Ivan Lacasa and Maria Victoria-Mas, lecturers in the Faculty of Communication Sciences, recently attended the Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference in Washington D.C. This year, the conference focused on digital media and social change, media information and digital journalism.

The two lecturers have undertaken a study aimed at measuring consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) through the comprehensive analysis of the results of a survey carried out by over 15,000 readers of some of Catalonia’s biggest information brands: La Vanguardia, El Periódico, Diari Ara, El Nacional.cat and Vilaweb. Conducted in a particularly polarised media context, the research clearly shows the aspects that have the greatest impact on CBBE.

The conclusions are varied. The results confirm that CBBE is mainly defined by the journalistic quality the readers perceive, which is in turn related to aspects such as equanimity, objectivity and political independence. The findings suggest that consumers shy away from brands they feel are politically biased. This trend is different among users of brands identified as left-wing or pro-independence, as these consumers ascribe value to brands they associate with this type of bias.