Negative Media Coverage and the Electoral Campaign in the 2008 General Election

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the behavior of Spain’s main media
within a specifi c electoral context: the 2008 General Election. To this
end, we analyzed the coverage of the major Spanish newspapers (El
País, El Mundo and Abc) in order to determine whether their agenda
setting and framing had political motives, in addition to the merely
informative intention. Spanish media had at least two options within
the context of the elections: to offer their readers a neutral coverage
or, on the contrary, to taint it with obvious partisanship. Our fi ndings
demonstrate the predominance of the latter option.