Media framing of inequality of opportunities in education during the pandemic: analysis of the Spanish online media agenda

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the confinement of the population, education went from its usual face-to-face model to an online one. Different research points out how this situation has aggravated previous inequalities in education. On the other hand, during confinement, media consumption grew significantly. In this way, citizens use the media to inform themselves and form their public opinion. Thus, this research seeks to analyse how Spanish digital news addresses this link between inequality of opportunities in education and the pandemic. For this purpose, the six most-read cybermedia were selected, and all the journalistic texts that related to both concepts were analysed for a year (March 1, 2020–February 28, 2021). The population is composed of 2,727 journalistic stories, and we work with a stratified sample (n = 958) according to the content production per quarter and for each of the selected media. The results show how the journalistic accounts analyzed tend to link inequality of educational opportunities with income inequality and with class and age gaps. Despite this, the level of deepening in coverage does not allow progress on possible solutions that help mitigate this social problem aggravated by the pandemic, although it is higher than when other types of inequalities are addressed.