The written press as an instrument of informal music education in the general population: content analysis of three Spanish newspapers (La prensa escrita como instrumento de educación musical informal en la población general: análisis de contenido de tres diarios españoles)

ABSTRACT The press is one of the lifelong learning tools forming part of the context of citizens’ learning ecologies in every area of human knowledge. This work examines the characteristics of the general-interest written press as a vehicle for unintentional learning about music by the public at large. The first objective of the study was to identify the formal characteristics of the musical content messages found in the general-interest written press. The second objective was to analyse the type of music-related messages disseminated by the press in relation to its sociocultural links. The methodology used was both quantitative and qualitative, applying both to analyse the content. The data source consisted of 60 weekend pull-outs found in three of the most widely read newspapers in Spain, covering a six-month period of data collection. The results indicate that it is possible to create a taxonomy of informal music learning that the press can promote in the general population. This learning is strongly shaped by variables related to the socio-cultural context surrounding it, giving rise to trends towards the dissemination of content more related to general aspects of popular urban culture than to music itself.