Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual, albeit at low frequency levels, and its frequent occurrence nowadays in the Spanish mass media, clearly show that this construction is now making its way into the Spanish language

Criminality among Romanian Emigrants in Spain

The current community of Romanians in Spain is a very active and integrated one at all levels in the host society. There is a mass media developed by Romanians, a large number of churches and associations of our countrymen and, also, there are a high number of cultural and artistic events in the community. Unfortunately, the Spanish public perception on Romanian immigrants is not very good one, as they are seen as the most disagreeable group of emigrants. This is due to the high degree of antisocial and criminal activities with a strong social impact that Romanians commit in the host country as well as the intense media coverage of these events via all Spanish mass media channels.

NATIONAL WORLDVIEW IN BILINGUAL COMMUNICATION

This article analyses the concept “national and cultural worldview” in the size of bilingual communication, examines peculiarities in mass media texts translation. The article establishes important types of divergences between Spanish and Russian worldviews which are relevant for translation, for example: abundance in Spanish mass media texts of specific and exotic national idiomatic units, bright stylistic locutions, figurative expressions, syntactic constructions, text structures which, when used in oral and written speech sound weird and unexpected for Russian native speakers. Spaniards often use words from different spheres of life (sports, medicine, warfare, etc) in political communicative situations. The research finds that the Spanish language tends to actively coin new words and combination patterns of “event” semantics. The article gives examples from Spanish-Russian translations and proposes ways to overcome divergences in the context of the Spanish worldview. The author makes conclusion that the national and cultural distinctions are the fourth reason, besides systems, norms and uses, of differences between languages.