A Comparison on the Sustainable Development Goals’ Coverage by the Leading Online Media in the 19 Spanish-Speaking Countries

The implementation of the global agenda proposed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) entails a co-responsibility of political, economic and social agents. Among them, the media stands out, due to its key role in the symbolic construction of this transformation suggested by the United Nations. The media have the social responsibility of deconstructing imaginaries; contextualizing and democratizing discourses; challenging macroeconomics and hegemonic power agents; and advocating for realistic changes in life and thought models to transition towards fair eco-social models. In this cross-platform study we present a correlational diagnosis of the journalistic treatment of the SDGs by 1,689 online media from the 19 Spanish-speaking countries, on their respective Facebook and Instagram pages, from January 2022 to March 2024. From a thematic point of view, a broad overview of information and communication management around the SDGs is offered, in a context with profound differences, but with a common cultural framework. SDGs’ coverage is strongly influenced by institutional and political agendas. From a methodological point of view, we offer a quantitative modelling strategy, based on cluster analysis, which identifies general patterns of these media agendas, and which may be of interest for future research based on big data and media-policy interventions.