Popularization of the Scientific Knowledge about the Economic Crisis in the Spanish Mass Media: Trends, Inaccuracies and Omissions in the Documentation Process of Press Discourse on Economics

Abstract

During periods of economic uncertainty, journal headlines become more significant. Many will refer to them looking for information; some others will try to predict possible massive social reactions to their content. As the crisis evolves, the main paradigms operating in social sciences in general, and namely in Economics, cautiously start to satisfy the social demand for reliable data analysis, scientific research results, well-documented political proposals, and predictions more reasonable than those appearing in the public sphere. However, from this content and discourse analysis regarding the cover made by the main newspaper, the Spanish press does not always take into account the results of scientific research and, when consulted, it does not present the different formal points of view from concurrent paradigms. This work analyses the news reporting on some milestones of the present ‘subprime crisis’ in the main Spanish newspaper.

Álvarez-Peralta, M. (2011). Popularization of the Scientific Knowledge about the Economic Crisis in the Spanish Mass Media: Trends, Inaccuracies and Omissions in the Documentation Process of Press Discourse on Economics. The International Journal of Science in Society, 2, 203-218.