Who is to Blame? Analysis of Government and News Media Frames During the 2014 Earthquake in Chile

Abstract

This study relies on Entman's definition of frames and framing functions to analyze how the Chilean government and news media framed a natural disaster occurring in Chile in 2014. Using structural topic modeling, 705 news stories and 174 official press releases were analyzed to identify under which conditions the media may attribute blame when natural disasters are framed beyond the realm of an accident. Findings indicate the government portrayed its own performance as a successful one where all actors did their job to minimize disaster consequences. Yet, the media narrative did not reflect the government's efficiency frame, portraying the official response as a result of lessons learned from a previous disaster. Taken together, the results suggest that when the media align with a particular political side, disaster characteristics are not the main issue to report on. This study departs from a description of journalistic practices in time of disasters towards a more complex view of the relationship between government and the press when it comes to disaster coverage.