The coverage of the international press in framing the Catalan sovereignty process: Analysis of ten leading EU and US newspapers 2010–17

Abstract

The Catalan sovereignty process has been a topic of interest in the mass media worldwide in recent years. We analysed nearly 900 stories, published between 10 June 2010 and 4 October 2017 by the main newspapers of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States, for content in terms of genres, frames and journalistic sources. We also conducted in-depth interviews with the newspaper foreign correspondents to Spain. A main conclusion is that all the newspapers framed the sovereignty process as a conflict between the Spanish and Catalan governments, in which the EU, according to the newspapers analysed, should mediate.