Lead supervisor:
Dr Mike Berry 
Other supervisor(s):
- Dr Inaki Garcia-Blanco
Start date: October 2022 (Full time)
Award: General
Subject Pathway:
Journalism, Digital Media and Democracy
Thematic Cluster:
Rights and Governance Cluster
Portrayals and Perceptions of the Basque Post-Conflict in the Spanish Press: Victims, Prisoners and Past Narratives
The Basque provinces of northern Spain are home to a historical left-leaning nationalist movement, which, in the context of military dictatorship led to decades of political violence and armed conflict.
Under the Franco regime, political dissidents across Spain - including Basque nationalists - were the targets of repression. Armed Basque nationalist organisation ETA operated for some five decades. Right-wing paramilitaries and state-sponsored death squads were also involved in the conflict.
After the end of direct violence, newspapers covered the conflict differently depending on their place of publishing: Basque newspapers began interviewing leaders of the former illegal political wing of ETA; while national newspapers took positions for keeping proscribed separatist political organisations illegal.
Research conducted on the state of the media landscape and its relation to the Basque conflict after ETA's 2018 dissolution is limited.
My thesis asks the following:
1. How have Spanish newspapers reported on the relationship between the Spanish State and the Basque nationalist movement in the years following the dissolution of ETA?
2. To what extent do Basque regional newspapers differ from Madrid-based newspapers in their reporting of this relationship?
3. Does media discourse in Spanish and Basque news outlets contribute to a deep, complex and well-rounded understanding of the Basque conflict in its reporting of the current situation?
Methods:
The object of analysis is a sample of opinion pieces. To allow for a representative sample, this thesis takes the most important newspapers from across the political spectrum.
My study uses a mixed-methods approach based on the method of thematic analysis (Philo 2007): main arguments are identified and theories are developed from the patterns observed. The research questions are answered chiefly by qualitative means, while instances of quantitative data serve as an overview.