Media as active agents of conflict: the case of the Covid-19

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12795/Ambitos.2021.i53.07

Keywords:

Media coverage Covid-19, Digital press, Framing, Risk, Social conflict

Abstract

The current situation is highly conditioned by the effects of the Covid-19. Due to the consequences brought about by the epidemic and being the mass media the entities with the greatest capacity of diffusion, the purpose of this research is focused on analyzing the media coverage of the news related to the Covid-19. For this purpose, the most widely read newspapers in the city of Barcelona have been chosen from the week of February 8 to 14, 2020. The analysis aims to systematically observe whether these press releases have made excessive use of fear, alarm or warmongering, as previous research indicated, which would lead to fostering conflict between the different social agents. The framing theory has been used to find out how the news sample is framed. In addition, the Atlas.ti program has been used to perform a qualitative analysis, obtaining the most frequently used word clouds, as well as the networks between codes belonging to the same category and their connection with concurrent codes. Different results are shown after the analysis. On the one hand, the “conflict” frame is the least used, and on the other, if we look exclusively at that particular frame, we do observed a high use of narrative resources based on alarm, fear and war, which can generate an increase in the perception of conflict among their readers, mobilising them according to this conflict.

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Author Biography

Ángela A. Castrechini Trotta, University of Barcelona

Dra. Ángela Castrechini: Psychologist and Hired Professor Doctor at the Faculty os Psychology of the University of Barcelona (UB). She teaches in the Degree in Psychology, as well as in the Official Master in Psychosocial Intervention (MIPS) and conflict mediation (MOMED). She es part of the Research Group on Spcial, Environmental and Organizational Psychology, PsicoSAO (2017SGR564). Her research areas focus on social and environmental issues such as citizen insecurity, public space, sustainability, and climate change, with a methodological approach focused on social media. She has participated in different national research project and published numerous artibles in journals an books chapters.

 

 

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Published

2021-07-14

How to Cite

Gómez Martínez, D., & Castrechini Trotta, Ángela A. (2021). Media as active agents of conflict: the case of the Covid-19. Ámbitos. Revista Internacional De Comunicación, (53), 123–147. https://doi.org/10.12795/Ambitos.2021.i53.07

Issue

No. 53 (2021): Summer Edition

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ARTICLES

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Copyright (c) 2021 Diana Gómez Martínez, Ángela A. Castrechini Trotta

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