Mass media and the public sphere: The case of the Spanish press's treatment of the public policies surrounding the foreigners act

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze, with a mixed, quantitative and qualitative content analysis methodology, how written press contributes to create the public sphere regarding migration, by means of a case study about the treatment of migration policies related to the Spanish Foreigners Act. For this purpose, we will examine the selection made by six newspapers of their sources, topic categories and dominant discourses in favor of or against the migration phenomenon. With the results obtained in the case study, which covers the period 2003-2016, we can infer a clear preference for official sources over social ones and a clear relation between favourite source types in each one of the six newspapers analysed, with their topics and dominant discourses about immigration. As a conclusion, the press is acting merely as a transmission belt for the official message, and thus makes us doubtt the mediating role that it should have in a democratic society, by contributing in a determining way in the formation of a plural public sphere.