Abstract

The mediatization of political scandals has become a common phenomenon in the most diverse political systems. However, we know little about how the media frame this information. To answer this question, we have developed a descriptive study on a series of recent political scandals denounced in the Chilean press. Taking as a temporary framework the news published between 2014 and 2016, we analyzed the total information (n=10011) published by a sample of eleven national media, on seven political scandals that occurred during the period. We have used the QDAMiner-Wordstat program to detect frame terms, from which we have been able to identify two large frames: one referring to the “Judicialization of cases” and the other referred to the “Attribution of responsibilities”. The results are presented and discussed, examining some implications of the exercise for the understanding of the political scandals themselves and the way in which the Chilean periodic press presents and disseminates them.

Abstract

International literature demonstrates the influence of news media on the political attitudes and behaviors of citizens, stemming from the coverage and framing of politics. In the context of election campaigns, this news framing effect has usually been analyzed based on experimental designs, mainly through the manipulation of strategic game and issue frames. However, the need to conduct studies with greater realism has recently been raised, to increase the external validity and generalization of the findings. This approach, called experimental realism, seeks to link media content with opinion measurements to generate consumption indicators of certain types of news frames. Taking this procedure as a reference, this paper presents results on the impact of informative content consumption, focused on either the electoral strategy or programmatic proposals, in the development of the political engagement of citizens during the 2018 Mexican presidential campaign. The findings reveal an important effect of issue frame consumption on citizen political engagement according to all the measured indicators.