One country, two media systems: The evolution of the media audience in Catalonia in the context of the independence debate

Abstract

Following the theories of media system dependency (MSD), this paper analyses the media audiences in Catalonia and their evolution in the context of the independence debate. Serial data from the 1980s to 2014 on mainstream media audiences in Catalonia (TV, radio and press) show how the newspaper market is historically dominated by outlets from Barcelona, while the TV market is mostly controlled by Spanish TV channels. There has also been a switch in the radio market in the last decade, when the Catalan radio stations have become hegemonic. Significant differences in the average audience growth of audiovisual media have been detected the last term of every year since 2012 (as long as demonstrations and votes have mobilized the population), differences which have been especially notable for the Catalan outlets.

KEYWORDS: media system dependency, audience measurement, audience behaviour, news media, Catalan media, Spanish media.