News Media Framing and Social Movement Activity: The Case of the Chilean Student Movement

• In Event: 463 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Cultural Framing and Mobilization in a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to the study of news media framing and social movement activity by looking at conditions that may influence newspaper coverage. Based on the study case of the Chilean Student Movement of 2011, this investigation explores the framing and source salience the newspaper provided to three main actors: the student movement, the government, and the newspaper sources. After contrasting coverage trends to political conditions and social movement activity, this study revealed that, in the context of a consolidated democracy lacking a plural printed media, newspaper coverage was quite resistant to any kind of external influence. In fact, over time all the framing and source patterns remained mostly constant in spite of a dynamic context.

Author

• Rodolfo Antonio Lopez, University of California - Irvine