Information on the COVID-19 Pandemic in Daily Newspapers’ Front Pages: Case Study of Spain and Italy

Santiago Tejedor, Laura Cervi, Fernanda Tusa, Marta Portales and Margarita Zabotina
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Santiago Tejedor: Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
Laura Cervi: Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
Fernanda Tusa: Faculty of Social Sciences, Technical University of Machala, Machala 070201, Ecuador
Marta Portales: Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
Margarita Zabotina: International Office, Kazan Federal University, 420008 Kazan, Rusia

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-16

Abstract: Spain and Italy are amongst the European countries where the COVID-19 pandemic has produced its major impact and where lockdown measures have been the harshest. This research aims at understanding how the corona crisis has been represented in Spanish and Italian media, focusing on reference newspapers. The study analyzes 72 front pages of El País and El Mundo in Spain and Italy’s Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica, collecting 710 news items and 3456 data evidences employing a mixed method (both qualitative and quantitative) based on content analysis and hemerographic analysis. Results show a predominance of informative journalistic genres (especially brief and news), while the visual framing emerging from the photographic choice, tend to foster humanization through an emotional representation of the pandemic. Politicians are the most represented actors, showing a high degree of politicization of the crisis.

Keywords: COVID-19; newspapers; media; journalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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