Coronavirus through El Mundo and La Vanguardia’s headlines

Abstract

The coronavirus has become a pandemic that has condemned more than 3.000 million people to confinement in the world. In Spain, the virus affects more than 200.000 persons and has caused the death of more than 22.000. The purpose of this investigation is to reflect the role of newspapers during the first month's news coverage of Covid-19 in our country. For this reason, we have carried out an analysis of the elements of first reading, such as headlines and other elements that make up the titling groups, published in El Mundo and La Vanguardia, the two digital newspapers that have the largest number of readers. Starting from the hypothesis that the information related to the new virus is not very informative and somewhat sensational, we have used the case study as a research method to analyze a total of 2.513 headlines published between February 24 and March 24. Despite the fact that most of the headlines are informative, there is a writing style focused on the spread of the virus, deaths and the negative repercussions it is having in areas as far removed from health as economic, cultural and sports. So both newspapers focus on sensational aspects instead of trying to explain what is happening to citizens and explain the complexity of the phenomenon.