Newspaper coverage and representation of the law of equality among men and women

Abstract

The law of equality between men and women was dictated in the Basque Autonomous Community in 2005 and the Spanish state in 2007. This paper analyzes the reporting of the law in the opinion section of several newspapers. The aim of the study was to understand the presence and the treatment of this law by analyzing the influence that newspapers and their coverage had on it. Results confirmed the effect of newspapers’ ideology and coverage in the quantity, evaluation and frame use (Semetko and Valkenbug 2000) in the articles. Finally theoretical and applied implications of the role of the media in creating the discourse are discussed.