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Españoles en el mundo ('Spaniards in the world') is a long-standing programme of Spain's television channel TVE1 ('La 1') that constructs contemporary Spanish identity in the registers of nationalism and cosmopolitanism as well as socio-economic class. The programme assumes the form of soft-focus journalism that is upbeat and apolitical. Episodes revolve around presenters visiting Spaniards who have settled in other countries to document their everyday lives. The analysis focuses on twelve episodes and presents evidence of a nationalist message of efficacious Spaniards fanning out into the world and prospering, personally and professionally, as their talents enable them to successfully integrate themselves as travellers abroad ('all the world has enjoyed Spaniards', one informant claims). At the same time, within the programme's gaze, nationalism is synergized by cosmopolitanism. The programme affirms (and even banalizes) cultural cosmopolitanism as Españoles en el mundo engages respectfully with other cultures – aside from some Orientalist moments discussed in the analysis. Whatever the merits of Españoles en el mundo in its openness to cultural cosmopolitanism and its affirmations of Spain's post-Franco generations' stepped-up engagement with other nations, the programme is also silent on the implications of the informants' predominantly professional, middle-class status as the ticket into the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the restoration of its Republic in the late 1970s, Spain has made enormous strides in liberalizing its domestic society and in moving prominently onto the world stage. The essay addresses the contours of contemporary Spain via two recent films: Te doy mis ojos/Take my eyes (Icíar Bollaín 2003) and Hable con ella/Talk to her (Pedro Almodóvar 2002). The two films differ markedly with respect to their artistic strategies and may be broadly construed as relatively realistic ( Te doy mis ojos) versus relatively formalistic ( Hable con ella). The strategy of realism in Te doy mis ojos organizes its depiction of domestic violence and a woman's gradual shift from tense complicity with to assertion against it; realism that is, in turn, paradoxically achieved by a carefully measured script that features, for example, foreshadowing and parallel scenes. By contrast, the more formalist Hable con ella approaches tropes of femininity and masculinity more playfully and challenges traditional dichotomies, most notably in its stress on male masochism. Both films herald Spain as a nation that has long ‘punched above its weight’ in the arts and that is currently confronting the traditional Iberian machista. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation examines ¡Qué me dices! (What are you telling me!), an entry in Spain's prensa rosa (‘pink press’) ensemble. The celebrity- and female aesthetics-oriented magazine presents as staunchly apolitical as it resolutely ignores contemporary issues (e.g. the economy, immigration). However, I posit that ¡Qué me dices! channels a distinct political posture. The publication affirms celebrity as a form of meritocracy enacted to market specifications that bestows popularity on figures that resonate with mass audiences. ¡Qué me dices! is, nonetheless, silent on the production of celebrity via the media apparatuses of which it is a part. Where ideology and gender are concerned, ¡Qué me dices! is traditionalist in exhorting women to surveil their appearances and to make interventions with an eye toward attracting men; intensifying consumption to eradicate presumed personal defects is emphasised at the exclusion of other projects. Surveillance of celebrity also eases readers' participation in the ‘new’ information-based economy with its emphasis on obtaining customer details. Thus, a publication that refuses formal politics teems with political implications, particularly for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, I examine more than 560 articles in The Guardian (UK) and The New York Times from 2002 to 2003 in order to characterize the coverage of Spain in the two prestigious English-language newspapers. I argue that along with being more extensive, The Guardian's coverage of Spain is generally more attentive to the textures of Spanish life. Nonetheless, The Guardian also exhibits a form of Orientalism (Said, 1979) in its at times Otherizing constructions of stasis and crypto-authoritarianism in Spain. The New York Times, by contrast, often exaggerates similarity between Spain and the United States. I use the concepts of ‘personalization,’ ‘authority­disorder,’ and ‘fragmentation’ (Bennett, 2001) that frequently structure the narratives of US journalism in order to illuminate the Times' coverage. Personalization is evident particularly in the Times' coverage of the then Spanish President José María Aznar. Massive popular peace advocacy during the spring of 2003 in Spain was also understated by the Times as it was parsed into fragmentary coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]