Abstract

This paper studies the imaginaries attached to the Northern border of Argentina in the discourse of its national press during the presidential transition between Kirchnerism, of national-popular ideology, and conservative-neoliberal Macrism (2015-2016). In the north, Argentina shares international borders with all its neighboring countries: the entire border with Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil, and part of the border with Uruguay and Chile. However, the name northern border has not been precisely defined in the academic or official discourse. Despite this, in journalistic discourse it has often been empirically associated with the international border that Argentina shares with Bolivia and Paraguay. A critical discourse analysis was applied to 47 journalistic articles that mention the Northern border of Argentina, published in La Nacion (conservative) and Pagina/12 (progressive), national newspapers based in the political-administrative center of the country, the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. The results show that there are differences in the treatment of the subject, consistent with their respective editorial lines, although they coincide in representing the Northern border of Argentina as a distant, degraded and disadvantaged territory.