El liderazgo político ecuatoriano en los medios digitales: un estudio del intervalo 2010-2015 en El Universo y El Comercio

Abstract

This study looks at the profiles of Ecuadorian political leaders who feature in the news agendas of the digital editions of the country's main newspapers. Our focus is conceptually aligned with the tenets of agenda setting theory, which proposes that the relevance of certain topics, people, and situations in the media tapestry can affect public opinion. In order to carry out a content analysis of the websites eluniverso.com and elcomercio.com during the 2010-2015 period, we collected 1620 articles from their opinion sections that referred to political figures, including public functionaries and activists, among others. This permitted us to rank the 100 most prominent figures and, subsequently, analyze the socio-demographic profile of the most influential among them. In doing so, we found that, in the last year of the study (2015), the presence of women politicians in digital news outlets overlapped with that of men. This was a result of the constant struggle against the gender gap that still exists in Latin American political leadership. At the same time, we noted a greater inclusion, in the media agenda, of male leaders who are liberal professionals, upper class, and 50 to 60 years old. This allowed us to profile the current media coverage of Ecuadorian political leadership.