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Parliamentary Affairs Vol. 57 No. 1, 2004, 196-208
© Hansard Society for Parliamentary Government 2004; all rights reserved

Spanish Politicians and the Media: Controlled Visibility and Soap Opera Politics

Karen Sanders and María José Canel

This article argues that ‘going public’—engagement in the mediation of public image-is a basic requirement of contemporary politics in post-industrial democracies. This is no less true of Spain. Spanish politicians have been helped in managing both their public and private visibility by the peculiar characteristics of the Spanish media industry. The combination of relics of state paternalism in the application of communication policy, a weak and compliant state broadcaster together with high levels of television and magazine consumption and low newspaper readership rates means that government politicians have a broadly favourable media environment in which to operate. Legal protection of privacy but, more importantly, media and social culture also contribute to a climate in which intrusive coverage of sexual aspects of a politician's private life is discouraged. The article notes the growing trend for politicians to use the more tabloid, popular media as vehicles for image-making. It also assesses how the media converted politics into soap-opera as an extraordinary set of events unfolded at Marbella's city council in summer 2003.


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