In this particular case, when listing the main frames in texts on nutrition, the inductive method (Vreese, 2005) has been chosen over the deductive method. Keywords, sources, examples, headlines, sub-headers, quotes are just some framing devices provided by authors such as Entman (1993), Tankard (2001) and Gamson and Modigliani (1989) that have been used to identify four fundamental frames.

Specifically, the “diagnostic” framing that Eilders & Luters (2000: 417) applied to the study of editorials on the Kosovo War in the German press, along with identity and prognosis. The authors allude to Snow and Benford (1988) when explaining that this diagnosis framing refers to diagnosis of an event or aspect of social life as problematic or in need of change. Secondly, the “consequences” frame, adapted from “Economic consequences” that presents “an event, problem, or issue in terms of the economic consequences it will have on an individual, group, institution, region, or country” (Vakenburg, 1999: 552). This study considered not only economic consequences but also any that might affect the general well-being of the readership. The “recommendations/solutions” (Entman, 1993) and “responsibility” frames were also considered. The latter, according to Semetko & Valkenburg, “presents an issue or problem in such a way as to attribute responsibility for its cause or solution to either the government or to an individual or group” (2000: 96).

Table 1: The 5 Spanish online newspapers with the highest readership (November 2017).

Source: ComScore

In our case, an initial preselection of information was carried out related to food, published over 2017 in elpais.com and lavanguardia.com, both standing, as previously mentioned, among the top three Spanish online newspapers with the highest readership, according to data from ComScore. This selection considered contributions from Sánchez, Del Valle & Mensa (2019) relating to quantitative processing of digital contents on the subject of food. These authors propose a procedure to carry out effective news searches on the “food fact” and suggests a list of 40 possible terms.

Considering this list, a search was performed on the digital newspaper archive for both newspapers using the following terms: agriculture, food, eating, allergy, diet, livestock, gastrostomy, food industry, nutrition, obese, obesity, fishing and food security. 465 items were obtained from elpais.com and 753 from lavanguardia.com (see table 2).

In-depth analysis was then performed on texts within the field of “Nutrition”. To determine which articles would fit that subgroup, the classification was consulted as used in the reports published by Elika (2012-2015) on how Food Safety was