Newspaper framing of motor vehicle crashes and road safety in Argentina

Abstract

The media plays a key role in shaping the public’s perception of road safety. This study analyzes the newspaper coverage and framing of motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) and road safety in Argentina, South America. The content of 304 articles published by 15 newspapers in November 2020 was reviewed. The results show that episodically framed news stories (focused on a single event or incident) prevail over thematically framed articles. MVCs are presented primarily as ‘police’ events and tend to receive more coverage when fatalities are involved. There is limited information provided on contextual and risk factors, and road safety advice is rarely included. Speeding, infrastructure, alcohol and other human-related variables are the most cited risk factors. Very few articles mention the use of protective devices (seat-belt, helmet and child restraint system). Although motorcyclists represent 40% of RTC deaths in Argentina, only 20% of the news coverage was about them. News coverage was quite similar in national and regional newspapers. There is an opportunity for the media to help build a better road safety culture, but significant changes in news framing are required. Practical recommendations for editors, journalists and road safety practitioners are provided.

Keywords:

• Road safety
• road traffic collisions
• injury prevention
• media
• news framing

Acknowledgements

The present research was able thanks to the support of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization under its project dedicated to improving road safety journalism. PAHO/WHO in turn is supported by Bloomberg Philantropies under the Global Road Safety initiative 2020-2025. We would like to thank Eugenia-María Rodrigues, former Regional Advisor on Road Safety - PAHO/WHO and Sebastian Laspiur, National Consultant on Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health, PAHO:AR, for the useful comments on the document. The document was originally written in Spanish, and then, translated into English by Dario Bard. Last but not least, we would like to thank the careful comments to the manuscript provided by the reviewers.

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.