Journalistic treatment of migration issues in the Ecuadorian cyber media

Abstract

In early 2020, the UN office in Ecuador issued a statement calling on all sectors of public life to maintain a culture of peace and respect for the rights and equality of all people. The present study is focused on the treatment given by the cybermedia to migration in Ecuador. The objective has been to analyze the types of frames used in the elaboration of the news. Based on the framing theory, a content analysis was carried out on 54 news items published by six digital newspapers in Ecuador throughout 2019. A first exploration of the units of analysis was carried out with the test version of Atlasti® to count the most salient words. With that data, word clouds were made to determine those with more strength in the narrative. These words were compared with migration approaches found in previous research. Global explorations of the 54 units of analysis were made to determine the predominant approaches and then particular analyses were made for each of the six cybermedia. Three main types of framing were identified: migration as an opportunity, migration as a human right, and migration as a threat to national security. The treatment given to migration by the six cybermedia differs among them, since in some cases the informative purpose prevails and in others sensationalist tendencies are observed with emphasis on the framing that relates migration as a threat to national security. After the observation and analysis of the 54 news items, it was detected that a clear exposure of Venezuelan migrants as the main culprits of violence, crime and social problems in the country predominates.