Abstract
Content analysis applied to weekly newspapers. The main object of the present paper is to verify whether or not the language used by the selected authors is what attracts the wide range of public which constitutes the receptors of our analysis corpus. Our hypothesis arises from the following interrogative: What characteristics are necessary, as regards subject matter and language, for a medium to be compatible with newspapers of different tendencies and an ample range of diverse readers? In order to study the elitist or accessible treatment of the subject matter, the level of political commitment, the cultural references, the language register and the sintactic construction, we commenced by reading the articles which make up the corpus we proposed to analyse. We considered that the content analysis, a standard technique in observational methodology, would help to confirm or dismiss our working hypothesis as it would provide a series of methodological instruments specific to this type of approach. The common denominator of these techniques is that they are based on deduction and they move between two extremes: the rigour of objetivity and the harmony provided by subjetivity. The analyitical aim of this type of analysis is the identification and explanation of the different elements which confer meaning to any communication. After carrying out the analysis we have reached the following conclusions: 1. With regard to the vocabulary, we found it to be a rich vocabulary, as would correspond to professional writers. The lexical content corresponds, in general, to a standard register with the inclusion of some idiomatic words or phrases to be found in colloquial or even vulgar language. 2. As regards the subject matter, it was observed that the authors chose subjects which required little political commitment. In fact, they habitually used a description of manners style, cultural and historical references and comments on current affairs with the addition of a personal touch. 3. An exhaustive study of the sintaxis would have resulted in a different classification which would have been comprised of the coordination and subordination, divided into subcategories, which would have accounted for the different types of coordination, as well as the subordination, thus establishing a different register unit - the sentence. This study would allow us to verify the level of sintactic complexity which would complete the subject matter analysis which has been carried out using the word and its frequency of use as the register unit In the present study, as regards the sintaxis, we have in fact observed the use of conjunctions or relative pronouns: deducing that the texts use a simple sintactic construction which can be easily understood by a reader of a medium cultural level. These three conclusions: a rich but accessible vocabulary, non-conflictive subject matter and simple sintactic construction, corroborate the preliminary hypothesis which we expounded at the commencement.
