10.15198/seeci.2016.39.154-161
INVESTIGACIÓN

APPROACH TO THE FRAME OF THE PRINT MEDIA REGARDING THE ATTENTION TO VICTIMS OF CASE AYOTZINAPA, IGUALA-GUERRERO (MEXICO)

APROXIMACIÓN AL ENCUADRE DE LOS MEDIOS IMPRESOS EN TORNO A LA ATENCIÓN A VÍCTIMAS DEL CASO AYOTZINAPA, IGUALA-GUERRERO (MÉXICO)

Cruz García-Lirios¹
Francisco-Rubén Sandoval-Vázquez²
José-Alfonso Aguilar-Fuentes¹

¹Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México. México
²Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos. México

ABSTRACT
Building a public agenda on security and peace involves the analysis of the media as transmitters of issues concerning major events such as the case of 43 missing students in Ayotzinapa. The present study is aimed at analyzing the systematic dissemination of newspapers with regard to care for victims and their frames, considering three approaches: conservatism, liberalism and progressivism. A documentary, exploratory and retrospective study with a non-probabilistic selection of 261 notes in the national press was held. Content analysis was performed and the frequencies of systematic dissemination were settled. The results show that the newspaper La Jornada made a close framing to the progressive approach by more frequently disseminating the action of organized groups of civil society regarding care of victims as opposed to institutional or governmental action. Referring the reviewed literature, warning is given to the emergence of civil spheres in the governance process of public security.

KEY WORDS: security, agenda, violence, victims, framing, verisimilitude, verifiability

RESUMEN
La construcción de una agenda pública en materia de seguridad y pacificación supone el análisis de los medios de comunicación como emisores de temas concernientes a hechos de gran envergadura como el caso de los 43 estudiantes desaparecidos en Ayotzinapa. El presente trabajo se propuso analizar la difusión sistemática de los periódicos con respecto a la atención a víctimas y sus encuadres, considerando tres enfoques: conservadurismo, liberalismo y progresismo. Se llevó a cabo un estudio documental, exploratorio y retrospectivo con una selección no probabilística de 261 notas de prensa de circulación nacional. Se realizó un análisis de su contenido y se establecieron las frecuencias de difusión sistemática. Los resultados muestran que el periódico La Jornada realizó un encuadre cercano al enfoque progresista al difundir con mayor frecuencia la acción de grupos organizados de la sociedad civil respecto a la atención a víctimas en contraste con la acción institucional o gubernamental. En referencia a la literatura revisada se advierte sobre la emergencia de esferas civiles en el proceso de gobernanza de la seguridad pública.

PALABRAS CLAVE: seguridad, agenda, violencia, víctimas, encuadre, verosimilitud, verificabilidad

Recibido: 14/12/2015
Aceptado: 28/01/2016

Correspondence: Cruz García Lirios Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México. México. garcialirios@yahoo.com
Francisco Rubén Sandoval Vázquez: Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos. México. sandovaz@hotmail.com
José Alfonso Aguilar Fuentes: Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México. México. jaaguilarf@uaemex.mx

