Abstract

Think tanks have become increasingly important as political players in Spain having grown in both quantity and quality, and with greater social, political and communicative presence. This research analyses the presence of think tanks in Spanish main newspapers. Six principal general information newspapers and two economic information newspapers from 2012 to 2016 were analysed, using the content analysis method. Variables analysed include name and type of think tank, type of content (information or opinion) and communication technique used to give them journalistic presence. The results show that El país is the newspaper that provides more information about think tanks, and FAES is the think tank with the greatest presence in newspapers.

Abstract

Think tanks have become increasingly important as political players in Spain having grown in both quantity and quality, and with greater social, political and communicative presence. This research analyses the presence of think tanks in Spanish main newspapers. Six principal general information newspapers and two economic information newspapers from 2012 to 2016 were analysed, using the content analysis method. Variables analysed include name and type of think tank, type of content (information or opinion) and communication technique used to give them journalistic presence. The results show that El país is the newspaper that provides more information about think tanks, and FAES is the think tank with the greatest presence in newspapers.

Abstract

The objective of this study is to explore the presence of Spanish think tanks in national and international media based on a quantitative analysis of content published on 70 think tanks over 15 years (2004-2018). The published content was obtained through Factiva®, a database from Dow Jones & Company, that provides access to more than 35,000 mass media around the world. The results suggest that the representation of think tanks in the media has gradually increased over the years, regardless of the economic cycle or political situation, quadrupling over the analyzed period. Moreover, an increase of the hegemony of a few think tanks in the grouping of messages on the public debate and their concentration in a few media and media agencies are confirmed.

Abstract

The study of think tanks in Spain has been growing in the last few years with an equally increasing number of social and grassroots movements. This article offers content analysis results from a selection of eight Spanish think tanks in the digital press during a seven-year period, adding new conclusions to previous literature for the same period. Not only does this research explore the appearance on the media, but also the type of mentions and authorship of the articles and blogs included in the digital press, contributing to a deeper study of think tanks. The objective of this study is to analyse the limited presence of Spanish think tanks in media outlets and whether their appearance is ideologically motivated. The article built a constructed week sampling and followed a content analysis methodology to gather quantitative and qualitative elements from the selected sampling (n=1,101). The paper concludes that the presence of think tanks in the Spanish digital press is limited, causing not only a lack of knowledge of their existence but also raising questions about how they try to impact on the policymaking process.