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The media landscape in Spain

Under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975) the Spanish media were controlled by the military. After Franco's death in 1975 the newly founded newspaper El País became the symbol of the transition to democracy. Since 1978 the country's constitution has guaranteed the freedom of opinion and the press.

Plaza Mayor, Madrid
Foto: dalbera, Lizenz: Creative Commons /by/2.0

Nevertheless almost four decades of democratic development have not been able to bridge the ideological divide in Spanish society, which is also reflected in today's media landscape. The influential national dailies are often criticised for being too close to the political parties, while a change of government in Madrid never fails to affect the orientation of public broadcasting.

Analogous to the two major political parties – the conservative People's Party (PP) and the Socialists (PSOE) – the media can be ordered along ideological lines. Conservative dailies like ABC, El Mundo and La Razón are strong advocates of the royal family, the Catholic Church and a central, unified state ruled from Madrid. Left-liberal media like El País, Público and El Periódico call for a secular, federal welfare state in which the monarchy and the Church play a minor role. These dailies are more open to calls for greater regional autonomy and regional linguistic demands.

Private television was introduced in 1990. Apart from public stations at the national and regional levels, four private stations broadcast nationwide.

The dailies face strong competition from the Internet and the very successful free papers. Advertising revenues have declined since 2008 and the start of the economic crisis, and newspapers have had to tighten their belts. At the same time media concentration is growing with a small number of companies uniting print, television and multimedia offers under a single roof.

Spain's colourful blogosphere counteracts to some extent the concentration of media strongly influenced by political parties and business interests. Spanish blogs like Microsiervos regularly figure in international rankings.

This country's media at euro|topics