From SARS to COVID-19: the difference between the image of China in the Spanish newspapers of 2003 and 2020. Content analysis applied to "El País", "El Mundo", "ABC", "El Periódico" y "La Vanguardia"

Abstract

When the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the planet, the memory of the history of SARS, a respiratory syndrome that shook it more than a decade ago, emerges. The passage of time awakens in researchers a great interest to know if there is any difference between the image of China in the Spanish newspapers of 2003 and that of 2020 in terms of the fight against viruses during an epidemic period. This work focuses on analyzing the news from five Spanish newspapers, reviewing their archives for 2003 and 2020. Using the database and content analysis, the changes in the image of China in Spanish newspapers are studied. The hypothesis is that, in the first two decades of the 21st century, significant changes in the image of China occur in Spanish newspapers, derived from deeper socio-cultural exchanges between China and Spain.