El artículo analizó las repercusiones de la inseguridad en el periodismo chileno tras lo ocurrido durante el estallido social de 2019 y la pandemia de covid-19, aplicando el modelo de jerarquía de influencias de Shoemaker y Reese. Estos eventos impactaron diversos niveles del ejercicio de la profesión: individual, rutinas, organizacional, institucional y social. A través del análisis cualitativo de 50 entrevistas en profundidad con editores de prensa, radio, televisión y medios digitales, se identificaron diversas amenazas específicas en cada nivel: físicas y psicológicas en los niveles social, individual y de rutinas; inseguridad tecnológica en los niveles de rutinas y organizacional, e inseguridad financiera en los niveles extramediales. En conjunto, los hallazgos muestran cómo estas formas de inseguridad no solo afectaron el trabajo periodístico durante las crisis, sino que dejaron efectos persistentes que han redefinido prácticas, vínculos con las fuentes y formas de organización editorial. Por ejemplo, se observan unas nuevas formas de autocensura, una reducción sostenida del trabajo en terreno, la consolidación del teletrabajo como forma organizativa, una creciente dependencia de fuentes institucionales y una desconfianza social que continúa debilitando la legitimidad del periodismo. Estas transformaciones evidencian la necesidad de comprender la inseguridad como un fenómeno interconectado y multidimensional, que demanda un abordaje integral que considere esta complejidad.

This article analyzed the repercussions of insecurity in Chilean journalism following the events of the 2019 social outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic, applying Shoemaker and Reese's hierarchy of influences model. These events impacted various levels of the profession: individual, routines, organizational, institutional, and social. Through qualitative analysis of 50 in-depth interviews with editors from print, radio, television, and digital media, specific threats were identified at each level: physical and psychological threats at the social, individual, and routine levels; technological insecurity at the routine and organizational levels; and financial insecurity at the extramedia levels. Collectively, the findings demonstrate how these forms of insecurity not only affected journalistic work during the crises but also left lasting effects that have redefined practices, relationships with sources, and editorial organization. For instance, new forms of self-censorship, a sustained reduction in field reporting, the consolidation of telework as an organizational model, growing reliance on institutional sources, and social distrust that continues to undermine journalism's legitimacy were observed. These transformations highlight the need to understand insecurity as an interconnected and multidimensional phenomenon, requiring a comprehensive approach that considers this complexity.

Frente a noticias de alta relevancia, como los desastres socio-naturales, la necesidad de las personas de recurrir a información aumenta. Las redes sociales se han convertido en una de las fuentes informativas preferidas por sobre los medios tradicionales. Sin embargo, distintas formas de presentar los contenidos pueden ser recibidas de maneras muy disímiles por parte de las audiencias. A partir del estudio de caso de las inundaciones que afectaron a la zona central de Chile en junio y agosto de 2023, este trabajo explora cómo el foco editorial (entendido como una idea fuerza que confiere una intención específica a la narración visual) de las publicaciones en cuentas de Instagram de once medios de comunicación chilenos se relaciona con el tono emocional y la pertinencia con la noticia de los comentarios realizados por el público.

People's need for information increases in the face of highly relevant news, such as socio-natural disasters. Social networks have become one of the preferred sources of information over traditional media. However, different ways of presenting content can be received differently by audiences. Based on the case study of the floods that affected central Chile in June and August 2023, this paper explores how the editorial focus (understood as a strong idea that confers a specific intention to the visual narrative) of the publications in Instagram accounts of eleven Chilean media outlets is related to the emotional tone and relevance to the news of the comments made by the public. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, it stands out as a finding that publications with a complementary and redundant editorial focus are those that generate more comments from the public. In contrast, in the case of complementary content, comments trigger an interaction related to the post's information that suggests an understanding and discussion about what was published.

This research examines how fear, in the digital environment, acts as a factor of change in professional practices and in the relationship of journalists with audiences and sources. Through 91 in-depth interviews, it identifies the transformations and repercussions of this evolution and the role that fear plays in audience attraction practices such as clickbait; in actions to protect journalists such as self-censorship and anonymity, as well as the emergence of new reporting dynamics such as the "selfie recorded testimonial".

Este trabajo estudia cómo dos importantes crisis, el estallido social de 2019 y la pandemia de COVID-19, influyeron en la adaptación del periodismo chileno a los desafíos del entorno digital. Para ello, se utilizó un enfoque cualitativo basado en 41 entrevistas en profundidad a periodistas en ejercicio durante ambos sucesos, seguidas por 50 entrevistas a editores de medios tradicionales y alternativos que reflexionaron retrospectivamente sobre las consecuencias de estos eventos para la profesión. El análisis permitió concluir que el periodismo chileno experimentó en los últimos cuatro años etapas similares a las de un duelo: negación, ira, negociación, depresión y aceptación. Tanto el estallido social como la pandemia aceleraron los procesos de modernización y adaptación a las nuevas tecnologías por parte de las salas de prensa chilenas y, al mismo tiempo, obligaron a los profesionales a repensar y resignificar los alcances del periodismo como profesión.

