Media Treatment and analysis of political leadership in the local press during the 2015 regional elections in the Valencian Community.

The study of the 15M social movement, and then its transition into a political party like Podemos is of particular interest in different fields such as sociology, politics and also journalism. This is also the case regarding the emergence of Ciudadanos into the political and media arena, or the consolidation of a local political force like Compromís in Valencia. In this context, a study has been made of the media-opinion coverage of these political parties and other traditional parties in Valencia during the election campaign for the 2015 Regional Elections, which led to a change in government after twenty years with the Partido Popular in power. This study has been carried out within the framework of the national R+D Mediaflows project (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) and focuses on influence: who influences who, in what way and what are its effects. We focus on the flows that information circulates on, because this enables us to see how messages are translated and how agendas are combined in their attempt to influence the public. We aim to find out which are the most influential and which direction or directions the transmission of information flows in. The methodology includes two methods - quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative aspect is carried out using the framing theory to analyze speeches and contexts, and the qualitative aspect basically uses focus group tools and in-depth interviews. The main objective is to analyze the regional leadership of these parties in the traditional local press in this Community: in the province of Castellón, the newspaper Mediterráneo, from the Zeta group; in Alicante, the newspaper Información, from Prensa Ibérica group; and in the province of Valencia, the newspaper Las Provincias from Vocento group. This research serves as a means of comparing regional leaders' presence and the analysis of their speeches in these local newspapers. Some are leaders of consolidated parties with years of experience in government, or they are members of the opposition parties; others are newcomers, but they are backed by vigorous political brands with high profile leaders like Pablo Iglesias or Albert Rivera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]