Suárez and Calvo-Sotelo on the small screen: a compared study of the television leadership during the democratic Transition in Spain (1976-1982)

Between 1976 and 1982, Spain lived an intense political and media context in the process of transition to democracy. During this period, video-politics broke out and it influenced the way politics were conducted and the leadership of politicians. Throughout those years, two presidents led the proces...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Peláz-López, J.V. (José-Vidal)|||/items/cd081f53-ebcc-4fbe-9cd0-4e0efdab511a, Martín-Jiménez, V. (Virginia)|||/items/1763f824-b65c-4b4a-be70-2ed1c5bfd2cd
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2019
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Navarra
Repositório:Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/57844
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/10171/57844
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Suárez
Calvo-Sotelo
leadership
Spanish transition
television
RTVE
political communication
liderazgo
Transición española
televisión
comunicación política
Descrição
Resumo:Between 1976 and 1982, Spain lived an intense political and media context in the process of transition to democracy. During this period, video-politics broke out and it influenced the way politics were conducted and the leadership of politicians. Throughout those years, two presidents led the process of change: Adolfo Suárez and Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo. Two different leaders: in their way of “doing politics” and in the way in which they used television to connect with society. This paper offers an analysis of, firstly, how both politicians understood their relationship with public television (TVE) and, secondly, what formats they used and the discourse of the television broadcasts that they starred in. To answer these questions, we conducted a thorough review of the existing literature on the topic, the published testimonies of protagonists, the Calvo-Sotelo archive, a content analysis of Televisión Española’s archives and the press published during Transition. The findings of this study clearly indicate that TVE marked the evolution of both presidents who, from the beginning, put in place different strategies to match their work from the Executive using public television. On the other hand, the shadow of Suarez and the way in which he had used television during the Transition, did not abandon Calvo-Sotelo whose decisions of media leadership were always aimed at countering the weight of the Suárez’s legacy.