News pluralism and public media in spain.Televisión española’s regression following a change of government (2012-2013)

© 2015, University of La Laguna. All right reserved. Introduction: This article describes and analyses the policies applicable to Spain’s national public broadcaster’s governance model that were adopted in November 2011, when the conservative party Partido Popular (PP) came to power. The specific reforms and their implications for the News Services of Televisión Española (Spanish Television, TVE) are examined, beside the consequences for the information and the level of pluralism. Methodology: It has conducted a content analysis of two samples from three weeks of the first quarter of 2012 and 2013 (1294 news). Results and conclusions: It was found that the regovernmentalisation of the management bodies of the Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (Spanish Broadcasting Corporation, RTVE) had increased TVE’s content banalisation to the detriment of major current affairs issues; fewer points of view and sources were observed in the coverage of labour-related news. Besides this regovernmentalisation, interpretative journalism tended to prevail over descriptive journalism, with an increase in the positive tone of economy-related news.