The Portuguese elections of 1975 in the press: news coverage and political propaganda in the electoral campaign

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24137/raeic.9.e.1

Keywords:

revolutionary process, elections, election campaign, journalism, press, propaganda

Abstract

The Portuguese elections for the Constituent Parliament, on 25 April 1975, portrayed a historic moment in which the Portuguese people could exercise the right to vote, after 48 years of dictatorship. The media played an essential role in publicizing the parties’ campaigns. However, the evolution of the revolutionary process had an impact on Portuguese journalism. This article seeks to understand the influence of propaganda in the press during the electoral campaign, by analyzing the news content of, elements of journalistic composition and also on given discursive effects, in order to understand possible processes of news bias. After the April Revolution, there was a strengthening of the power of the military and a radicalization of political life, a context in which the first democratic elections were held. Elections are recognized as central to the news agenda and media organizations often develop strategies for capable and comprehensive coverage. However, the journalistic approach to this process may have been influenced, since the role played by journalists (Mesquita, 1994b; Gomes 2014) or the direct intervention of the V Division of the MFA acted as active propaganda factors (Ribeiro, 2014).

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Author Biography

  • Helena Lima, Universidade do Porto (UP)

    Helena Lima is Associate Professor at Faculty of Humanities of University of Porto since 2008.
    The PhD research analyses the three Oporto daily newspapers history. The final thesis (2008) in Contemporary History concerns the editorial patterns of each newspaper, the way they relate to audiences and modernization processes. Her main fields of research are journalism content analysis, Media and political communication. Several publications such as books, books, chapters and peer reviewd articles are the results from years of research on the media studies field.
    She was a member of the monitoring committee of P3 project, a joint venture between the newspaper Público and the Oporto University, co-funded by the ERDF: European Regional Development Fund and was part of several funded research projects.
    Helena Lima was the director of the Master on Communication Sciences (2014/2019). She is the coordinator of the Laboratory of Health Literacy & Communication from University of Porto (LACLIS), a lab that promotes Health Literacy and studies in Health Journalism subjects. She also teaches Communication Theory at PDMD (Doctoral Program in Digital Media).

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Published

2022-05-30

Issue

Vol. 9 No. Especial (2022): Communication, propaganda and revolutionary movements in history

Section

Guest authors

How to Cite

The Portuguese elections of 1975 in the press: news coverage and political propaganda in the electoral campaign. (2022). Revista De La Asociación Española De Investigación De La Comunicación, 9(Especial), 2-22. https://doi.org/10.24137/raeic.9.e.1