The media have a privileged role in the process of social construction and the social objectification of meaning. Ricard Gili Ferré, PhD by Pompeu Fabra University (2017), has analysed the socio-political movement that claims Catalonia’s right to decide or its right to self-determination to achieve independence: the so-called Catalan Process. This doctoral research, supervised by Carles Pont Sorribes, professor with the Department of Communication at UPF, spans the period 2006-2015 –a full decade– and takes as a sample six newspapers, three published in Madrid for the whole of Spain (El País, El Mundo and ABC), and three published in Barcelona for Catalonia (La Vanguardia, El Periódico de Cataluña and El Punt Avui).

The analysis of the entire period was done by looking at the mass demonstrations that were held over these years that focused on the right to decide and independence. Specifically, this doctoral thesis deals with the three main elements of the Catalan Process between 2006 and 2015: the preparation and approval of the Statute of Catalonia and the subsequent judgment by the Constitutional Court; the demand for the right to decide, which in practice results in a demand for a consultation or referendum on self-determination; and, finally, the goal of achieving the independence of Catalonia.

The results of this research not only reveal the editorial positions of each of the newspapers analysed in the face of the Catalan Process, but also the political positions that are present both in Catalonia and in Spain as a whole. All this allows drawing conclusions about the construction of public opinion and the public sphere of these two territories, and provides food for thought about the degree of proximity or distance between Catalonia and Spain as a whole in the construction of a common political project.

In summary, the main conclusions of this research are the following:

• The majority of newspapers analysed legitimates the new Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, discredits the goal of achieving independence and opts for ambiguity regarding the right to decide.

In detail:

• El País, La Vanguardia, El Periódico and El Punt Avui legitimate the new Statute and, therefore, an increase in the self-governance of Catalonia. By contrast, El Mundo and ABC discredit it.
• All the newspapers discredit the goal of achieving the independence of Catalonia. The exception is El Punt Avui, which legitimates this goal emphatically.
• The right to decide or a hypothetical referendum of self-determination is in an intermediate situation: it is clearly discredited by El Mundo and ABC and legitimated by EL Punt Avui, while El País, La Vanguardia and El Periódico choose not position themselves or to do so ambiguously.  
• Already in 2006, the six newspapers analysed already had a clear stance with respect to the Catalan Process. As the years go by, what they do is intensify it (especially after the advent of the independence movement in 2012-2013), but they do not change it substantially. However, there is an exception, which we find in El País: with the passage of time it has readjusted its political stance around the Statute of Catalonia and, more specifically, the self-governance of Catalonia. Before 2012-2013 its position towards increased Catalan self-government was lukewarm, but since then and before the advent of the independence movement, it started to support the need to increase the self-governance and self-financing of Catalonia.  
• The three newspapers analysed published in Madrid —especially El Mundo and ABC— tend not to present the reasons why the Catalan citizens mobilize and, therefore, not to explain the causes of the Catalan process, creating a decontextualizing effect. However, those from Barcelona do tend to. Thus, they highlight causes such as the judgment on the Statute, the infrastructure deficit, the refusal to accept a fiscal covenant, the recentralization of the State and the refusal to accept a consultation or referendum on self-determination.  
• The newspapers published in Barcelona consider the demonstrators and, by extension, the citizens of Catalonia as a key figure in the Catalan Process. El País does too, but to a lesser extent. Conversely, El Mundo and ABC minimize the importance and focus on Catalan nationalist, sovereigntist and pro-independence politicians and parties (Artur Mas, José Montilla, Josep A. Duran i Lleida, CiU, etc.), who are presented as being incompetent and untrustworthy as they are unable to control the political events.  
• The newspapers that propose an agreed solution so that Catalonia can have greater self-governance and continue in Spain refer to a pact between governments and not necessarily among citizens. These papers are El País,  La Vanguardia and El Periódico. So, when these three media call for dialogue and agreement, they do so, essentially, targeting the Catalan and the Spanish governments and their respective presidents. Again, they do not clarify whether or not the citizens should validate a hypothetical agreement between the Catalan and the Spanish governments at the polls. With this narrative structure, these dailies tend to generate the image that the political decisions that involve major changes are taken by institutionalized politicians, not the citizens affected by these decisions.  
• In the three newspapers published in Madrid, the solution to the Catalan conflict lies mainly in the hands of the non-sovereigntists (Spanish government, M. Rajoy, PP, PSOE, etc.). Conversely, in the Barcelona papers the solution is in the hands of a mixture of non-sovereigntists, sovereigntists and ambiguous figures (the Spanish government, M. Rajoy, the Catalan government A. Mas, CiU, ERC, ANC, Catalan nationalism, etc.).  
• The newspaper coverage shows that the Catalan Process is dominated by discord and the lack of any real dialogue. That is, all newspapers include multiple proposals made by politicians, parties and institutions to resolve the Catalan conflict, but in fact real dialogue between the various stakeholders is not established. In the same vein, the research carried out allows concluding that the Catalan Process is marked by negativity, negativity that, in general, is highlighted more in the Madrid papers than in those of Barcelona.  
• The newspapers analysed present inconsistent and conflicting accounts. That is, concerning the same events and the same political project -the Catalan Process- often incompatible narratives are constructed, since those of some media are the opposite of those of other media. In other words, there are stories that cancel each other out: either one version is true or the other -or perhaps neither is, but it would seem impossible for both to be true at the same time. A prime example of this: El Mundo and ABC turn the Catalan Process into a project that links the Catalans with nationalism, sectarianism, etc. Conversely, El Punt Avui presents the Catalan Process as a project that unshackles the Catalans, releases them from a Spain it considers oppressive and contrary to Catalan interests.  
• The press coverage that each of the six newspapers analysed gives of the Catalan Process is determined by place of origin (Barcelona or Madrid) and the newspaper’s editorial line. In contrast, the left-right axis does not affect their stance.  
• Although many opinion polls (for example, by the Centre for Opinion Studies) highlight that the majority of Catalans is in favour of holding a referendum on independence, the main newspapers of Catalonia and the capital of Spain do not legitimate such a referendum. As noted in the first conclusion, El País, El Mundo, ABC, La Vanguardia and El Periódico do not legitimate the right to decide and the right to self-determination. In fact, the only one that does is El punt Avui. This suggests a distancing or a gap between the majority of Catalan citizens and the major newspapers.

Reference work:

Ricard Gili Ferré (2017), Els mitjans de comunicació com a legitimadors o deslegitimadors d’un projecte polític per mitjà dels frames i les estructures narratives. El cas del Procés català en el període 2006-2015. Unpublished doctoral thesis read on 22 December 2017 at Pompeu Fabra University supervised by Carles Pont Sorribes. It was awarded honors cum laude.