News framing of cannabis: A quantitative exploratory study from the framing theory

Abstract

The journalistic coverage of cannabis, the most used drug of restricted trade in the world, has stimulated a debate about its effects. However, there is a lack of research about the media information on cannabis, and the only official report published in Spain about this matter is not written by journalism experts. In order to contribute to overcome this state, an exploratory content analysis was carried out, adopting the framing theory as a basis. Previous framing researches were applied to describe the output of the journalistic routines. The information about cannabis was brief, of low importance, and did not describe the context of the facts, usually a conflict that becomes a crime, where the individuals are responsible and institutions have to solve it.