The water cycle or media attention cycle? Water news revisited

Resumen

Historically speaking, water has been a vital social object for constant societal concerns in Spain. During the process leading to autonomy process, also known as political decentralization, water management became one of the central political issues for struggle between the 17 regional governments in the Spanish territory. In this context, the media, especially, the printing newspapers have been playing a key role on keeping the citizens informed of conditions of the water supplied into their households, which has to be fought for and paid for. In doing so, the media may help to shape the citizens knowledge on water and, consequently, guide or shift the public opinion on its management policies. The present study centers on content analysis of news coverage on water issues in the Spanish major nationwide newspapers in a forty-five year span. It is aimed to examine how the Spanish news media have helped sustain long term social debate about water in the public arena and keep alive citizens awareness of it.