The tension between health and economic considerations regarding COVID-19 has resulted in a framing contest, in which proponents and adversaries of strong containment measures hold oppositional frames about the pandemic. This study examines the effects of competing news frames on social media users' policy preferences and the moderation of framing effects played by melodramatic news treatment. Results from a pre-registered online survey experiment in Chile (N= 518) show that participants exposed to Facebook posts with an economic frame were significantly less supportive of measures that restrict mobility (e.g., quarantines) than participants in the control group. Contrary to expectations, exposure to a public health frame also reduced support for stay-at-home orders, and the presence of melodramatic features had no significant impact on users' preferences. Other variables, however, did alter these framing effects, such as fear of COVID-19 and frequency of social media news use. These findings paint a rather complex picture of framing effects during the pandemic in a digital media environment.

This study analyzes what “emergency sources” (authorities, emergency managers, and experts) expect from journalists during a disaster, using a mixed-method approach with six focus groups and a survey of 166 official Chilean sources. Based on the first three levels of the hierarchy of influences model, we explore how they perceive journalists’ roles and performance when covering disasters. The results suggest that emergency sources’ evaluations, while affected by a combination of individual, routine, and organizational variables, are mostly shaped by sources’ direct and mediated experience with journalists. Thus, a more fluid relationship between journalists and emergency sources, as well as more communication experience by sources, could lead to a better understanding between both groups, which, ultimately, may lead to delivering more accurate and timely information.

This work aims to identify, classify, and categorize relevant activities regarding professional journalistic work in major disaster coverage, and develop a conceptual model that organizes them theoretically. We conducted a series of empirical data collection stages (background gathering through in-depth interviews and content analysis) and later applied the theory-building block approach that uses concepts to create and operationalize constructs. The main result is a six-dimension model based on the traditional questions of the journalistic process: How, why, who, when, what, and where. It comprehensively addresses the multiple aspects involved in disaster coverage: emotional, logistic, professional, and ethical challenges, as well as timing, key actors/roles, and their needs and demands according to the disaster type and stage they face. The model also brings together a group of potential activities journalists must confront and carry out when covering major disasters or highly significant social crises. Its main contribution is to make a useful theoretical tool available to academia and the media, striving for a versatile matrix management approach.

En los noticiarios de América Latina, es frecuente la utilización de recursos melodramáticos: focalización en historias personales, exacerbación de emociones, uso de figuras retóricas y recursos como primeros planos y música dramática, etc. Este fenómeno tiende a ser criticado por expertos, profesionales y miembros de la audiencia que asocian melodrama con sensacionalismo o con la cobertura de hechos de escasa relevancia. Este artículo presenta los resultados de dos investigaciones realizadas en Chile, las cuales, a partir de la aplicación de metodologías cualitativas (grupos focales, en el primer caso, y entrevistas en profundidad, en el segundo), tienen por objetivo explorar las percepciones que la audiencia tiene sobre el uso de recursos melodramáticos en los noticiarios de televisión abierta de Chile, cuáles son las características que valoran y las que rechazan de estos recursos, y distinguir si existen diferencias en tal percepción cuando se trata de la cobertura informativa de noticias de alta carga emocional como los desastres. Los resultados dan cuenta de percepciones mixtas, entre la crítica y el optimismo, pues los participantes de ambos estudios resaltan que, si bien les molesta el exceso de melodrama, su inclusión en los noticiarios incrementa la empatía y mueve a la acción. Durante la cobertura de desastres se advierte, además, que se produce una percepción diferenciada de las historias entre los afectados y no afectados por sus consecuencias.

In Latin America, news programs frequently leverage melodramatic resources: targeting of personal stories, exacerbation of emotions, use of rhetorical figures, close-ups, dramatic music, among others. This phenomenon tends to be criticized by experts, professionals, and members of the audience who associate melodrama with sensationalism or the coverage of irrelevant events. This article presents the results of two studies carried out in Chile using qualitative methods (focus groups, in the first case, and in-depth interviews, in the second). They aimed to explore the audience's perceptions of the use of melodramatic resources in the Chilean open television news and the characteristics they value and reject, and find differences in such perception regarding informative coverage of highly emotional news, such as disasters. The results show mixed perceptions, between criticism and optimism, as the participants in both studies highlight that, while excess melodrama bothers them, its inclusion in news programs develops empathy and moves them to action. As to the coverage of disasters, stories are perceived differently between those affected and not affected by their consequences.

