Las noticias de los contenidos informativos que utilizan el futuro en el diario ABC (1990-2010)

Abstract

El concepto de noticia ha estado tradicionalmente ligado al pasado (periódicos, agencias de noticias) o, como mucho, al presente (retransmisiones en directo). Sin embargo, algunos autores parecen haber detectado en los últimos años un incremento de las informaciones que abordan acontecimientos que aún no han sucedido; es decir, noticias que hablan del futuro o simplemente predicciones. Este trabajo ha pretendido realizar su propia aportación a esa comunidad de investigadores que están estudiando el fenómeno de los vaticinios en el periodismo informativo. Y se ha querido hacer, además, de un modo original y complejo al mismo tiempo, con el fin de que las conclusiones que arrojase el trabajo tuvieran el mayor interés posible para los estudiosos en la materia, pero también para los que analizan la deriva del periodismo en general y las tendencias hacia las que se dirige esta disciplina profesional. De ahí que este trabajo haya abordado la observación de más de 46.000 noticias, con el fin de averiguar si contenían alguna referencia al futuro que fuera susceptible de ser destripada más detalladamente. Y así ha sido. Casi 5.000 de esas piezas informativas eran predictivas. Todas ellas han sido examinadas a fondo para averiguar si estaban profetizando hechos a largo, corto o medio plazo; si sus predicciones se basaban en una conclusión del periodista, en la declaración de una fuente oficial o en algún otro origen desconocido...

The concept of news has traditionally been linked to the past (newspapers, news agencies), or at most, to present (live broadcasts). However, some authors seem to have detected an increment in the number of pieces of information that deal with events that have not happened yet; namely, the number of news dealing with the future, or simply predictions. This work aims to make a contribution to the community of aforementioned authors who are studying the phenomenon of forecasts in the area of informative journalism. We adopted an original and complex methodology so as the conclusions of our work were of uttermost importance not only for the academic experts in the matter, but also for those who analyze the course of journalism and its major trends from a more general perspective. That is why, during this work, we have analyzed more than 46.000 news, keeping the goal of discovering whether they had any reference to the future that could be ripped open, in details. Indeed, that was the case. Almost 5.000 news were predictive news. All of them have been deeply examined so as to figure out whether they were predicting long, medium or short time future facts; whether their predictions were based on a reporter’s opinion, on declarations by official sources or from other unknown sources. Also, whether reporters were showing off their predictions or pushing them into the background. Our work is focused in the Spanish ABC newspaper, more concretely in its content published in the years 1990, 2000 and 2010 within the Politics, International and Sports sections. The combination of these time periods and domains has permitted us to draw conclusions as “anonymous sources are more used to make political predictions,” “sports reporters are more keen to make predictions and appeal to future”. However, according to the obtained data, far from growing, the number of predictions have been decreasing between 1990 and 2010...