Democratization or censorship?: Argentina’s newspaper coverage of the media reform

Using second-level agenda setting, this paper examines the coverage of Argentina’s 2009 media reform. To investigate the attributes the media used, data were collected from three national newspapers’ online publications ( Clarin, La Nacion , and Pagina/12 ). Results from the analysis suggest that the newspapers used different attributes and tone based on their political leanings. Content analysis before and after selected court’s rulings on the new media law demonstrate that La Nacion and Clarin tended to converge in the way they used attributes and tone. When the rulings went against the interests of Clarin and La Nacion , both newspapers reacted negatively, in tone and attribute, relative to Pagina/12 .

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