Global News and Awareness: An Examination of El País and The New York Times and their Relation to Public Knowledge and Opinion Levels

This research examined the content of articles about Brazil in The New York Times and El País and the correlation between news coverage and students’ knowledge and opinion levels on current events in Brazil. Content analysis revealed that American news coverage of Brazil in The New York Times had more depth and breadth than Spanish coverage in El País. Questionnaires distributed to University of Seville and Elon University students indicated that students in Spain had more limited knowledge of current events in Brazil than American students, reflecting the narrow focus of Spanish news coverage. However, the American students had a much broader array of knowledge and opinion of current events in Brazil, reflecting the more extensive focus of American news.