Quality journalism in times of crisis: An analysis of the evolution of the European reference

Introduction. The explosion of new technologies, the progressive implementation of the Internet, the massive use of social networks and the current economic and financial crisis have, along with other factors, provoked a drop in sales of the printed press in the western countries of the planet. This study analyses the evolution of news quality in five European reference newspapers (Financial Times, Corriere della Sera, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Le Monde and El País) over a period between 2001 and 2012. Methodology. The research method used in this work has its roots in the concept of media performance developed by Denis McQuail (1992); which allows the use of transversal parameters to evaluate news quality. Results. The results indicate (n=1,137) that the European reference press only just passes the test to which it has been subjected (5.39 out of 10). The average index shows a moderate downtrend which is not applicable to all the papers. Conclusions. All the analysed newspapers appear to have forgotten about the social function which has historically been attributed to journalism as the guardian of citizens' interests. This is reflected in the poor results which all of them obtain in the section "social contribution of the news".