Spanish Press Research Articles

Water Metaphors and Evaluation of Syrian Migration: The Flow of Refugees in the Spanish Press

ABSTRACT In 2015 and 2016, European newspapers covered the Syrian migration into Europe in great detail, describing the path followed by millions of refugees as European authorities put up both physical and metaphorical obstacles to stop their advance. Water metaphors, a common resource in immigration discourse, were extensively used in the media during this period. Apparently neutral, expressions like the flow of refugees or a new wave of immigrants seemed to be devoid of ideological bias, and so an objective, factual way to present the news about it. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the contexts in which water metaphors were used in two ideologically opposed Spanish newspapers in this period. Results show that their descriptive function was surpassed by the evaluative one, as revealed by the high frequency of force dynamic schemas underlying the flow metaphor, the most frequent one in the sample. Negatively charged, the frequent use of flow to refer to Syrian refugees could have affected public opinion on the event. Also, a contrastive analysis suggests that there are subtle differences between the right and the left wing when using these metaphors, but they are not as significant as expected, since both newspapers tend to avoid overt negativity in their discourse on Syrian migration. Considering the relatively small size of the sample, further work needs to be done to confirm these results in the Spanish press and also to extend the analysis to other European media.

Relations between the Russian Federation and the European Union as Reflected by the Spanish Press in 2021

The article deals with the image of Russia and its relations with the European Union as reflected by two Spanish newspapers in 2021. The content analysis covered twenty publications from The El Mundo and fiſty from The El Pais. The articles focus on the following topics: expulsion of diplomats, mutual accusations in espionage and disinformation, Nord Stream II, Satellite V, A. Navalny, Russia and Belarus, and the recent events in Ukraine. The official position of the European Union towards Russia oſten seems incoordinate. The bilateral relations between Russia and Spain receive little attention while evaluative statements made by European politicians about Russia create a negative and aggressive image of this country in the Spanish press.

The (in)visibility of women in the press specializing in literature: an analysis of the presence of women writers in Spanish cultural supplements

This paper aims to dissect the presence of female writers in the main four cultural supplements of Spanish reference press: Babelia (El país), Cultura|s (La vanguardia), El cultural (El mundo) and ABC cultural (ABC). For this, we analyzed the “books of the year” recommended between 2010 and 2021 (n = 1,286), as well as the juries in charge of elaborating these ranks. The results show the subsidiary role reserved for women in this sphere of cultural informtion: they barely author 25.3% of the selected books, although some degree is progress is observed in the historical series, after going from 4.8% in 2011 to 37.8% in 2020. The increase in the presence of women in the juries has contributed to this phenomenon –the correlation between ratio of women in both lists being statiscally significant (rs = 0.647, p < 0.001)–, together with the commitment of supplement such as Babelia and Cultura|s to literature written by women. On the contrary, there still seem to be pockets of exclusion in El cultural and ABC cultural, which reduce the visibility of work of female writers in Spain. According to our findings, women authors stand out for their youth (they are between 8 and 20 years younger than men, depending on the indicator), cosmopolitism (there are more foreign female writers, especially American, than Spanish) and origin (mainly, Madrid and Barcelona). This article evinces the collective imaginary, settled for centuries, by which literature was considered a men’s affair, and reflects on the role of cultural journalism and its prescriptive function when it comes to breaking down gender stereotype –a task that, in view of the data provided in this paper, is still far from been completed.

The Barcelona Attack as an Example of a New Way of Carrying Out a Terrorist Attempt in an Urban Space Using a Vehicle Ramming a Crowd of Pedestrians

Abstract In this article the author presents problems related to the use of a new way of carrying out attacks by terrorists and terrorist groups, which is the use of vehicles to ram people in crowded areas of urban space. This method is presented based on the 2017 attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, Spain. The text presents the course of the attack, the actions of the services, as well as a detailed analysis of these attacks. The material on which the article was based was taken from Spanish press and from communications made available by the services responsible for state security. In the conclusion the author draws particular attention to the increasing use of the method of ramming people with vehicles by terrorists and the ways in which this should be counteracted.

