Media framing of techno-environmental controversies: A case study of the 'Paper-Mills Conflict’ between Argentina and Uruguay

Abstract

This article embraces the framing studies’ perspective to approach the media construction of the current techno-environmental controversy between Argentina and Uruguay, due to the location of an industrial plant to produce cellulose paper in the uruguayan community of Fray Bentos. The analysis is centered on the respective coverages developed by two argentinean print media –daily newspapers Clarín and Página 12– during three key stages in the evolution of the conflict. A sample composed of 1004 articles was examined using a protocol based in previously tested instruments, which was elaborated to quantify the incidence of five frames established a priori: a) environmental; b) scientific-technological; c) political-juridical; d) social; e) of economic causes & consequences. The evidence collected indicates that the analyzed media represented the controversy mostly in political-juridical terms and drastically overshadowed its environmental origins and the discrepancies of scientific and technical nature involved in its roots and development. The article discusses some results of the research experience, as well as the limitations and posibilites to extend the framing typology rehearsed here to other media coverages of similar situations, independently of its specific object.