Affectively polarized audiences? An analysis of Spain between 1993-2023

Abstract

The study of the causes and consequences of affective polarization in Spain has been underway for almost five years. Until now, previous research has pointed to a symbiotic relationship with ideological polarization, electoral contexts and national identities nested in the Spanish centre-periphery cleavage as the causes. With few exceptions, the role of information consumption and media has been little addressed in Spain. Hence the need for further exploration of an audiences-based approach to analyse their affective polarization in terms of which media they prefer to use to inform themselves about politics. The Spanish media system expresses a high degree of political parallelism - media clearly representing partisan and ideological tendencies in politics - so that, theoretically, it is possible to think that there is a relationship between individuals' information consumption and affective polarization. This article aims to explore and describe how affectively polarized Spanish audiences are. The results indicate a distribution of average affections generally coherent with the ideological diversity of the Spanish media, as well as a progressive affective polarization of audiences.