The “Baguazo” in Peruvian journalistic discourse. A critical analysis of media produced during the 2009 Amazonian conflict

Abstract

This article presents the results of an investigation based on a critical analysis of the discourse on the Amazonian conflict of 2009 in Peru called “Baguazo” by the media. The research project examines how the journalistic television discourses in Peru represent indigenous peoples of the Amazon region during the conflict. The structures and strategies of public verbal discourse on the conflict in Bagua are analyzed from a social, political and critical perspective to understand how power is established, legitimated, exercised, or resisted during an ethnic-social conflict. A combination of multiple methodological tools were selected, focusing on the analysis of social actors, social action, time, legitimacy and framing, in a sample of journalistic television interviews considered politically important cases. The research exposes how the dominant discourse of the interviews constructs a negative image of the Amazonian indigenous peoples and supports the official discourse of the Peruvian State regarding the Amazonian conflict.