Study of Semantic Frameworks in the Coverage of the Yellow Vests in Spain: Media Perspectives

Abstract

This study analyzes semantic frameworks in the coverage of the Yellow Vest protests by two ideologically distinct Spanish newspapers, La Razón and El País. It evaluates how these journals represented the protests using three semantic typologies: conceptual categories, semantic roles, and lexical domains, along with narrative adjuncts. Employing qualitative analysis and tools like Atlas.TI and Sketch Engine, the research dissects language and lexical choices to understand the narrative construction and tone of coverage. Despite ideological differences, the study finds minimal variation in semantic frameworks between the newspapers, suggesting a uniform perception of the protests. This highlights the role of semantic frameworks in media information construction and the importance of analyzing them to identify potential biases in social event coverage, offering insights into media portrayal mechanisms and the significance of semantic analysis in understanding media biases.