EU Political Agenda of COVID-19 Crisis: Mechanisms and Financial Instruments to Mitigate the Economic Effects of the Pandemic in Newspapers ‘El País’ and ‘El Mundo’

• Mafalda Lobo ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidade do Minho

     Universidade do Minho

     Braga (São José de São Lázaro), Portugal

     
• Localización: Trípodos, ISSN-e 2340-5007, ISSN 1138-3305, Nº. 47, 1, 2020 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Communication in COVID-19 Crisis), págs. 171-186
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
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• Resumen

  • With approximately one fifth of the world population in blockade, the COVID-19 has radically changed individuals’ way of life. The virus has infected million people and more than 200 countries (Worldometer’s COVID-19 data). But the effects of the virus go far beyond its biological capacity to cause disease. Beginning in the city of Wuhan, China, it rapidly spread across national borders, and has drawn attention to the porous and interconnected world in which we live. The economic results from the lockdown measures put the question of the European Union project. This article intends to analyse how the press in Spain, one of the Eurozone countries most affected by COVID-19, reflected the decisions of the EU (mechanisms and financial instruments) to mitigate the economic effects. The corpus of analysis includes articles published by the newspapers ‘El País’ and ‘El Mundo’. The analytic period starts on March 1 and ends on April 24, the day after the European Council approved the Economic Recovery Fund. The results show that the published news reflects the recommendations and decisions of the EU institutions, framing the mechanisms and financial instruments into coordinated Economic Strategy from EU, so essential to the economic recovery of Member States.