La polarización ideológica de los periodistas españoles ante la corrupción institucional

Abstract

Journalists, through the media, cover and frame corruption scandals, which gives them a relevant role in how citizens inform themselves about this phenomenon. The aim of this article is to investigate whether information professionals are influenced by their ideology when assessing the level of corruption in different institutions, as well as to explore whether they believe that media coverage of this phenomenon is influenced by polarization. To achieve this, a representative survey was conducted between March and July 2023 among 391 Spanish journalists from various types of media across the country. They were primarily asked about their political ideology and their perception of corruption in different institutions. The results reveal that journalists tend to perceive corruption levels differently based on their political ideology, with a tendency to perceive greater corruption in parties and institutions they consider opposed to their ideological orientation. This phenomenon is not limited to political parties (which, obviously, have an explicit ideological position), but also extends to other ostensibly neutral or politically unaligned institutions. Additionally, most journalists agree that political polarization in Spain encourages media outlets to seek and prioritize publishing scandals occurring within parties of opposing ideologies.