| This study used content analysis of The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald and Dallas Morning news and analyzed their coverage of Colombia and the drug issue during 1993, 1998 and 2003. The main purpose was to observe how these publications reported on this topic over that specific period of time. Findings showed prevalence of episodic stories over the thematic ones. These papers primarily presented episodic news coverage on Colombia and their drugs, which exhibited mainly a negative tone. On the other hand, thematic news coverage on Colombia and its drugs were more positive than the episodic, since thematic articles had a deeper analysis of the issue. While the episodic ones only told what happened, the thematic stories provided facts, evidence and explanations. |
