The mediatization of the independence process of Catalonia: the role of metaphor in the news coverage of El Mundo, El País and La Vanguardia

Abstract

Media play a determinant role in the construction of public opinion, as they conform “the main source and focus of a society’s shared experience” (McNair, 2007:18). They articulate the positions of the dierent actors involved in the denition of a conictive issue, where metaphor plays a relevant role because of its ability to “simplify and make understandable political events” (Mio, 1997:121). The present research analyzes the media treatment of a conictive political process through the use of metaphor and focuses on the independence process in Catalonia as a case study. The sample is made up by the media coverage (information and opinion articles) of three newspapers with dierent editorial policies (La Vanguardia, El País and El Mundo) between the 11th and the 14th of September 2015. These dates coincide with the beginning of the electoral campaign for the Catalan parliamentary election, which was to be held on 27 September 2015. In order to determinate which position did every newspaper take on the conict and, therefore, which were their points of view on the issue that was being treated, we identied the metaphorical expressions that referred to the following target domains: Independence/Independence process (1), Catalonia/ Spain relationship (2) and 27-S Election (3). Results show that, within the metaphors that appear most frequently, we can nd those related to conict/war, journey/way/movement and family/love/friendship source domains, which respectively conceptualize the electoral campaign, the independence process and the Catalonia/Spain relationship.