1. INTRODUCTION

The science that studies the process of victimization considers it to be a) an effect of the alleged deviation of criminal groups and its punitive regulation by way of the laws a dominant culture; b) a symptom of pluralistic and intercultural dissent where differences legitimize the establishment of policy, regulatory and punitive frameworks and; 3) the recognition of a conflict in which there is a favorable punitive system that underlies those with economic, political or social power
The emphasis on the cycle of the victim reveals the differences between the approaches (Uvalle, 2011). Thus, a conservative approach assumes the victim as a subject suffering permanently due to the damage entailed by the violation of their rights and awaiting justice (Fondevilla and Quintana, 2013). In this regard, the minimization of crime is proportional to the impact generated by the perpetration of integrity (Gasca and Olvera, 2011). The effects manifest themselves at different levels, but it is the victim who demands the restoration of their rights and remission of their integrity to the punishment system (Concimance, 2013).
In contrast, the liberal approach assumes that the pain caused to the victim is secondary when adjusting the grievance to the canons of the dominant culture as it is tolerance and justice (Jimenez, 2009). Even the grievance is taken as an instrument of a group oppressed by the dominant culture, but differences between perpetrator and victim can increase in remission and generate a greater spiral of conflict and violence (Añaños, 2012).
Finally, the collectivist paradigm assumes that the perpetrator is an instrument of those who have the economic, political or social power as they seek to impose their culture of domination and seek in the offender a symbolic alternative of stratification, yet they also assume that the victim is only so when the event occurs, because the victim has the ability to reverse the aggression in different ways and intensities (Dorantes, 2012).
Therefore, caring for to victims from the conservative viewpoint is the enforcement of the law, from the liberalistic standpoint it rather assumes that each case is not only isolated but also restricted to the differences among groups (Garcia et al., 2013). By virtue of the fact that equality before the law is most important aspect for liberalism, the victim goes to second place because their attention is privileged as long as they prove the solidity of the conciliating system (Taguenca, 2012). It is true that the law favors those in power or representing it, but from the collectivist viewpoint it is necessary to take of the victim taking their possible conversion to perpetrator of violence as they have developed conformity, opacity and neglect as far as their case and that of other victims is concerned (Clement et al., 2013).
Care for victims is intended as a preliminary phase to the public peace, as the institutions responsible for security are the ones responsible for enforcing the law, administering justice and establishing a security agenda (Tena, 2010)
However, reducing the security system to the welfare of groups and individuals force us to discuss the guidance of the State as procurator of justice, care for victims through restitution of their rights, legitimacy of their proposals, restoration of their demands or participation in the construction of a public agenda (Jimenez, 2012).
The cycle of care for victims include six phases around which historical and emerging factors such as objectification of public security, anchoring in perception of insecurity and naturalization of speeches and images associated with corruption or impunity would generate a civil society that not only inherits the corrupt practices of victimization but also the conservative dogmas of unrestricted enforcement of the law regardless of the uses and customs of the dominated groups, or the practice of liberal values as examples of a dominant culture to be followed.
These are provisions that favor a system of laws that legitimates differences among groups and individuals, as well as the indifference of disadvantaged groups of the system with respect to those who are stigmatized or blamed for crimes associated with social stereotypes (Chavarría, 2013).
Thus, theories of representations, habitus, fields and capitals explain the approaches to victimization and their cycles and interventions.
From the theory of social representations, victims are instruments of historical emancipation, either due to their social deviance, their appeal to written laws or their incarnation of abuse of power by the state to vulnerable, marginalized sectors or to sectors or excluded from civil society (Zuniga, 2011).
From the theory of habitus, fields and capitals, victims are calibrated for their power games and discursive positions that not only warn about a reproduction system of social domination but also a civil sphere with the resources necessary to symbolically emancipate itself from the violence exerted by propaganda by the State or by its punitive strategies (Carreon et al., 2013).
Thus, the information concerning the phase of objectification, anchoring and naturalization warns about an incremental trend in cases of intentional homicides in Mexico. During the period from 2005 to 2010, in Chihuahua cases increased 700% while in Guerrero there was an increase of 150%, a little more than the national average of 127%. That is, in the region of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero State ranked 13 out of 32 possible ones, while the press associated it with organized crime as the most violent entity and its capital Chilpancingo as the third most violent in the year 2013 with respect to the other municipalities (see Figures 2 and 3).
Thus violence, indicated by the number of homicides and dissemination of three printed national media converge in identifying Guerrero State as the most insecure entity when relating it to organized crime.
From a conservative viewpoint, benevolence by nature of the majority would not only be jeopardized by natural violence of a minority, but it would also be conditioned by the organized crime that, although being a minority, is a power that destroys institutions and their justice-guaranteeing written laws (Torres, 2013).
From a liberal viewpoint, the case of Guerrero (Ayotzinapa) is an opportunity for observation of differences and the enforcement of the written law to the letter. It is an approach in which human rights, when being disrupted, generate a series of laws to compensate the differences and direct them to public peace.
Finally, from the progressivistic standpoint, increasing violence and insecurity entail the reduction to a minimum of the institutions that biasedly acted in favor of those who have the resources to commit crimes and get away from responsibility.
There is a trend of systematic dissemination warns since 2013 from those entities surrounding Ayotzinapa, but the specificity of the frames would indicate the type of action that was developed over a period of time determined in the entity under study regarding care for victims.

