Framing socio-political controversy: the 2012 Spanish Labor Reform as a case study of cascading activation

Abstract

In February 2012, the Spanish Government approved an aggressive labor reform. Many political agents committed to emphasis framing, highlighting certain aspects of the topic to persuade their publics with their definitions of the situation. Some generic frames suggested an individualistic approach to the labor market, while some others called for collective action. Following the cascading activation model, this research attempted to identify the flows of frames from the elites to the media outfits. A content analysis was conducted with the materials disseminated in February 2012 by the Government, the two main Spanish unions, the confederation of employers and four print media. Differences and similarities were found through bivariate analysis between the categories of the codebook. Although clear cascades emerged from the unions to the online daily Público.es, and from the Government to Larazón.es, generally the media frame building processes did not limit to just depicting the frames of an elite.