Multicultural and Ethnic Media

Media in Spain does not give a very positive outlook on multicultural integration. In fact, most media representations of minorities are made with no interest in social integration. This goes for all of Spain's media sources.

In a recent study done of 20 of the most popular publications in Spain, there is a very poor view of minorities. There were 165 references to minorities in the studied time line. Of those references 45.7% were on migration policies, 14% focused on how to the arrival of migrant population and 20% talked about international agreements on migration control. Of the 165, only 22 references were made of criminality with a minority being the victim or the accused.

Publications rarely ever use minorities as a source and even less often do they provide the participants identity.

In Radio and Television media, the trend continues with subjects of multicultural and ethnic interests being even less frequent. Minorities are considered 'Invisible' in the media and coexistence is virtually nonexistent. One of the least represented topics in media is social reality. Minorities are only shown with topics of crime, poverty and conflicts.

A similar study was done with the six most popular television stations in Spain. The results of those studies showed that the only news involving minorities was on young ethnic bands or in relation to gypsy population that had been expelled. Television does not assist multicultural integration in Spain at all.

Migrants are forced to turn to technologies to help them with news or related ethnic topics. With the addition of the Internet and satellite television, minorities are able to stay current with news from their native countries but these are the only forms of reaching multicultural sources for them. Multicultural news and entertainment is an untapped area for Spain and would be of great income for them. The reason for this is that studies have shown that migrants and minorities in Spain watch more television then the natives do.

Ethnicity in Spain's media is a currently changing topic. Spain's background comes from a very conservative approach and has only become more open as of the last few decades. In the past, Spain's ethnic approach has been to conserve traditional views on family, relations between the sexes and the role of a woman in society. Unfortunately, Spain's social values are changing faster the laws and regulations which has cause a great deal of tension between legalities and realities. Even the Spanish church has moved away from its conservative approach to social values that it held in the past.