Browsing by Author "Cabalin, Cristian"

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    Bridging Inequality Gaps: Sustainable Journalism in the News Coverage of Education Policies
    (Routledge, 2025) Saldaña Villa, Magdalena Carolina; Proust, Valentina; Cabalin, Cristian; Fernandez, María Beatriz
    © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.By conducting a content analysis of 331 news stories, this study observed how six news organizations covered Chile’s new school admission system (SAE) for enrolling in K-12 schools. To identify the practice of sustainable journalism, we observed the extent to which SAE-related news relied on a conflict approach by emphasizing political disagreement, as opposed to public service reporting, a coverage moved by informing and orienting audiences to make educated decisions. Our findings show a co-occurrence of conflict-centered coverage and public service in the news, suggesting that even the stories aiming to provide useful information for parents and students were permeated by the political disputes surrounding this education policy. We argue that countries with a highly polarized political context might encounter a difficult scenario for the practice of sustainable journalism, as political conflict finds its way into the coverage of social issues. However, journalism practice could be, in fact, more sustainable by incorporating public service’s constructive aspects, on the one hand, while acknowledging the value of conflict framing in presenting crosscutting viewpoints, on the other hand. Implications and future research are discussed.
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    Framing school choice and merit: news media coverage of an education policy in Chile
    (ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2023) Cabalin, Cristian; Saldana, Magdalena; Fernandez, Maria Beatriz
    School choice is a controversial issue in the public discussion of education. In Chile, the new School Admission System (SAE) was recently implemented to gradually reverse the country's high educational segregation. However, this system is facing strong opposition. Voucher and free choice promoters have opposed SAE because they claim it violates the freedom of families and merit. The media have actively participated in this debate, working as political actors. By applying a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative thematic analysis, we study how Chilean media have framed school choice, and discuss the political contention faced by policies that attempt to reverse the primacy of the market in a global context of neoliberal education policies.
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    Representations and social imaginaries of the abuse of power in Chilean late-night soap operas
    (2023) Silva-Moreno, Rocio; Cabalin, Cristian
    Even though there has been changes in technology and cultural consumption practices, soap operas continued to be viewed, making them one of the most watched pro-ducts on television in Chile; as a result, their represen-tations play a key role in the construction of social ima-ginaries. Based on the review of three Chilean late-night soap operas -El Senor de la Querencia (2008), Perdo-na nuestros pecados (2017-2018), and Juegos de poder (2019)- this article analyzes the representations of the abuse of power, and how they contribute to the creation of a common imaginary about the power and its legiti-macy. Narrative and tele-visual analysis was conducted, considering the hermeneutical synthesis of soap operas as situated discursivities. The results show that the sto-ries propose the foundations of the abuse of power on moral corruption and resentment. We conclude that, in late-night soap operas, through the use of melodrama and suspense, the abuse of power is a topic that builds a polarized value scheme from which the legitimate exerci-se of power is delimited.
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    "The more official, the less I believe": Using focus groups to explore public opinion formation in politically polarized contexts
    (2024) Pavez, Isabel; Saldana, Magdalena; Cabalin, Cristian; Scherman, Andres
    IntroductionPublic opinion studies have traditionally relied on survey analyses. However, a qualitative approach is needed to address opinion formation's multidimensional and contextual nature. In this study, we argue that focus groups are a technique that addresses these unique challenges.MethodsWe test this argument by looking at the case of Chile, a country marked by a streak of eight elections in three years, including two national referendums for a constitutional proposal. In this politically polarized setting, and over the course of the latter election year, we conducted 10 focus groups comprising a diverse sample in terms of gender, age, socioeconomic status, and occupation. As participants shared news diets, political views, and values, data suggest a tendency to independently verify information regardless of the source, and highly influenced by their close ones.ResultsFrom a methodological perspective, our findings show that focus groups enable the assessment of the context-situated opinion formation process, reveal emerging themes, and promote open discussion. These results also reflect the multifaceted nature of public opinion formation in a dynamic media landscape and can inform other countries undergoing a crisis of institutional legitimacy.
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    Todos los caminos conducen a la desafección: proceso constituyente y cambios en la subjetividad de sectores medios en Chile
    (2025) Lazcano-Peña, Daniela; Grassau, Daniela; Heiss, Claudia; Lagos Lira, Claudia; Orchard, Ximena; Cabalin, Cristian
    Este artículo estudia la evolución de las emociones y actitudes respecto del proceso constituyente en Chile considerando el periodo entre el estallido social de octubre de 2019 y el segundo intento de redacción de una propuesta de nueva Constitución en 2023. A partir de una metodología cualitativa, basada en grupos focales con votantes no militantes de sectores medios, se exploraron las posibles causas y consecuencias de esta evolución y se identificaron las principales diferencias entre votantes que aprobaron y que rechazaron el primer texto constitucional propuesto. El análisis permitió identificar un patrón transversal: independientemente de la opción electoral, los participantes experimentaron un sentimiento de frustración asociado a la pérdida de confianza en la política institucional y en la capacidad de transformación del proceso constitucional. Los hallazgos contribuyen a comprender cómo dimensiones tanto emocionales como racionales emergen como elementos gravitantes que explican el tránsito desde la esperanza hacia la desafección política.