Citizens’ Apathy and Disinterest in Political Issues: The Presence of Conflict and Negativity in Political News in Spain Compared to 15 Countries

• In Event: Political Engagement and Agenda Setting in a New Media Ecosystem

Abstract

Citizens´ apathy and disinterest in political issues are one of the main problems of Spanish democracy and of developed Western societies. Data obtained in 2009 by the CIS (Centre for Sociological Research) show that 33% of the respondents in Spain are not interested in politics at all, 25,5% of Spaniards have little interest and 20,9% are just a little bit interested. This apathy and lack of interest can be promoted by some political news characteristics, as it is shown by authors who have studied the effects of spiral of cynicism. In this paper we have identified the presence (or absence) of negativity and a conflict frame in the political information provided by the main Spanish general media (press, television, Internet) in a ramdom sample of 563 political pieces of news. We have also compared our results with the ones that NEPOCS’ (Network of Political Communication Scholars) researchers got from 14 European countries and the United States using the same variables, methodology and period time. From this comparison we conclude that the presence of conflict and negativity in Spanish political news is among the lowest of these countries (position 12 out of 16 countries) and it is also very similar to data obtained in Belgium and Italy. The results we present are part of a national research project funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (CSO2013-44874-R).

Authors

• Rosa Berganza, University Rey Juan Carlos

• Roberto De Miguel, U Rey Juan Carlos

• Beatriz Herrero, U Rey Juan Carlos