Um olhar sobre as representações do povo cigano na imprensa espanhola: O caso dos jornais "El País" e "El Mundo"
A Look at Representations of Roma People in the Spanish Press: the Case of El País and El Mundo

Summary/Abstract: Despite centuries of living in a European context, the Roma people are still one of Europe’s most discriminated groups. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, combining contributions from the dialogical perspective of discourse and Social Psychology, namely the Theory of Social Representations, this study aimed to analyze the social representations of Roma/Gypsies published in the Spanish newspapers El Mundo and El País. We analyzed 1684 news articles with Iramuteq software’s help, using the Descending Hierarchical Classification, which identifies lexical classes that gather different sets of meanings regarding certain objects. The results highlighted two thematic axes: the first, including apparently positive elements, which, on the one hand, praise artistic-cultural products associated with Roma culture, but, on the other hand, reveal the invisibility and exclusion of the Roma individual in this process; and, a second axis, which highlights disputed narratives about the rights of Roma people and public policies related to them, as well as discussions about the relations of these individuals with the Justice, whether as victims or defendants. We discuss how such sets of meanings about the Roma propagated by the news media can impact their inclusion into society by reinforcing negative stereotypes about them and keeping them in the condition of otherness. We conclude by reiterating the need to disseminate alternative narratives about these groups, contributing to questioning such stereotypes and developing more inclusive practices directed at the Roma people.

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