Presence of political parties and newscast agenda during pre-campaign: Spanish general elections in April 2019

This article analyses the political parties' presence and agenda-setting in Spanish TV's main news outlets during the 2019 general elections precampaign. It records the time granted to each topic and candidature in 24 emissions on the 4 leading channels in both national and daily news share (La 1, Antena 3, Telecinco and La Sexta) during the 6 previous days to the beginning of the campaign. Results do not show proportionality in terms of party presence according to their previous percentage of the vote, La 1 being the most proportional. Insufficient coverage of some parties is shown; Unidas Podemos, PP and ERC are underrepresented whilst PSOE, VOX and Ciudadanos received the biggest media coverage according to the mentioned criteria. Synergies between media groups, the scarce thematic divergence between media channels and their distance from the main issues cited in surveys by the Spanish Center for Sociological Research (CIS) show profound democratic deficits.