The problem of hunger in Spain: analysis of digital media from 2008-2018

Abstract

In Spain, between 2008 and 2014, hunger was recognised as a social problem from different spheres. As a relevant actor, the press associated it with the increase in food insecurity as a result of the financial crisis, austerity policies and growing unemployment. This article takes up this previous analysis and compares it with the media discourses produced between 2015 and 2018, a period referred to as "post-crisis". A qualitative study of news stories in three digital newspapers evidences significant changes in the conditions that make hunger an issue of social interest, showing how the perception of what is problematic grows and declines according to the attention received in the media and political sphere. Not only is the amount of news about hunger reduced, but the collective meaning of its causes is re-semanticised. Food insecurity is presented as a health problem resulting from social precariousness and is associated with malnutrition and obesity. We discuss the role of media in the construction of the problem of hunger and food insecurity and we conclude that the socio-economic context and the interaction between social actors are explanatory factors of the discursive transformations identified in press.