A partir del análisis de discurso de las intervenciones de los conductores de noticiarios de TV abierta de Chile durante el terremoto de 8,8 Mw de 2010, se desarrolló una propuesta conceptual de perfiles y roles que estos pueden asumir durante la cobertura de un desastre. Esta se usó para identificar y describir la presencia de tres potenciales perfiles: informativo (presentación descriptiva del contenido), opinante (predominio del juicio de valor), y de diálogo con la audiencia (mensaje directo a los espectadores). Los datos muestran que el perfil predominante fue el informativo, que el opinante aparece con fuerza durante los primeros días de desastre y luego se debilita, y que el de diálogo con la audiencia comienza a tomar fuerza desde el tercer día. Estos resultados abren una línea de investigación sobre el rol de los medios en la promoción de la recuperación espontánea del trauma que experimenta la población.

This paper reviews the role of news with respect to the mental health of a population exposed to a disaster. It is based on the five essential elements of psychosocial care presented by Stevan E. Hobfoll et al. (2007) that can be introduced after a potentially traumatic event: promoting a sense of safety, calming, self and collective efficacy, connectedness, and hope. This study developed a method to relate these elements to television coverage and applied it to the stories (n=1,169) aired by the main networks in Chile in the 72 hours after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck on 27 February 2010. Of the five elements, promoting a sense of safety occurred most often (82.72 per cent), whereas the others were barely present (less than 10 per cent). The study argues that these elements can increase the possibility of framing the news, given that the audience watching can also be affected by a disaster.

A conceptual proposal of the profiles and roles that communicators can assume during the coverage of a disaster was developed based on the discourse analysis of the interventions made by the anchorpersons of the Chilean broadcast TV newscasts during the 8.8 Mw earthquake of 2010. This was used to identify and describe the presence of three potential profiles: informative (descriptive presentation of the content), judgmental (a judgment position prevails), and of dialogue with the audience (direct message to viewers). The data shows that the predominant profile was the informative one, whereas the judgmental appears strongly during the first days of disaster and then weakens, and that the dialogue with the audience is strengthened from the third day. These results open a line of research on the role of the media to promote the spontaneous recovery of a population faced with a trauma.

The presence of the nonnative turtle species Trachemys scripta elegans in central southern Chile, Vichuquén and Valdivia was investigated.The methods involved information gathered from field surveys as well as interviews with local inhabitants.Field surveys confirmed the presence of T. s. elegans in both areas.In addition, embryonated eggs, juvenile, and nesting attempts, suggest that the species is well established under environmental conditions in central-southern Chile, and could perform successful reproduction in the wild.As this allochthonous turtle get there in the result of illegal introduction into nature by their owners, education of population on the dangers of releasing pet turtles into the wild are needed.Moreover, we suggest that import and trade of T. s. elegans should be forbiddanced in Chile.

Intermedia agenda setting predicts a high degree of convergence between news media agendas. However, the rise of social media forces a re-examination of this expectation. Using the 8.8-earthquake of February 27, 2010 in Chile as a case study, this article compares which topics were covered by professional journalists on broadcast news and Twitter, analyzing both cross-sectional and longitudinal trends. A positive, reinforcing influence was found among the journalistic agendas of TV and Twitter. However, counter to the idea that social media are echo chambers of traditional media, it was found that Twitter influences TV news more so than the other way around. Thus, the study provides an early lens into the agenda setting function of social media among television news professionals, and its findings are consistent with Twitter succeeding among journalists due to its provision of valuable information.

This paper presents a quantitative content analysis to assess the presence or absence of required professional journalistic standards in television news coverage of natural disasters. A code sheet of 45 variables was used to evaluate thematic hierarchy, focus, emotional tone, use of sources, audiovisual treatment and presence of opinion and speculation in a sample of 1612 news from the coverage of the main television networks in Chile regarding the earthquake that struck the country on February 27, 2010. The significance of this instrument strives in the possibility of comparing journalism in case of catastrophes with normal patterns and from there on to analyze deficiencies and difficulties that are to be faced in such extraordinary circumstances.

In Chile, the journalistic routine typically responds to a process based largely on intuition, understood as an immediate instinctive reaction to unforeseen events with social relevance. The editors who are in charge of this process, regardless of the type of social information they deal with, make decisions founded primarily on their experience and journalistic instinct, which directly affects the quality of the content and its consistency with the editorial line adopted by the medium. While the advent of new technologies has changed citizens’ access to information, it also has complicated work in the newsroom, regardless of the vehicle. News is now is a commodity, which reduces the possibilities of a journalistic coup and calls for more novelty. The figure of the editor or gatekeeper is more important than ever before, because of the editor’s responsibility for selecting and prioritizing the news items most relevant to decision-making on the part of citizens. Through in-depth interviews with directors, editors and journalists from the Chilean newspapers, television stations, news agencies and new media used as a reference, the team presenting this study reviewed and systematized the critical moments in journalistic decision-making. With that information, they designed a generic process known in literature as a “flowchart for modeling business processes” to which the SIPOC methodology subsequently was applied to determine the extent of the process. The RACI matrix was applied to define the activities and roles of those who participate in them. The essential stages of journalism were identified as proposition, decision and follow-up on execution of the news item. At the end of the modeling, validation was done by the directors, editors and journalists of the media used as a reference.