The Educational Role of the Digital Media in the Integration of Immigrants in Spain: elmundo.es and elpais.com

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to highlight the importance of online newspapers in the formation of public opinion, by discovering whether they promote positive or negative attitudes towards immigration or contribute to increasing awareness about the impact of the digital press in educational and developmental terms. With this in mind, we carried out a comparative study of the digital versions of the two widest selling, broad-based daily newspapers in Spain: el mundo.es and el pais.com. We used the same methodology as that used in Comparative Education, analyzing the content of articles published between January 2009 and June 2010. Although there are many similarities between the two newspapers and both coincide in supporting the process of integrating immigrants into Spanish society, they differ in the strategies to be followed for achieving the sought-after goal of peaceful coexistence between migrants and the host community. «El Mundo» tends to favour adopting strategies that encourage immigrants to adapt to the established norms and guidelines of the host society; in the articles of «El País», on the other hand, the requirement for them to adapt is not regarded as necessary. However, the various ideological lines expressed in the articles that we analyzed enable us to draw the conclusion that they do not coincide to a significant degree with the editorial line of the newspaper publishing them.El objetivo del presente estudio consiste en poner de relieve la importancia de la prensa digital en la formación de opinión que tienen los ciudadanos, detectando si fomenta actitudes positivas o negativas en torno al hecho migratorio y coadyuvando a una mayor toma de conciencia sobre la incidencia educativa y formativa de la misma. Con esta pretensión se ha realizado un estudio comparado de las ediciones digitales de los dos diarios generalistas de pago con mayor tirada en España (elmundo.es y elpais.com), utilizando la metodología propia de la Educación Comparada y el análisis de contenido de los artículos publicados entre enero de 2009 y junio de 2010. Aunque son numerosas las similitudes halladas entre ambos diarios y coinciden en su apoyo al proceso de integración de los inmigrantes en la sociedad española, difieren en las estrategias a seguir para alcanzar la deseada convivencia. «El Mundo» se muestra más bien partidario de la adopción de estrategias que pasen por una adaptación de éstos a las normas y pautas establecidas en la sociedad de llegada. Mientras que en los artículos de «El País», esta adaptación no se contempla como un requisito imprescindible. Sin embargo, las diversas líneas ideológicas puestas de manifiesto en los artículos analizados nos permite inferir que no muestran un significativo grado de coincidencia con la línea ideológica del diario que los publica.

Attitudes and Cultural Stereotypes of Future Teachers Towards Immigrant Students in Spain

“…Culture is considered as something inherited or, in other words, "there is a genealogic, and therefore racial, concept of culture and its transmission" (Todd, 1996, p. 343). Llorent (2012) has carried out a similar study (between January 2009 and June 2010) of the digital edition of these two newspapers and their importance in forming positive or negative attitudes about immigration. In his analysis, Llorent poses the following question: What vision of the current coexistence between the immigrant collective and the receiving society do these newspapers offer?…”

“…Concerning the source of information that shapes opinions about immigration to the greatest extent, respondents placed, first, their own experience and, second, news from the media. They also considered that the image of immigrants presented in the media is rather negative (46,3%); 21% considered it positive (Llorent, 2012).…”