Media Research!!
Pre-Trip

Spain as many other European countries uses PAL (Phase Alternation –Line) television system. The Spanish television is composed of five National Channels two of which are state-owned; TVE-I and TVE-2, the two are financed by subsidy and advertising. Then there are Antena -3 and Telecinco which are private channels, financed by advertising. Finaly there is Canal+ which is private and is financed by subscription. Eight regional channels also contribute to the Spanish television environment: TV-3 and Canal 33 (financed by advertising and subsidy of Catalan government); Canal Sur (financed by advertising and subsidy of Andalusian government); Telemadrid: (property of Madrid regional government, financed by advertising and bank loans); Canal 9 (financed by advertising and subsidy of Valencian government); TVG (financed by advertising and subsidy of Galician government); ETB-I and ETB-2 (financed by advertising and subsidy of Basque government). TVE-I offers uninterrupted programming from early morning to late night and has the largest audience. TVE 2 has a flexible programming, which lends special attention to sports broadcasts and live broadcast of important cultural events.Spanish watch films 25.9% of the time, followed by series (15.4%), kids programs (12%), news (11.2%), musicals and variety shows (10%), sports (9.2%), and game shows and other programs (16.3%).
Between 1975 and 1990, Spanish television emerged from a system of absolute state control to a regulated system in which both privately- and publicly-owned channels compete for advertising sales within national and regional markets.

Spain Major Newspapers:

1. El Mundo
2. El Pais
3. ABC
4. Sport
5. AS
6. El Periodico De Catalunya
7. La Vanguardia
8. Avui
9. El Telegrafo
10. Cinco Dias

Spain Most Popular Magazines:

1. Ragazza
2. HOLA!
3. Fusion
4. Mujer 21
5. Elle
6. Epoca
7. Telva
8. Sobremesa
9. Crecer Feliz
10. Casa Viva

http://sispain.org/english/media/televisi.html
http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=spain

All About My Mother



All About My Mother (Spanish: Todo sobre mi madre) is a 1999 Spanish drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. The screenplay deals with complex issues such as AIDS, transvestitism, faith, and existentialism. The plot originates in Almodóvar's earlier film The Flower of My Secret which shows student doctors being trained in how to persuade grieving relatives to allow organs to be used for transplant, focusing on the mother of a teenager killed in a road accident. The film centers on Manuela, a nurse who oversees donor organ transplants in Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid and single mother to Esteban, a teenager who wants to be a writer. On his seventeenth birthday, her son Esteban is hit by a car and killed while chasing after actress Huma Rojo for her autograph following a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which she portrays Blanche DuBois. Manuela has to agree with her colleagues at work that her son's heart be transplanted to a man in La Coruña. After his son death Manuela journeys to Barcelona, where she hopes to find her son's father Lola, a transvestite she kept secret from her son, just as she never told Lola they had a son. There she meet other people as Rosa a young lady who was pregnant of Lola and was infected by Lola with AIDS; She also meet Nina, an actress with a drug addition problem and partner of Huma Rojo.
All About My Mother is a movie that touches many controversial and realistic issues. This movie gave me a sense of what one could find in Spain beside history and beautiful monument. This movie definitively influenced how I will enjoy my stay in Spain specially nights where one has to be more careful about where one go or do. This movie also gave me the idea that people in Spain are very open minded and are more advanced in the issue of homosexually than the US. It also gave me the feeling that I will have so much fun talking to Spanish people and learning new words.