Overall, those surveyed think that El País is the most objective newspaper, followed by El Mundo, ABC, Público and La Razón, although generally students read free papers more.
Students of the subject “Information Networks and Data Analysis” surveyed students at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid to find out their reading habits and their opinions of the written press.
The results of the study, carried out in December 2009, which can be considered as representative, are the analysis of data obtained from a survey answered by 1,258 students of the various faculties and schools of UAM, in which they gave their opinion on the political neutrality of the media, the political stance of the newspapers El País, El Mundo, ABC, La Razón and Público, and the position of the students and their reading habits.
90% of UAM students - two out of three surveyed were women - see the media as not very or not at all neutral. The most critical were Philosophy and Psychology students, while students of the Schools of Engineering and Sciences were somewhat less so. The faculties where the most students declared they had no opinion on the subject were Medicine and Sciences.
Overall, students surveyed see El País as the most objective newspaper, followed by El Mundo, ABC, Público and La Razón. El País is considered fairly objective by the School of Engineering, while those who consider it less objective are students of Law and Economic and Business Sciences.
El Mundo is considered most objective by the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences, while those who find it less objective are the Faculties of Sciences and Philosophy and the Arts.
In the range of intermediate objectiveness, ABC is considered to be more objective in the Faculty of Medicine, and less so in Sciences. Philosophy and the Arts position La Razón as clearly less objective, while the Faculty of Law attributes most objectivity to this paper. Law and Economic and Business Sciences found Público to be not very objective, while this paper had more positive opinions in Sciences and Philosophy and the Arts.
Men and women classify El País as the most objective, followed by El Mundo, and agreed that La Razón is the least objective paper, followed in the case of men by Público and in the case of women by ABC.
Although the differences are not significant, the opinion of low income and medium to low income groups is that the most objective papers are El País and Público. The higher income level group regards El Mundo as most objective, followed by El País, and La Razón as least objective.
The results of analysis of the survey regarding reading habits showed that with the exception of the Faculty of Law, the students read more free than paid newspapers, and that the paid papers they read most at home were El País and El Mundo. Regarding the sections, there were differences between the sexes, with men preferring the national section followed by international news and sports, while women, who also prefer first the national news, place social news and international news in second and third place respectively.
when students were asked about the political stance of the newspapers, El País and Público appear as in favour of the Government, and La Razón, ABC and El Mundo, in that order, as in favour of the Popular Party. However, despite clearly recognising the political leaning of each newspaper, students placed El País as the most objective newspaper, followed (in order) by El Mundo, ABC, Público and La Razón.
Finally, there was common agreement that both the Government and the opposition are handling the current economic crisis “badly”, giving them both a fail mark. Surveyed students in the low income group thought the opposition had acted worse in the crisis, those in medium-low and medium-high income groups thought that both the Government and the opposition had handled it equally badly, and the high income group thought the Government had handled the crisis worse than the opposition; the most critical of the Government were the faculties of Economics and Law, and the most critical of the opposition were Philosophy and Arts, and Sciences.
