Some specifications about the political behavior of newspapers and magazines during the Spanish transition to democracy. The myth of the “Paper Parliament”

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the clarification of the Paper Parliament concept, which is commonly applied in politics, journalism and historiography to the role of the dailies and the weekly press on the eve of and during the Spanish transition to democracy. The study of the leading newspapers and magazines by means of an analysis of editorial and signed articles, as well as interviews and discussion groups with a broad and diverse selection of journalists, allows us to provide some preliminary specifications about the political behavior of the press during the period between the death of the dictator Francisco Franco and the swearing-in of the new King Juan Carlos I (20/22 November, 1975), and the free elections of June 15, 1977.

KEYWORDS: journalism, daily newspapers, magazines, press, politics, Spanish transition to democracy.