La estrategia de encuadre en la prensa de referencia internacional. El caso de Le Monde Diplomatique

Abstract

ABSTRACT (English) This doctoral thesis is structured in three big parts directly related to three specific objectives with regard to its object of study, the strategy of framing in the international reference press: its contextualization within a specific line of research the communicative framing studies, its theoretical definition and initial operative as a concept; and its empiric and monographic application on a outstanding case of study, the monthly newspaper of French origin Le Monde diplomatique. Regarding the results of this research, in the first part a panoramic revision is done about the evolution of the framing studies nationwide and internationally. During the last 20 years, these studies have turned out to be one of the main currents of the communicative research. This general revision offers an updated diagnosis which identifies its main arguments of scientific interest and its still existing limitations But, above all, this revision evaluates the main progress of these studies during the last decade: the acquisition of an autonomous and complementary theoretical statutes and other theories (agenda setting and priming); the clarification of its origin and theoretical foundation; the definition of four main working areas: and the organization of the methodological debate in two large currents (quantifier and interpretative). In the second part, the concept of the strategy of framing is presented as a proposal of updating and expansion for the studies of the journalistic emitter and the media analysis in depth from the perspective of the frame studies. In this part we undertake the theoretical and methodological development of the concept: specifically its specialized contextualization within a specialized work area is developed, the frame building analysis; and from the study of the discursive representation of a series of procedures and professional actions, we set out a methodology that resorts to the content analysis and the discourse analysis as research techniques. And finally, in the third part we develop its empirical application throughout the study of the case of Le Monde diplomatique. On one hand, we develop a general approach to the newspaper, insisting on the journalistic and business singularity (72 international editions, 25 languages, 2,4 million copies per month, independent property) that justifies its monographic study and that has turned it into the main leader of critical thought in the international media panorama. And, on the other hand we offer the results of the content analysis developed on 513 journalistic articles published in the Spanish edition between 1995 and 2006, that confirm the existence of a strategy of framing and the initial viability of its empirical study. Specifically, we a description in depth is presented about its media agenda (main topics, actors, spaces and times), and after revising the fulfillment of the classical frame functions and other mechanisms of interpretative development, it is done the proposal of a general journalistic framing that will be of use as a base of the discursive structure of this international reference newspaper.