The media are a key element in being able to assess how the climate of public opinion regarding Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM) has evolved over the years. The aim of this study is to explore the variation of the media representations along 40 years (1979–2018) in Spanish newspapers to assess if the press has contributed to legitimise, delegitimise or maintain the status quo of these therapies. From quantitative and qualitative approaches, we evaluate the media attention, the narratives, linguistic terms and tone used, and the relations between them. Results indicate the media reporting on CAM has remained relatively stable during the first 37 years (1979–2015) of the study, but in the last 3 years a radical change has been observed in media attention, tone, language and arguments used. Media representations of this issue evolves from a period of low media attention (1979–2015), in which CAM was legitimised, to another period of high media attention (2016–2018), in which CAM was delegitimised.

媒体是能够评估多年来关于补充和替代医学（CAM）的舆论氛围如何演变的关键要素。这项研究的目的是探讨西班牙报纸在40年间（1979-2018年）中媒体代表的变化，以评估媒体是否有助于使这些疗法合法化，合法化或维持其现状。通过定量和定性的方法，我们评估了媒体的注意力，叙事，所使用的语言术语和语调以及它们之间的关系。结果表明，在该研究的前37年（1979-2015年），媒体对CAM的报道一直相对稳定，但在最近3年中，观察到的媒体注意力，语气，语言和论点发生了根本性变化。