Annus Horribilis and its impact on the royal image: How scandals influenced Queen Sofía of Spain’s press coverage in newspapers "El País" and "El Mundo" from 2012 to 2014

Abstract

The present article analyzes press coverage on the Spanish Queen Sofía of Greece during a time when an outburst of scandals involving different members of the Spanish Royal Family took place. Its main ob jective is to display changes in the media treatment of the royal spouse caused by these scandals. Research for this article principally involved using content analysis and semiotics to examine coverage on the Queen between 2012 and 2014 in two newspapers, El País and El Mundo. Documentary research and in depth interviews were also used. Paradoxically, findings indicate that when the media most heavily crit icized the Crown, the Queen's image improved.

Behold... the Head of State’s Spouse! A comparative study of the political rise of the First Lady in Poland, France and Spain

“…Consequently, the sample on the Polish first ladyship includes articles from 1990, the year of the first democratic presidential elections, while the span of the French case covers the whole period of the 5 th Republic since 1958. Regarding the Spanish case, the 2009-2014 period seemed pertinent as it is highly representative of the whole tenure of Queen Sofia (Widlak and Pont Sorribes, 2015;Widlak, Pont Sorribes and Guillamet Lloveras, 2016 …”

“…France represents the model of semipresidential republics, with a relatively strong president, whose power can be severely limited when an opposition party dominates in parliament and government. Spain is a parliamentary monarchy, with a politically weak king as the head of the state, in which queen consorts fulfil the same responsibilities as first ladies in republican countries (Widlak and Pont Sorribes, 2015).…”

“…Facing a lack of a commonly accepted method regarding first ladyship research (Sulfaro, 2007) and a severe limitation of scientific interest outside the United States (Widlak and Pont Sorribes, 2015), an approach based on press content analysis and documentary research was adapted with the aim of creating a workable and reliable methodology.…”

The representation of the Spanish Crown in the public sphere through institutional acts

“…In this regard, with the exception of certain doctoral theses posted in the repositories of various Spanish universities that indirectly touch on this area of study, there is a is strikingly noteworthy dearth of relevant scientific articles that analyse the institutional communication system of the Spanish Royal Family in general, and that analyse from the perspective of the organisation of events in particular. Specific work deserves mention, such as that of Priego (2014) regarding the role of the House of H. M. the King in diplomatic relations, and that of Widlak & Pont (2015) regarding the image of H. M. Queen Sofía in the Spanish press.…”