Critical analysis of dehumanizing news photographs on immigrants: Examples of the portrayal of non-citizenship

This paper analyses the main visual characteristics of sub-Saharan immigrants represented as non-citizens in a sample from the Spanish press, and deepens on how this contributes to perpetuating the ‘we-they’ dichotomy. The data consist of all the news items published on sub-Saharan immigrants in the digital editions of the Spanish newspapers El País and ABC from 1 January 2016 to 1 January 2021. Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual grammar and van Leeuwen’s model for the visual representation of social actors will be the theoretical frameworks. The findings indicate that there are different visual ways to portray immigrants as non-citizens, which allows establishing this classification: representing immigrants’ arrival as illegal and clandestine, portraying them as invaders, representing immigrants as violent individuals or associating them with animalization. All these can be considered visual dysphemisms that problematize the arrival of immigrants and highlight the differences between Spanish population and immigrants.

Genesis and institutionalization of modern sport in northern Morocco under the Spanish Protectorate

This article aims to describe the process of anchoring, institutionalization and diffusion of modern sport in northern Morocco, and in Tetouan in particular, the capital of the Spanish protectorate (1913-1956). By referring to works describing some of the sports and physical activities practised in schools during the protectorate period, and by relying on some issues of the Spanish press of the protectorate period, the paper shows that although the British are to be credited with the introduction of the game of football and its relative diffusion in some cities and towns of northern Morocco, its supervised practice is mainly the responsibility of the colonists and the Spanish military. These two precursors of football in Morocco during colonization organized and practised it for entertainment purposes, mainly for the benefit of the Moroccan Spaniards. However, if the Europeans forbade Moroccans to take part in military gymnastics because it was considered dangerous, sport, which was considered a game and had no political charge, seemed less dangerous and, consequently, more accessible to the indigenous Muslims. The latter took advantage of this to appropriate a new culture while remaining totally absent from the management and decision-making structures.

Discourse, Immigration and the Spanish Press: Critical Analysis of the Discourse on the Ceuta and Melilla Border Incident

The Spanish press relayed the events that unfolded during the migratory incident that occurred in Ceuta and Melilla on 17 May 2021. Considering the media’s key role in social and ideological construction, the purpose of this article is to analyze the informative treatment that the Spanish press gave to this incident, contributing to the study of the image that is shown about the migrant population in the media. For this, the present qualitative study performed a critical analysis, using the Atlas software. Ti 8, of the discourse featuring in the newspaper publications of El País, El Mundo, La Vanguardia and ABC. The results demonstrated the following tendencies: a negative-tone discourse; the invisibility of migrant women; and a “we” vs. “them” narrative. In the light of this reality, we suggest that improvements be made, including a shift in the media’s populist discourse and a greater focus on diasporas.

Tourismification narratives and the ‘Transformative turn’ in tourism. An analysis derived from the Spanish press debate on the Barcelona tourism model

This article analyses the content of 2742 news items on tourismification and tourism-phobia in Barcelona published in the Spanish press between 2008 and 2020. Based on Foucault’s theoretical approach to the study of discourse and applying a content analysis method, the social construction of a tourism model is critically analysed through the examination of tourismification narratives. The dominant discourse on tourismification expressed by the Spanish press is organised into the following three narrative axes: the use of a local community point of view to highlight mass tourism as a contested social issue, governance as a solution for tourismification within the framework of the debate about the city’s tourist identity and the use of tourism-phobia as a formula for politicisation of the discourse on tourism, to influence public opinion and develop power relations. The press discourse proposes a narrative that incorporates a critical reading of tourism in place of the previous growth-based discourse. However, while this discourse advocates for tourism as an invariable, necessary and strategic element of the city, even during episodes of extreme tourism crisis, it fights shy of alternative approaches that call for a ‘transformative turn’ in tourism.

