ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a contextual history of communication studies in the two countries. It also demonstrates from an institutional point of view there are substantial differences regarding how communication studies developed in Spain and Portugal. Furthermore, until now there has been no history of communication studies across the Iberian Peninsula; the published work uniformly adopts a nationally-bound perspective that this chapter aims to overcome. Interest in modern times on the study of communication, particularly newspapers and journalism, is closely tied to the rise of liberalism and enlightenment. Even though discussion need to create journalism schools dates back to the late 19th century in both Spain and Portugal, the fact that both countries were ruled by dictatorships delayed the institutional placement of communication studies inside universities. This chapter discusses despite their closely shared histories, the two countries' two dictators had different concepts regarding the role of the media, which led to different histories of the discipline's institutionalization.
