Coronavirus on iberic digital media. The most consumed news by Spanish and Portuguese readers

Abstract

In this preliminary research, we try to understand the major characteristics of the news coverage of the Covid-19 pandemics in Spanish and Portuguese digital media, during the first period of lockdown of 2020. Following the trend previously observed in traditional media and about other issues, digital news coverage of Covid-19 assumed a single-dimension point of view, a patronising and moralist tone, an emotional alarmist discourse, and a strongly polarised interpretation. Journalist coverage also opted to highlight the official speeches and the nearby dramatic situations, and disregard alternative speeches and different dimensions of this social phenomenon.