Irish correspondent Gertrude Gaffney’s work on the Spanish Civil War. A qualitative analysis of bias and journalistic standards

Abstract

The Spanish Civil War was the first conflict reported by many female war correspondents. One of them was the Irish Gertrude Gaffney, whose position as a female reporter in this conflict was remarkable in various respects. In contrast to her often inexperienced female colleagues, the correspondent for the Irish Independent was already a highly reputed political journalist in her home country. She was one of the very few female journalists to report on Franco’s side, and among those who published the most on the Spanish Civil War. Using Gaffney’s coverage as a case study to show the relationship between partiality and journalistic quality, this paper examines bias and compliance with journalistic values in her 23 articles on the Spanish Civil War published in two series in 1937.