News media and issue convergence. Crime news and elections (Argentina 2015)

CALZADO, MERCEDES CELINA

Boston

Conferencia; APSA Political Communication Pre-Conference; 2018

Harvard University/APSA

Crime is one of the main topics in media and political campaigns since the end of the nineties in Latin America. Many studies assume that the way in which media communicates the raise of crime and its possible solutions could affect the political debate. Within this framework many questions arise. Is crime a reality that the media reflects? Does the media amplify this problem? Politicians have a real interest in solving this problem? This paper presents the Argentinean last presidential campaign to analyze the criminal phenomenon and the role of the mass media in the electoral agenda. This work discusses: 1) the theory of issue ownership, which considers that candidates strategies during campaigns should avoid discussing the same issues, and 2) the different theories of democracy which consider that candidates must discuss the same issue in order to ensure a democratic dialogue. In this paper, the concept of issue convergence is a process where candidates use media principal topics and try to show the differences with their opponents. Nevertheless, the convergence in criminal issues does not promote necessarily a democratic dialogue and tend to encourage punitive positions in the electoral race. This study uses quantitative data, public opinion and political topics during the presidential election process in Argentina between 1999 and 2015. The working hypothesis is that media coverage around crime in this country is related with: 1) the convergence and monopolization of media market during the nineties, and 2) the political crisis which started with the new media regulation law in 2008 (?Ley de Servicios de Comunicación Audiovisual?). In sum, the issue convergence in media have developed an electoral issue convergence in 2015 Argentinean campaign that this paper will determinate.