El tarannà diferent i el pluralisme als mitjans catalans. Anàlisi de l'opinió periodística a Madrid i a Barcelona

Abstract

Journalistic opinion, and above all political opinion, has transformed Spain into fertile ground for the battle between the mass media, a fight not only about information but also about business and politics. And the figure of the "opinion makers", fundamentally journalists, writers and politicians, has become a key figure in this bloody battle, to the extent that the line taken by a medium can be indelibly marked by its opinion makers. Through analysis of the opinion makers and the media in which they appear, we can establish certain" opinion networks" from the fact that the opinion makers themselves are shared by different media. The networks thus defined demonstrate the existence of two variables: one which is territorial, that is to say, the opinion makers maintain relationships with colleagues which work for media covering the same area of circulation; and the other variable which has a political and/or business aspect, that is, the opinion makers themselves tend to be grouped together in media which have links through ownership or which have similar political lines. We have a clear example of how these two variables overlap in Catalonia, where we can find news products produced by media groups based in Madrid and Barcelona. The result of this situation in Catalonia shows that, leaving aside commonplaces about the different character of the press in Barcelona and Madrid, all the media exclusive to the Catalan region (territorial variable) are aligned with one of the factions, that of the Prisa group, based in Madrid, as opposed to the other, also based in Madrid and formed around the AEPI, the Association of variable), from which we can conclude that, in reality, it is possible that the Catalan media has a different character (which requires independent analysis), but this media is not exactly characterized by a high degree of pluralism.