CAMPS, A.(UNIVERSIDAD DE BARCELONA): CRÓNICAS, COMENTARIOS Y NOTICIAS DE TEMÁTICA ITALIANA EN ‘LA VANGUARDIA ESPAÑOLA’ (1945-1962)

En este ensayo, concebido como continuación de nuestros anteriores trabajos sobre el tema, nos centraremos en el estudio de la presencia de noticias y comentarios de temática literaria referidos a Italia que aparecen en la prensa catalana de los años comprendidos entre 1945 y 1962 (fecha que comúnmente se considera que da inicio a un nuevo periodo en la historia cultural del franquismo). Para ello, analizaremos las referencias de cualquier orden a la literatura italiana que aparecen en un periódico de gran tiraje y larga tradición en Barcelona, como es La Vanguardia, por entonces, denominado La Vanguardia Española, siguiendo la tónica de los tiempos.

Strategies of the Spanish press in the face of the Twitter algorithm change. Analysis of tweets published between 2018-2020

Twitter recently celebrated its 15th anniversary. During this period, the platform has gone through several phases, culminating in a record number of subscribers and profits in 2021. Twitter is a household name all over the world and people know what it can or cannot provide, independent of the future growth that it may experience with new investments and updates. This article aims to verify two interrelated hypotheses, namely: the Spanish press already knows how to optimise the social network Twitter, as three decades have elapsed since its launch; and, secondly, the algorithm modification implemented by Twitter in 2018 has triggered a change in the positioning of the headers studied in this social network. In order to demonstrate both, the object of analysis will be conducted by a mixed approach through quantitative statistical processes (which will study the number of impacts and retweets and likes obtained), and inductive qualitative methods such as semi-structured interviews. This multidisciplinary approach will provide a more complete and in-depth analysis of the phenomenon. The research focuses on the period between 2018 and 2020, and addresses the participation on Twitter of the four main traditional newspapers (El País, La Vanguardia, ABC and El Mundo) as well as four native digital newspapers (20 Minutos, El Español, elDiario.es and El Huffpost). The analysis comprises more than 1.5 million tweets among the eight chosen newspapers.

Critical analysis of the main discourses of the Spanish press about the rescue of the ship «Aquarius»

This article presents an analysis of the main discourses that appear in a sample of Spanish newspapers before and after the arrival of the Aquarius at the port of Valencia in June 2018, in order to observe if there is a solidarity discourse or one that rejects the arrival of the rescued immigrants in Spain. The corpus consists of all the news published from June 10 to July 10, 2018 in the electronic version of the Spanish newspapers ABC, El Mundo, El País and La Vanguardia. The methodology is mainly qualitative-descriptive. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was chosen to observe the main linguistic characteristics of the collected news items and the topics that appear in the articles. The analysis shows that the testimonies of politicians and members of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) predominate, but there are few testimonies of immigrants. The solidarity and acceptance of Spain are strengthened, as well as the defense of human rights. This contrasts with the discourses that the press presents after the arrival of the ship in Valencia. A discourse related to the health of immigrants and their need for help and resources predominates, a fact that contributes to the alarm of the majority group.

El viaje romántico en clave de género: Carolina Coronado y su paseo europeo desde el Tajo al Rin

This work focuses on one of the very few examples of women's travel literature during Spanish Romanticism: the series of seven articles published by Carolina Coronado in the newspaper La Ilustración between 1851 and 1852 under the title «Un paseo desde el Tajo al Rhin. Descansando en el Palacio de Cristal». In the mid-19th century, Spanish women, unlike their European counterparts, still showed little inclination to travel and, moreover, their marginal socio-literary position was not an incentive to leave a written record of their few trans-Pyrenean excursions. Carolina Coronado, however, travelled around Europe for several months and dared to recount her experience in a literary genre unusual for Spanish women through the pages of one of the most modern illustrated newspapers of the time, which constitutes a female intellectual and authorial assertion that is absolutely unusual in our cultural context of the mid-1800s. This article reviews the discoursive strategies, devices and negotiations through which Carolina Coronado's exercise of authority was able to find its place in the public sphere —the nineteenth-century Spanish press— to become a singular example of female romantic travel literature.

