This document analyzes Spanish press coverage of Poland's presidency of the European Union in newspapers El Mundo and El País. It finds that El Mundo paid little attention to the presidency and usually mentioned Poland in relation to Spanish interests. El País provided more in-depth coverage, including pieces explaining Poland's politics and economy. Overall, the Polish presidency received limited coverage in major Spanish newspapers.

1. Spanish Press Coverage of
the Polish Presidency of the
European Union
Adolfo Carratalá, Universitat de València
Miguel Vicente-Mariño, Universidad de Valladolid
II Congress of Political Science
Poznan (POL), 20/IX/2012

2. Spain, Europe and Poland
• How do the Spanish people see Europe?
– Source of income, welfare and progress
– Source of problems and impositions
• Anyway, Spanish people evaluate
positively the membership of Spain within
the European Union
• But, how deep is their knowledge about
Europe? And about Poland?

3. Rationale
• A part of the public understanding about
both Europe and Poland is built upon
media messages, so a close attention to
how certain topics are treated in reference
diaries can provide us with some useful
insights about the individual and collective
views of other countries

4. Sample
• Four Spanish media were selected
1. El País (Printed version)
2. El Mundo (Printed version)
3. La Vanguardia (Online version)
4. El Punt / Avui (Online version)

5. Sampling criteria
• Some features were considered relevant
in order to select these four media
1. Type of media (conventional vs online)
2. Ideological position (conservative vs
progressist)
3. Scope (national vs regional)
4. Place of production (Madrid vs Catalonia)

6. Sampling period
• Different periods of time
1. El País
• From 15th
June to 31st
December
2. El Mundo
• From 15th
June to 15th
July
• From 12th
October to 31st
December
3. La Vanguardia
• From 1st
October to 15th
January 2012
4. El Punt / Avui
• From 1st
October to 15th
January 2012

7. Sampling size
• El País
– 41 news pieces in 199 editions
• El Mundo
– 15 (valid) pieces in 112 editions, although
there were more than 100 mentions in news
stories
• La Vanguardia
– 6 news pieces in 107 days
• El Punt / Avui
– 4 news pieces in 107 days

8. Preliminary decisions
• The low presence of news coverage in
digital media drove us to focus our
research on the comparison of the two
main reference newspapers (in terms of
circulation) published daily in Spain

9. Results – El Mundo
• When Poland is mentioned, it is because of
there is a relation with a Spanish actor
• It is almost never presented as main character

10. Results – El Mundo
• Almost all presences are related with
sports and culture, most of them giving no
background about Poland

11. Both sides of personalisation: respectful vs sensationalist
Results – El Mundo

12. Results – El Mundo
Part of International (UE) comparisons and charts

13. Results – El Mundo
Collateral mentions: close to Germany

14. El Mundo
• Human interest
stories are a clear
exception (only this
news story), and it is
connected with the
integration of
immigrants in Spain

15. • But Poland is also
beginning to be
mentioned as an
option for Spanish
migrating to other
European countries
Results – El Mundo

16. Results – El Mundo
There is only one mention to the
European Presidency, and it is
completely collateral
And only two
appearances in
headlines

17. Results – El País
• Bigger coverage
– Launching of the Presidency
• El Pais: 2 interviews
• El Mundo: not a single mention to this fact

18. Results – El País
• Highlights
– Summits / Meetings
• Foreign Affairs Ministers
• European Congress of Culture
• Economy Ministers
• Presence in CoP 17 (Durban)

19. Results – El País
Other topics (unrelated with UE)
– Flight accident
– Positive economic evolution of
Poland
– Basket
– Elections in Poland
– Secularization of society
– Participation in Euro summit
– Presence (as a member-state in
charts comparing diverse
aspects within Europe)

20. Results – El País
• 15 out of 41 news stories were focused
(totally or partially) on the UE Polish
Presidency, while the remaining 26 were
devoted to Poland

21. Results – El País
Predominance of information genres, but with a
common presence of opinion pieces
Genre of news stories (N = 41)
New s Report Editorial
Column Press review Guest contribution
Interview Letters to Editor Others

22. Results – El País
The economic frame is clearly dominant
Dominant topic in news stories (N = 41)
Environment
5%
Culture
2%
Accidents /
Disasters
2%
Sports
2%
Internal Politics
17%
International
25%
Economy
47%

23. Results – El País
• This newspaper usually gives record to
the liberal government

24. Results – El País
• And sometimes
Poland is
presented as
an attractive
destination for
Spanish people
“Now no one shows sad faces when I say I live in Poland”

25. About methodology
• Sampling period must be the same in
order to establish trustable comparisons
within national media and between media
operating in different territories
• Going beyond the numbers and figures is
required to explore issues with a low
presence in media coverage: a qualitative
approach is necessary to understand
better what was the media portrayal

26. Conclusions
• The Polish Presidency of the European
Union was not a main topic of interest for
the main Spanish newspapers
• However, El Pais showed a bigger and
deeper coverage of issues, with some
good in-depth news pieces explaining
keys to understand the present and future
of Poland

27. Conclusions
• El Mundo paid no attention at all to the
Polish presidency. They usually presented
Poland either as the scenario (sports,
culture) or among other countries taking
common decisions, usually very close to
Germany
• While El Mundo always talk about Poland
if it is somehow related to Spain, El Pais
sometimes presents Poland as a major
international actor

28. Spanish Press Coverage of
the Polish Presidency of the
European Union
Adolfo Carratalá, Universitat de València
adolfo.carratala@uv.es
Miguel Vicente-Mariño, Universidad de Valladolid
mvicentem@yahoo.es / miguelvm@soc.uva.es
Thank you very much!