Security, Order, and Control: Analysis of the media framing of migration in digital media during the 2021 presidential campaigns in Chile

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.2741

Keywords:

presidential, migration, Chile, framing, digital

Abstract

The 2021 presidential elections in Chile brought the debate among candidates about the search for governability, national unity, crime, security, and migration to the political and media agenda. As a result, the role of the media in covering these debates was key to constructing and installing these topics on the public agenda. This paper examines the media framing of migration on three local news websites, El Mostrador, Bio-Bio, and Cooperativa, during the 2021 presidential campaign in Chile. The study employed a news content analysis of prominent frames used to depict migrants in the news texts. The results demonstrate that the media focus on migration during the 2021 presidential campaign was primarily as a state problem, described a) under the notion of crisis and a situation that becomes uncontrollable, while its real magnitude is not known, and b) as a threat to national security. The study suggests that digital media is fertile ground for analyzing their potential influence on levels of attitudes toward the migrant population. Findings from this study can be applied to other media formats to deepen academic knowledge about marginalized groups.

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Author Biographies

  • Anna Ivanova, University of O'Higgins

    Language professor (English and French) and Ph.D. in English Language and Linguistics from the University of Seville. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Institute of Education Sciences at the University of O’Higgins. Her research career primarily focuses on critical discourse analysis and the informational treatment of migrations. She has served as the principal investigator of a FONDECYT project on the informational treatment of migration in the Chilean national press, with results published in various academic journals. Currently, she is the principal investigator of a FONDECYT project on the securitization of migration in the Chilean quality press.
    Universidad O’Higgins, Chile

  • Lucero Burón, Temuco Catholic University

    She is an Anthropologist and a MA in Anthropology from the Catholic University of Temuco. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Territorial Studies of the Global South at the University of Concepción. Her research career has developed along two main lines: migration studies and cultural heritage. In the field of migration, she has participated in FONDECYT projects on media representations of immigrants in the national press (2015-2019). Her recent publications include articles in Scopus journals on the visual representation of migrant women (International Migrations, 2023) and the media representation of immigration in the Chilean press (Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 2024). She has led projects to strengthen migrant organizations in the southern macro zone of Chile and Neuquén. She works as a researcher at the Subdirección de Pueblos Originarios, conducting studies on sites of Mapuche cultural significance in the Araucanía region. She has been a university lecturer in several Chilean institutions, teaching courses

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Published

01-07-2026

Issue

Section

Miscellaneous of Research articles and essays

How to Cite

Ivanova, A., & Burón, L. (2026). Security, Order, and Control: Analysis of the media framing of migration in digital media during the 2021 presidential campaigns in Chile. Doxa Comunicación. Interdisciplinary Journal of Communication Studies and Social Sciences, 43. https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.2741
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