“Ukraine and its last troubadour”. An unexpected story about Ukraine in the Spanish press of the XIX century

The article examines the perception of the Spanish reading public about Ukraine in the third quarter of the XIX century. For this, two groups of journalistic materials were analyzed - "Letters from Russia" (1856–1857) by Juan Valera and the article with a continuation "Ukraine and its last troubadour", published in the official publication "Gaceta de Madrid" in 1878, which was first introduced in scientific circulation. The content of these publications is defined as a turning point in the perception of Ukrainian lands. This was influenced by the spread of the ethnographic approach, which required the study of peoples instead of states and offered a systematic historical and cultural image of the population of the southwestern provinces of the Russian Empire. In the "Letters" of J. Valera, there is still an established until the beginning of the 19th century, the dichotomy of the negative and positive image of the Cossack; on the other hand, in the materials of "Gaceta de Madrid", the story about the Cossacks fits into the broader context of the past and present population of the modern Ukrainian lands, for which the author mainly uses the term "Ukraine" (Ukrania) and much less often "Little Russia" ( la pequeña Rusia). This allows us to state that thanks to the ethnographic approach, there was a transition from the idea of ​​the semi-wild lands of the Cossacks and Tatars, lost in the not-so-wide expanses of Eastern Europe, to a clearly defined ethnographic territory, which in the modern era took the name of Ukraine.

Venezuelan migrants in Spain

Venezuela is experiencing an unprecedented exodus as a result of ongoing political, economic and humanitarian crises. While the majority of emigrants remain in neighbouring Latin American countries, the US and Europe are also among the preferred destinations. The way migrants are covered in the media shapes public opinion and has an impact on their integration into society. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine the coverage of Venezuelan migrants in the Spanish press in a timeframe from 2015 to 2020. For this purpose, a linguistic discourse analysis is conducted. The results contrast with the current state of research. With the help of the sociological "othering"-theory and the concept of the so-called "aporofobia", it is possible to explain how the image of good (and "bad") migrants is discursively constructed.

Metonymies, Immigration and the Press: From Ilegales to Guiris

The current paper explores the Lexical and Conceptual Metonymies employed by the Spanish press to refer to immigrants from cognitive and critical discourse perspectives. Two corpora of news stories are analyzed: the first contains news stories from the Comunidad de Madrid, whereas the second is contextualized and geolocalized in a particular area of Madrid, Lavapiés, where several studies have revealed a tendency to use the diversity present in this territory as a marketing strategy. The analysis brings to light differences and similarities in the underlying metonymical discourse of each corpus, namely in terms of the distribution of the Conceptual Metonymies found therein, as well as their correlation with a positive, neutral or negative assessment of the given news story. The metonymical discourse of the first corpus correlates most strongly with neutral assessments, while that of the second corpus correlates largely with positive assessments of the conceptualizations.

Conchita Montenegro and the Spanish press: from national pride to nationalist melodrama

ABSTRACT The Spanish press reported on Conchita Montenegro, a Spanish actress who moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s, with ambiguous and contradictory messages. On the one hand, her stint in Tinseltown was celebrated as a national triumph: a young Spanish woman had managed to seduce and conquer the Hollywood film industry. On the other hand, the fact that in Hollywood she played female archetypes at odds with the conservative morality of Catholic Spain was silenced. Decades later, after her death, the Spanish press has restored Conchita Montenegro’s fame, this time through a sensationalist, melodramatic story similar to the way Hollywood stars are promoted. Based on a comparative study between journalistic sources from both periods, this article demonstrates that the way Montenegro was treated as a film star in the press reflects the same nationalist fervour, even though the focus of her patriotic exemplariness in the 1930s gave way to a melodramatic vision of her Hollywood career more recently.

