A quantitative approach to headlines after the arab spring

Abstract

The implications and consequences of the Arab Spring did not go unnoticed by the media around the world. Firstly, because the riots were one of the most unexpected events of the last decade. And secondly, because the media, especially social media, could play a key role in the protests. More than nine years later, there are few elements to speak of the success, in terms of the democratization of the countries which experienced these popular mobilizations. Faced with this reality, the question of what remains of the Arab Spring in the Spanish media, is highlighted. The current research explores the main topics covered by the Spanish press during the post-Arab Spring period (2012-2020). The Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) algorithm was used to do this. The results show that the Spanish press has focused special attention on conflicting elements in the countries which experienced revolts. In addition, there was an informative over-dimensioning of the realities of culturally close Arab countries. The objective is not only to make a theoretical approach on the object of study, but to reinforce the usefulness of this technique in its own works of political communication.