Opinión pública y opinión crítica. (Un modelo para interpretar la prensa de opinión)

Abstract

The text stems from a final research report. It presents a theoretical framework to analyzing the usage of
the public opinion concept in the press; and it offers some conclusions over the pertinence in applying that
theoretical framework unto the analysis of a texts corpus composed by editorials and opinion columns.
The theoretical framework aims at showing the analysis tools and the basic theoretical concepts which
three theories could contribute to the understanding of the object of the study. They are: Perelman-
Olbrechts’s argumentation theory (mainly their ideas about the kinds of argumentation premises); Eric
Landowski’s socio-semiotic focus over the public opinion notion and the attitudes of “the political class”
towards it; and Jürgen Habermas’s reconstruction of the genesis and decadence of the “political public
opinion” social category, in addition to his theory over the role the public opinion has to undertake in a
democratic society.
The text is interjected by the question whether the mass media would contribute to the democratic
formation with a civic will that would become an authentic public opinion.