International current affairs and the developing of public opinion in Early Modern Spain. A study of news discourse in serial news pamphlets (1624-1630)

Abstract

This paper aims to study the emergence of the concept of “current news” in seventeenthcentury public opinion and consequently in the journalism of that period. To this end, the paper has compiled a corpus of 36 news pamphlets, printed in Seville by Juan de Cabrera between 1624 and 1630. This news series, like other similar series in several Spanish localities, published the news of Felipe IV’s international policy, particularly regarding the Flanders Wars. The study makes use of the Historical News Discourse methodology to determine how verbal tenses related to the present and to the immediate future shift to the past simple, in addition to other discourse parameters. The conclusions suggest that changes in discourse relate to a progressive shift away from providentialism and towards a growing concern for current news, in line with the development of a critical and informed public opinion among certain social groups in the reigns of Felipe III and Felipe IV, as documented by a number of historians in recent works.