• The perception that the media is politically and economically dependent has persisted since 2022, when 61% of Spaniards already viewed the media as subject to undue influence

• Experts, activists, and organized crime generate less consensus: between 40% and 50% of respondents consider them influential in news coverage

This report has reintroduced the question of which actors and groups influence media coverage. Citizens focus on the intersection of political power, corporate ownership, and media funding. Specifically, governments and political parties emerge as the most influential actors (70%), followed by media owners and parent companies (65%) and advertisers (55%). This finding is significant because it links the perception of influence to the media’s economic dependence and to potential pressure from those who finance, directly or indirectly, part of news production. Beyond that, the perceived influence of other groups is seen as more limited. Experts, academics, researchers, and scientists are considered influential by half of the sample 50%), as are activists and advocacy groups (48%), while organized crime and criminal groups rank last (40%).

 
Although the wording of the question has changed this year and the results are not strictly comparable, the data already showed a widespread perception of media dependence. That year, 61% of respondents in Spain believed that the media were routinely subject to political influence improper, while only 13% viewed them as independent. Perceptions were very similar regarding economic and commercial pressures: 57% perceived dependence, compared to 15% who perceived independence. The current survey specifies the actors to whom this influence is attributed—governments, political parties, owners, or advertisers—but confirms the same underlying trend: a majority of the public interprets news coverage with suspicion of political and economic influence.

Spain shares the same basic pattern of perceptions as the average of the 26 countries in which this question was asked: governments and political parties are seen as the main sources of influence on news coverage. In both cases, the percentage of those who consider them influential reaches 70%. Media owners also play a central role, although in Spain their perceived influence is somewhat lower than the international average (65% versus 70%). Therefore, the Spanish case is not exceptional, and suspicion, as in other countries, centers on the actors with the greatest political, economic, or business capacity to influence the news.

The most striking differences are seen among secondary actors. Spain attributes less influence than the international average to experts (50% vs. 57%), advertisers (55% vs. 59%), activists (48% vs. 50%), and organized crime (40% vs. 44%). In all these cases, the Spanish perception is more subdued. The contrast is more visible when we subtract the values for “influential” from those for “not influential.” In Spain, the gap is narrower for media owners (41% vs. 53%), advertisers (22% vs. 32%), and experts (12% vs. 26%), indicating that Spaniards acknowledge the existence of pressures on news coverage but perceive them as less intense than the international average.

 
The analysis by age does not sample differences. If we set aside the group 65 and older—which is generally more critical of the influence of the main actors analyzed—the differences among the other age groups are small. Perhaps the most notable exception is that of advertisers, whose influence is highlighted by 46% of those under 24, compared with 56% of those over that age.

From an ideological standpoint, there are no major differences regarding the influence exerted by governments and political parties (around 70%). If anything, respondents on the left and in the center attribute slightly more influence to media owners and parent companies (69% versus 63%) and advertisers (59% on the left and in the center versus 51% on the right), while those on the right perceive greater influence from activists and interest groups (51% versus 45% on the left) and organized crime (46% versus 38%). In the case of experts, there are no differences based on ideology.