Browsing by Author "Cabalin, Cristian"

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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.