CONTAMINACIÓN Y SOCIEDAD: LA CONSTRUCCIÓN SOCIAL DE LA POLUCIÓN ATMOSFÉRICA ENTRE LA PRENSA CHILENA Y LOS PLANES DE PREVENCIÓN Y DESCONTAMINACIÓN ATMOSFÉRICA

Air pollution has become a central issue in recent decades. The present research aims to examine how the press media construct the problem of air pollution in the Metropolitan Region, Chile. To this end, news related to air pollution in the Metropolitan Region published in the digital sites of El Mercurio and La Nación between 2003 and 2018 were analyzed, assessing their closeness with respect to the construction of air pollution in science (assessed by analyzing publications on the topic indexed in Web of Science) and in politics (assessed by analyzing the Atmospheric Prevention and Decontamination Plans). The results suggest the existence of four different interpretative frameworks in the period that operate by selectively translating the results of scientific research into inputs for public policy, thus forming an idiosyncratic construction of the causes, consequences, and solutions to pollution.