The determinants of Latin America’s news coverage in the German press

Abstract

This article is based on a content analysis of 3.831 articles published between January 2000 and December 2014 in the market-leading national German press. Following papers and magazine were considered: ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’ (SZ), ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’ (FAZ), ‘Der Spiegel’ and, additionally, the alternative newspaper ‘tageszeitung’ (taz). The research aims at analysing countries’ features as determinants of news selection towards Latin American. It concludes that ‘power status’, ‘economic proximity’ and ‘socioeconomic status’, respectively, have a positive correlation with press attention. These factors that played the most crucial role in the selection process were then used as a reference to identify the deviations, i.e., nations that received much more attention than expected according to their characteristics. In these cases, ideology or crisis and negativity can explain the deviations. Especially Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela show an overrepresentation due to their position against the Washington Consensus. Argentina is also overrepresented because of its substantial correspondents’ network and previous economic crisis with an international dimension. Except for the top four most reported nations – Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Cuba – there is, in general, a lack of interest in Latin America amidst German press.

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