The Chilean public television (TVN) information coverage on unforeseen events: The case of wildfires

Abstract

This research analyzes the television coverage of wildfires that occurred in Chile – called “firestorms” – in January and February 2017, focusing on the role played by Chilean public television (Televisión Nacional de Chile, TVN) as a communicating agent. For this purpose, a content analysis of 218 news items is carried out. The results suggest that TVN partially fulfilled its public service mission. On the one hand, it provided coverage from an informative and descriptive approach in which it prioritized the direct and the news formats that gave it greater immediacy, thus avoiding contextualizing the phenomenon. Likewise, the television network gave preference to citizen sources over officials and experts in contrast to its editorial guidelines. Conversely, the TV network did not use visually impactful resources or sensationalistic images, which also coincides with the fact that journalists hardly speculated or made conjectures. However, they did deliver opinions about the facts.