Deciphering FARC was to Disarm it. Razón Pública’s Framing of FARC

Abstract

This article analyzes the framing of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC-EP) in Razón Pública, a Colombian digital magazine, from July 2008 to July 2018. The article’s methodology combines Natural Language Processing and close reading. Results indicate that the magazine’s language primarily framed FARC as a protagonist of the peace process, and, secondarily, as an actor of Colombia’s armed conflict and drug trafficking. Shortly after Juan Manuel Santos’ first inauguration as Colombian president (2010-2014), some authors forecasted that the conditions were ripe for a peace process with FARC. During the official negotiation, FARC was framed as enigmatic, and rational protagonist of a challenging peace process. Overall, the frames detected in this analysis are an echo of the UNDP Colombian Report (2003) that called for analytic journalism that improves the public’s understanding of the country’s complex armed conflict and proposes negotiated and military solutions.