Transsexuality in Spanish cybermedia. Presence, preeminence, and topics (2000-2020)

Abstract

Transsexuality has found a place in both the Spanish collective mindset and media. To analyze the portrayal of this type of sexual diversity in the media, we evaluated its presence in cybermedia, its preeminence in journalistic texts, and the issues addressed in its media coverage. A quantitative content analysis (N = 24,363) of the journalistic texts published during the period 2000-2020 by 13 generalist Spanish cybermedia was carried out, using both rule-based classification and unsupervised topic modeling. The results highlight an increase in journalistic texts about transsexuality, in which three inflection points and four phases or distribution changes can be distinguished. The preeminence of this topic within the analyzed pieces has also increased, and the issues covered have diversified over the years. Overall, these data confirm the newsworthiness that this type of sexual diversity achieved throughout the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Media attention especially highlights the newsworthiness of aspects such as conflict, the protagonist´s notoriety, or periodicity through anniversary journalism. Likewise, the results also suggest that the media offer an increasingly complex portrayal that favors both the visibility and the understanding of the different dimensions and characteristics that intersect in these realities.