Negativity in Political News of Spanish News Media

Introduction: Previous studies link higher degree of negativity in the news to cynicism and indifference of citizens through politics and politicians (theory of Spiral of Cynicism). Methods: We content analysed 563 news pieces of 10 Spanish media (3 newspapers, 2 TV stations and 5 online media). The degree of negativity was measured through index, conformed by indicators of tonality, conflict, incapability and unfavorability, proposed by Leanguer, Esser and Berganza (2012). Results and conclusions: Data confirmed that Spanish media depict political news in a negative way, although levels of negativity were lower than those of other European countries. A higher degree of negativity was found in items related to controversial topics, produced in formats of higher implication, and published by private, print or traditional media.