News about Spanish Monarchy in the new digital media: Eldiario.es and Vozpopuli.com

Abstract

The news regarding the Spanish Royal Family have traditionally been limited to a very respectful, positive and rather pleasant coverage. This tendency has dramatically changed in the last months, due to a corruption scandal involving some members of the Royal Family, which has also been extremely salient as a result of the serious economic crisis and the action of new digital media and communicative spaces developed in Internet. The present study intends to analyze the news regarding the Monarchy published in two new digital media: Eldiario.es y Vozpopuli.com, in order to identify, through a combined quantitative and qualitative methodological approach, the main issues related to this institution, the main characters involved, and, basically, the way the Monarchy is treated by these two digital media. The hypothesis we would like to confirm is if digital media cover issues related to the Royal Family in a rather critical way, but also depending on their respective editorial policies. The time frame selected consists of the whole month of April 2013, a selection which is justified by two main events: a) the accusation of Infanta Cristina in the corruption case and b) the proclamation’s anniversary of the II Spanish Republic. Results show that the coverage offered by both digital media is generally critical, though the focus of the critic varies depending of the ideological views of each media: from a rather personal attack to some of the members of the Royal Family to a systematic questioning of the monarchic institution.