The shaping of the democratic discourse in the Aragonese press during the transition: a strengthening of the consensus on the political reform

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the shaping of the democratic discourse in the Aragonese daily press during the transition to democracy, a period which started with the death of the dictator Franco in 1975 and finished in 1978, the year in which a democratic Constitution was approved. The research method is a qualitative content analysis applied to a sample of editorials published by Heraldo de Aragón, Amanecer and Aragón Exprés. The results verify the two proposed hypothesis. First, the Aragonese press strengthened the consensus on the political reform as the way to reach democracy. Second, the three newspapers showed a generally shared discourse, being the autonomic process the topic which led to more significant differences between them.