A critical analysis of press coverage of languages in Spain during the ‘Transition’

Abstract

This article offers a critical analysis of the manner in which the Spanish press dealt with languages during the Transition. At this time various groups called for the end of the monolingualism which had been imposed by the Franco regime, and for the beginning of a period in which the different languages should be recognised and promoted by the new democratic institutions. On the one hand, this article shows that Spanish newspapers of all tendencies did provide more or less neutral coverage of the sectors which were pushing for recognition of all the languages. On the other hand, a lot of articles were published in which a negative tone towards diversity predominated. This article only begins to fill a gap in the academic literature and tries to establish a possible basis from which to build an initial interpretation of the linguistic ideology of the press during the Transition.