Media visibility and terrorism: Th e case of ETA victims

Abstract

During the past decades, several dynamics have brougth to light the victims of ETA terrorism in the media. This paper analyses their presence in two main newspapers agendas over a period of three decades. Our goal is to describe the dynamics of a process that range from invisibility to media saturation. One the one hand key factors conditioning victims «media value» have been indentified, on the other hand, media levels of subordination concerning the state, the market and the audience have been revealed. Finally, this work highlights the enormous divergence among information flows about the victims and real indicators of ETA strength, as well as the newspapers agenda dependence on their respective political alliances.