Comparative Analysis of Media Coverage of the Tous Dam Disaster

Abstract

Floods are one of the most recurrent disaster events in the Mediterranean region and have intensified in recent decades due to anthropogenic climate change. Among these events, DANAs (low-pressure systems) have gained increasing prominence due to their capacity to cause extreme human suffering and significant economic losses. In this context, this study examined the media coverage of the Tous dam disaster, which occurred in October 1982 in the Valencian Community of Spain following a DANA episode that caused the dam to collapse and resulted in significant human, material, and economic losses. This study compared dominant media framing of the Tous dam disaster in Valencia (October 1982) across six outlets. A corpus of 1575 items from three national newspapers (La Vanguardia, ABC, El País) and three regional ones (Las Provincias, Levante, Noticias al Día) was qualitatively analyzed using the Valencia municipal archive. The analysis assessed the presence or absence of Semetko and Valkenburg’s crisis frames through qualitative analysis of data collected with digital tools (MyNews and Factiva): human interest, economic consequences, attribution of responsibility, conflict, and morality. The results show an overall primacy of human-interest framing, with clear differences between outlets: National media emphasized a perspective based on structural or interpretive approaches, while regional media prioritized human and direct approaches. Overall, there was a growing trend towards assigning responsibility, with a shift in focus from the suffering of those affected towards the political and institutional management of the disaster.

Keywords

Framing / National media / Natural hazard-related disasters / Regional media / Tous dam

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