Canarian press and media

   Because of geographical location, international news is as important to the Canarian press as it is to the national media. On the other hand, local news can be more parochial than in the peninsular regional press, as the printed media are generally split between dailies based in Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Broadcast media are usually limited to a single island, while national radio and television are under pressure to report on the smaller islands. The written press has been disadvantaged by the historically low literacy levels, emigration of the best educated, and the lack of a middle class. The earliest newspaper as such was the Correo de Tenerife, which was published between 1808 and 1810. Throughout the nineteenth century, numerous papers were launched and failed, the most successful lasting under two years. In the period 1875 to 1925, several newspapers were founded which have survived to the present day, among them the Diario de Las Palmas, closely associated with the liberals, and the Gaceta de Tenerife, originally a Catholic-conservative paper. The Diario, with its sister daily La Provincia, were linked to the Franco regime's Falange propaganda sheet, which later became the nowdefunct Eco de Canarias. On Tenerife, the press is dominated by El Día, founded in 1910 as La Prensa, the Diario de Avisos and the Gaceta. The transition to democracy saw the failure of several papers for various reasons, notably the Eco (Gran Canaria); and La Tarde (Tenerife). The first daily published for all the islands, Canarias 7, was established in the early 1980s. Its more straightforward reporting style and its moderate pro-self-determination stance gained it considerable popularity, particularly with younger readers. Other papers, notably the Diario de Las Palmas and the Diario de Avisos, have adopted similar formats if not similar politics. El Guanche (named after the original inhabitants of Tenerife), the voice of the militant independence movement, was founded in 1879 by Secundino Delgado in Venezuela, though the political viewpoint it defended was then illegal. Its first series ended in 1912 with Delgado's death but it was reestablished in Cuba in 1924. Now in its fourth series, it is the mouthpiece of Antonio Cubillo Ferreira's Congreso Nacional de Canarias (Canaries" National Congress).

   Televisión Española en Canarias (Spanish Television in the Canaries) produces regional news and cultural programmes, the most distinctive of which are "Tenderete" (a Canarian word meaning a get-together), dedicated to Canarian folk music, and various lucha canaria (Canarian wrestling) championships. Local radio has expanded considerably but, though commanding good audiences, is limited geographically because of the mountainous terrain and the distances between the islands, and relies on cheap chat-show and phone-in formats.

   Further reading

   - Cabrera Déniz, G.J. and Reyes González, N. (1990) "La prensa insular como fuente histórica", VII Coloquio de Historia Canario- Americana (1986), 1: 701–43.

   - Chaves, A. (1986) El periodista Víctor Zurita y el golpe de estado de 1936 en Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Gráficas.

   - Hernández Bravo de Laguna, A. (1992) Franquismo y transición política, Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Centro de Cultura Popular Canaria.

   M. R. EDDY