Abstract

This paper presents a quantitative content analysis to assess the presence or absence of required profes­ sional journalistic standards in television news coverage of natural disasters. A code sheet of 45 varia­ bles was used to evaluate thematic hierarchy, focus, emotional tone, use of sources, audiovisual treatment and presence of opinion and speculation in a sample of 1612 news from the coverage of the main tele­ vision networks in Chile regarding the earthquake that struck the country on February 27, 2010. The sig­ nificance of this instrument strives in the possibility of comparing journalism in case of catastrophes with normal patterns and from there on to analyze deficiencies and difficulties that are to be faced in such extraordinary circumstances.