What is it about?

After reviewing different sociological studies about reading conducted in Spain and Portugal, this paper proposes a methodology for the study of reading. It will explain how 355 pieces of news about reading were analyzed, published in the Iberian Peninsula between 2005 and 2012. The news items were selected from leading newspapers in each of the two countries. In Portugal these were: Jornal de Noticias, Correioda Manha, Diario de Noticias and Pú-blico. This selection corresponds to their reading indexes in 2012: 14% Correioda Manha, 11,7% Jornal de Noticias, 4,2% Diario de Noticias y 5,1% Público (Cardoso, 2013: 65). In the case of Spain the titles included El Mundo, El País y ABC, all newspapers with the highest number of readers per day in 2012. The paper details the various factors it takes into account: analytical tools, relevant research entities, previously published sociological surveys about reading, etc. The goal of this study is to obtain an overview from a Spanish perspective.

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Why is it important?

It's a relevant paper as it compares reading habits from the point of view of public discourse in two different countries. The methodology used for the analysis is taken into account in order to provide a different approach from the one done so far, as well as contrast both countries. We found different sociological data in each of the countries, diverse entities devoted to reading, as well as different tools used for the news analysis. Anyway, in none of the countries, a similar methodology is used, so that's what makes the project different from the rest.

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This publication is the result of the research project "Estudio de la lectura en discursos legislativos y medios de comunicación social en la Península Ibérica (1999-2012)" developed thanks to the scholarship “Jóvenes Profesores e Investigadores (JPI)” of Banco Santander in 2014 at the University of Aveiro (Portugal). In fact, it is the continuation of the PhD thesis that studies the same newspapers, but just till 2010. The aim is to offer a wider perspective of the reading process. In both projects, the methodology developed is similar, so in here we try to show the process followed in order to be able to replicate it in other countries and time periods.

Belén García-Delgado Giménez
Universidad Europea de Madrid

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This page is a summary of: Sociología de la lectura en la Península Ibérica (2005-2012): propuesta metodológica, Alabe Revista de Investigación sobre Lectura y Escritura, July 2018, University of Almeria Ed de Universidades Lectoras,
DOI: 10.15645/alabe2018.18.8.
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