Strategies and proposals in the radio and television coverage of local electoral campaigns
A recurring lament from observers during election campaigns has been the predominance of messages and political commentary about the motivations, behaviors and strategies of the candidates over substantive issues such as proposals and public problems. This talk manifests itself primarily in the coverage given by different media organizations during the electoral processes. Research into which factors in the media coverage are associated with the issue frame (characterized by allusion to proposals) and which with the strategic game frame can help with understanding what has caused a proliferation of this style of reporting, as well as facilitating the detection of biases that imply forms of discrimination against social groups, and making it possible to evaluate media organizations. This article will determine the levels of use of strategic game and issue frames in the radio and television coverage of electoral campaigns, and their association with variables related to candidate traits, media organizations and the particular context of the election. To achieve this aim, a secondary analysis was made of the data obtained from the monitoring of radio and television coverage of the 2018 electoral campaigns in the state of Jalisco. The results show a greater presence of the issue frame in comparison with the strategic game frame, and confirm that the concession regime and the sector of the media organization, the type of election, the candidate’s gender, and several temporal-contextual variables, predict the use of both news frames significantly.