The NO-DO, the official newsreel of the Francoism, was during twenty five years a monopoly on information in the mass media. One of the most unexplored and yet unravelled aspects relate with the central role that NO-DO had in the broadcasting of scientific news and technical advances. The scientific point of view offered by NO-DO definitely contributed to elaborate a common opinion and belief in the Spaniard public during that period of time.

The legitimisation of the regime relied on the achievement of the objectives laid down by the new regime. The absence of any external influence of all either alternative or critical sources to gain access to alternative of understanding the world was a mandatory objective. The compulsory nature of the NO-DO and its monopoly on information facilitated the achieving of these objectives to perfection. The only audio-visual information available to the majority of Spaniards until the ending sixties (when the television became a mass media in Spain) was filtered by the State. A similar treat was also exerted to the scientific and technological topics as anticipated.

NO-DO never developed a specific schedule for spreading scientific and technological subjects, although these topics were always included in the newsreels along the world. These news were used for passing on the audience the entertainment, the escape and the curiosity expected from the actualities cinematographic genre.

But eventually, the Francoist regime also used this resort in the NO-DO as an outstanding instrument among all its propaganda contents. We hold that for Franco, social and economical progress were directly associated with technology and science. The official speech consisted of insistently repeated instructions and slogans shown weekly on the screens. Every week the Spanish people could watch the progress of the New Spain in the monotonous and repeated scenes made with the same characters, the same settings and the same plots.

Science and technology were always present in the reports and they played an important part in the creation of a Spanish reality which didn’t always have to do with the harsh and difficult real life.

On the basis of a survey of more than 2,000 news releases screened by NO-DO concerning scientific and technological issues, I will argue that NO-DO used the news related with science and technology in two different and complementary ways: helping Spaniards to escape from their reality and legitimizing the Franco’s regime.