Diversifying Voice, Democratizing the News? A Content Analysis of Citizen News Sources in Spanish-language International Broadcasting

This paper explores sourcing practices in three international broadcasters in Spanish: China’s CGTN Español, Iran’s HispanTV and Russia’s RT. Often described as counter-hegemonic, in that the worldview they present is not in alignment with dominant Anglo-American media, these three State-sponsored TV channels have grown their presence globally in recent years, but remain largely understudied. Drawing on literature about non-elite sourcing, source functions and public diplomacy, we examine the degree to which citizen sources are featured in these three channels, and, when that happens, how these sources are used to advance the foreign policy objectives that inform the broadcasters’ raison d’être (i.e., promoting the interest of their home country while challenging the international status quo). To do so, we conducted a quantitative content analysis of news stories broadcast in 2014 and 2017 (N = 1,265). Our results show the use of non-elite sources is not ubiquitous but strategic, and is often linked to critical reporting of countries that are not political allies. We also present evidence that the practice is not equally common across broadcasters.