How depopulation has been settled in the media agenda
Vanesa Saiz-Echezarreta, Belén Galletero-Campo, Andreu Castellet-Homet and Arturo Martínez-Rodrigo sign in El profesional de la información (open access) the article Evolution of the public problem of depopulation in Spain: longitudinal analysis in the media agenda.
This work is one of the first results of the research project Problems and mediatized publics: emotions and participation (2022-25). It statistically analyzes a corpus of 5,980 newspaper headlines in the regions of Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León, and two national media, corresponding to the period 2012-2021, observing the evolution of media coverage of depopulation, the emergence and transformation of the concepts with which the problem is described and its relationship with the most important milestones of social and political mobilization.
It highlights the consolidation of depopulation as a stable element in the Spanish media agenda, beyond the regional level. One of the reasons why the issue has settled on the agenda of the media, beyond specific events, is the continuous use of terms such as España Vacía and España Vaciada, a framework that accommodates the media logics and that has contributed decisively to establish the issue as a public problem.