La controversia fallida de la Ley de mecenazgo durante el Gobierno del PP (2011-2015). La cultura en la esfera pública española

Abstract

This article reflects on the state of culture in Spain, under the rule of the conservative Partido Popular during the period between 2011 and 2015. Namely, it analyses the governmental bill for a law on cultural patronage, one of the cultural issues on which the media focused during that time. The bill, which was announced as one of the main measures in the cultural domain, was in fact never presented to the Parliament. The article first presents the role of culture in contemporary Spain and introduces the ambivalent concept of patronage. Then, it analyses how the main national newspapers covered the bill and how they presented the interested actors’ reactions to the bill. The analysis shows that those newspapers didn’t really engage in the public controversy. Finally, it reflects on the role of culture as a public problem and on the role of the media as imperfect amplifier of social problems related to culture. The article is part of the Research Project financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness “La construcción de los asuntos públicos en la esfera pública mediatizada. Análisis semio-etnográfico de la información” (The building of public issues in the public mediatised sphere. Semioethnographic analysis of the information).