Men’s and Women’s Basketball Coverage in the Spanish Digital Press During the 2016 Rio Olympics

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the differences in the representation of women and men in basketball news in the Spanish digital sports press during 2016 Olympic Games from a gender perspective with the aim of investigating whether media coverage was unequal. The sample comprises 679 news articles published in Marca.com and MundoDeportivo.com from 1 July to 30 September 2016. The study analyzed 15 variables: date, sport, sex of main subject, nationality, number of photographs, authorship, external sources of information, direct and indirect speech, news about medals, main topic, representation of the main subjects, gender marking, and presence of gender stereotypes and their typology in the text and photographs. Results show a clear inequality in the representation of women and men both (i) quantitatively and (ii) qualitatively: (i) female teams were underrepresented in the information and the photographs and (ii) the nature of the content. Finally, it is argued that greater coverage of female athletes by itself is insufficient to achieve equality unless it is accompanied by a qualitative change.

The Europe of Brexit: a corpus-assisted discourse study of identities in the press

Drawing on a what is known as corpus-assisted discourse study (CADS) approach (Baker et al., 2008), this article will research the construction of different identities by means of the language used in two newspaper articles on Brexit from the Spanish El País and the British The Guardian, to examine how these identities are constructed through media discourse at the time following the Brexit referendum (2016-2018). Media discourse surrounding Brexit is examined under the consideration of media power. A comparable corpus made up of original newspaper articles about Brexit was used to carry out the analysis, identifying statistically significant keywords compared with a reference corpus with the aim of providing an example of how the British and Spanish press construct identity.

Overview of ADoBo 2021:: Automatic Detection of Unassimilated Borrowings in the Spanish Press

espanolEn este articulo presentamos los resultados de ADoBo 2021, la tarea compartida de IberLEF 2021 sobre deteccion de prestamos lexicos en la prensa espanola. En esta tarea abordamos la deteccion de prestamos como un problema de etiquetado de secuencias. A los participantes de la tarea se les proporciono un corpus de prensa espanola anotado con prestamos lexicos no asimilados (mayoritariamente anglicismos) siguiendo el esquema BIO. Recibimos nueve sistemas distintos provenientes de cuatro equipos diferentes. Los resultados obtenidos oscilan entre los 37 y los 85 puntos de valor F1, lo que indica que la deteccion de prestamos lexicos es un problema no resuelto (sobre todo cuando se abordan prestamos no vistos anteriormente) y que el trabajo lexicografico tradicional podria beneficiarse de incorporar las tecnicas actuales del PLN. EnglishThis paper summarizes the main findings of the ADoBo 2021 shared task, proposed in the context of IberLef 2021. In this task, we invited participants to detect lexical borrowings (coming mostly from English) in Spanish newswire texts. This task was framed as a sequence classification problem using BIO encoding. We provided participants with an annotated corpus of lexical borrowings which we split into training, development and test splits. We received submissions from 4 teams with 9 different system runs overall. The results, which range from F1 scores of 37 to 85, suggest that this is a challenging task, especially when out-of-domain or OOV words are considered, and that traditional methods informed with lexicographic information would benefit from taking advantage of current NLP trends.

The Crossfire Rhetoric. Success in Danger vs. Unsustainable Growth. Analysis of Tourism Stakeholders’ Narratives in the Spanish Press (2008–2019)

Tourism has always stood out in terms of economic opportunities and personal enjoyment. However, the problem of overtourism has emerged in recent years in urban contexts of cities with diversified economies. Overtourism has become—to a much greater extent than any other variable challenging the sustainability of the tourism model—an object of public debate and the media reflect this debate, which, in the case of Spain, is concentrated in the term “tourismphobia.” This paper aims to analyse the two main opposing narratives reflected in the Spanish media on the emergence of the problem of tourismphobia and that defined what was happening to influence both public opinion and public policymakers themselves. The methodological approach used is the narrative policy framework (NPF), which considers public policies as a social construct, shaped by particular ideologies, values, and worldviews that are structured in narratives. The conclusions point to the fact that even though the “success in danger” narrative was the winner, for the first time the sustainability of the country’s tourism model is being broadly questioned and by very diverse actors. It is also clear that in order to change the trajectory of consolidated tourism policies, it is necessary to build tangible public policy alternatives that can be articulated and implemented by public actors. Based on the findings of the paper, future lines of research could use the “Narrative Policy Framework” for the analysis of sustainable tourism policies or for the study of overtourism in different countries from a comparative perspective.