Expanding ideologies in the press: feminist and LGBT-related issues in Spanish online-only opinion journalism

Abstract

This paper analyzes the ideological profile of the Spanish online-only press regarding feminist and LGBT issues. We perform a content analysis of opinion columns sampled from the most popular Spanish online-only newspapers. The analysis focuses diachronically in two moments: May 2011 and June 2016. The coding sheet includes feminist and sexual identity-related categories such as the mention of women and women’s rights, abortion, traditional family, LGBT identities, or the role of Catholicism. The Spanish press’ conservatism or progressiveness is measured by computing frequencies of mentions and their positive/neutral/negative valuation. Results indicate signs of change regarding the traditional conservatism of Spanish digital media, online-only opinion being less socially conservative in 2016, and paying more attention to women and non-normative sexualities. Findings are discussed and contextualized pertaining to the current wave of feminist activism in Spain, and the emergence of left-leaning online-only newspapers.