Continuities and changes in the construction of the science and health agenda in the Argentine press

Abstract

This article presents the analysis and results of a research study on the current factors influencing the selection of news items that are part of the daily science and health agenda of the Argentine print media.
The study took into account the impact of the internet and social media, changes in media business models, and the working conditions of journalists.
For this purpose, a corpus of news articles from the printed versions published in the newspapers with the largest circulation and national scope, Clarín and La Nación, and from the digital media Infobae, were used. In addition, 10 journalists who cover science and health on the permanent staff of national and provincial media outlets were interviewed.
This study seeks to contribute to the understanding of journalism, particularly scientific journalism, in the face of the major contextual changes that have occurred in recent decades.
Based on the observed results and as a reflection on these transformations, an analytical framework for the current agenda-setting process is also proposed.
The research is part of the Master's thesis in Social Science Research from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires.