The trial of the "catalan process" has become an media object where it seems that none of the media of our country, Catalan or Spanish, resists at broadcasting. As if it were a football league where each game counts and where the viewer must follow the narration of the play so as not to lose detail. But to reach here, there has been a series of events that have frequently captured the media attention on the Process and, as the areas involved (such as judicial) were growing, this media attention has multiplied. This is demonstrated by the academic studies that are being carried out on the Process.

This media phenomenon is of academic interest since a few years ago. The so-called battles for the story of the Process seem to take on more and more importance, as if the same polarization of Catalan society was also translated into the communicative field. It is a conflict of long duration and where many areas of society are involved, so the journalistic responsibility to narrate this conflict still has more weight. From the POLCOM group, and from the perspective of political communication, this is an object of study that is already being investigated. The "Catalonia in the eyes of the world" project has been carried out. Analysis of the presence and construction of the story of the sociopolitical context of Catalonia in the international press (2010-2015)", which analyzes the role that the international press has had in explaining the Process in their respective countries.

Currently, the PhD student Gemma Palà, member of the POLCOM group, is developing a thesis called "The construction of the journalistic story of TV3 on the sovereignty process of Catalonia, from the referendum from November 9 to October 1 (2014-2017)", directed by Carles Pont i Mercè Oliva. Unlike other research, Gemma Palà focuses her study on the media discourse that has been constructed from the very focus of the conflict, from Catalonia, and not from the outside. The chosen means of communication is TV3, as it is a television channel of reference in Catalonia and for enjoying high ratings. The student fits the research from the perspective of framing, a theory that defends that there is a correspondence between the "frames" or framing of the journalistic text and those that think and defend individuals.

Its final objective is to know how TV3 has built the story of the Catalan Process according to two very specific and relevant periods: the consultation of November 9, 2014 and the referendum of October 1, 2017. To do this, it analyzes an amount of 70 programs TV3 news programs, which represent more than 700 news items, so that we can see what politicians and parties are being talked about, what journalistic sources are used and, finally, through what frames we have talked about referendum processes. The first results point to an exponential increase in the media attention that TV3 dedicated to the referendum of 10 compared to 9N.

Addition, within the framework of this research project on the media representation of the referendum periods of the sovereignty process of Catalonia, Gemma Palà has published the article: “Ready”. Analysis of the television discourse of TV3 about the mass mobilization during the National Day of Catalonia in 2016, in the Revista de Recerca i d'Anàlisi of the Catalan Society of Communication. This study analyzes the information coverage that the Catalan channel made about the demonstration on September 11, 2016. The interest of its investigation lies in the fact that the Catalan media can have influence when it comes to building the story of the process sovereignty and, consequently, in public opinion. For more details and results of this article, you can go to the following link.

Gemma Palà Navarro, predoctoral researcher.