1.1. Formulation

What are the social representations that printed media systematically spread about care for victims in the case of Ayotzinapa in response to the state informative propaganda?

1.2. Null hypothesis

Social representations about state propaganda regarding the victims from Ayotzinapa were objectified, naturalized and anchored as responses from dissident groups rather than as a public policy or institutional program.

2. METHODOLOGY

2.1. Design

An exploratory and retrospective study was conducted.

2.2. Sample

A nonrandom selection of 261 press releases was performed, considering national circulation and content allusive to the victims of the disappearance of 43 normal school teachers in Ayotzinapa, Iguala-Guerrero (Mexican Pacific Coast).

2.3. Instrument

Content analysis matrices including basic registration data and inference of the frame on the relationship of the notes with the action of groups, institutions and political entities.

2.4. Procedure

The information in the matrices was emptied and every note was rated based on the criteria frame; for this case, a value of zero is assigned to those notes not referred to the action of organized groups of civil society, institutions or political entities about care for victims (family and friends) of the 43 missing persons in Ayotzinapa.

3. RESULTS

The results show a progressive systematic bias as regards La Jornada in relation to El Reforma and El Universal concerning the framing of care for victims by organized groups of the civil society, institutions or government.
That is, from a progressive approach, La Jornada refers to the power that determines the differences between rulers and the ruled with respect to the administration of justice, preferably in terms of care for victims.
La Jornada focuses its information dissemination on the participation of civil society as a key player in dealing with victims, then the institutions and finally the governors as administrators of public security and justice.
This is the case of El Reforma, except for the political frame in which El Universal turns out to have a greater dissemination bias, but in cases of civil and institutional action it has a lower trend than El Reforma.
In summary, findings show the emergence of an environment conducive to the organization of society compared to governmental action as regards caring for victims in the case of the 43 missing persons in Ayotzinapa.

4. DISCUSSION

The contribution of this paper to the state of knowledge lies in the establishment of a favorable trend to the action of civil society groups regarding care for victims for the disappearance of 43 normal school teachers in Ayotzinapa.
However, the reviewed literature shows the frame of verifiability and verisimilitude that not only aims to establish a central issue on the agenda to caring for victims but also induces assessment of governmental action.
In this regard, the studies conducted by Carreon et al., (2013) point out that the frame of verifiability is a representation of the guidance of the State in public security. It is a cycle of emotions and distrust of the authorities to consider their management to leads to ungovernability. In contrast, the verisimilitude frame points out the guidance of the State as security administrator and solicitor of justice, but without the obligation to care for victims, as it considers them as side effects in combating crime, a reason why its resources rather aim to reduce the risks and uncertainty of organized crime that the media highlight as evidence of ungovernability.
This paper shows the logic of verifiability and verisimilitude at a time when the press highlights the involvement of organized groups of civil society and dodges governmental administration.
However, the progressive approach, unlike the liberal frame of verisimilitude and verifiability of the print media, is a systematic dissemination of civil action in relation to the opacity of the government and its institutions because it recognizes the bias of written laws in favoring those who have the resources to tackle crime and blame those who do not have such resources.
In this sense, it is necessary to delve into the study of the conservative, liberal and progressive approach in order to clarify the effects of news frames on readers.

5. CONCLUSIONS

Care for victims, relatives and friends of the 43 missing persons in Ayotzinapa involves the study of printed media as disseminators of conservative, liberal or progressive values that, in the national press, are associated with the action of organized groups of civil society rather than with policies to prevent crime, administer justice or fight crime.
Such a finding will help explain the construction of a public agenda on security, violence and care for victims that focuses on the action of civil society rather than on the ruling of the state.
As it consists of representations and habitus, the security agenda involves care for victims from a different conservative, liberal or progressive perspective, since the history of this phenomenon shows a rise of a scenario of governance rather than governance or ungovernability. That is, the means anticipate the emergence of a structure of discussion, agreements and responsibilities driven by the civil society rather than by the initiatives of rulers.

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