Communication between Spain and the Baltic countries through the Spanish written press

Abstract

The article presents a study on the construction of information in the Spanish written press of the bilateral relations, from the intercultural communication´s standpoint, between the Baltic States and Spain. The main aim is to understand the image that the Spanish media presents on these countries in the context of European convergence. For this, we have carried out a content analysis of news of two newspapers, El País and La Razón, during the study period May 2004 to October 2008, in order to identify which are the addressed topics, the used approaches and the criteria of underlying noticeability on the published information about Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Among the main results, it should be noted the underrepresentation of the Baltic countries, the positive nature of treatment, and the predominance of the sports and socioculture issues over the economic and political matters.