Elementos de espectacularización en los informativos televisivos de 'prime time': El caso de 'Charlie Hebdo'

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to analyze the coverage done by the Spanish television channel Telecinco of the attack to the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, dated in Paris on 7 January 2015, in order to assess if there has been spectacularization or not in its treatment. The terrorist outrage had a global repercussion but there is still little research about its communicative aspects. The content analysis focused on 14 days prime time bulletins, with a global amount of 99 pieces of news observed. Different categories have been created to study the visual characteristics, as well as the verbal text. The quantitative and qualitative results confirm that dramatization, conflict, reiteration, exaggeration and fragmentation supported a spectacularized coverage, leading to an extreme tematization of the Charlie Hebdo case. The discussion points out that it is necessary to really think about the techniques to construct news in a plural and balanced coverage of public issues.