Framing event-driven news: the promotion of the US agenda in the Colombia armed conflict through the pages of El Tiempo newspaper

In recent years, an emerging field of research has focused on the potential of dramatic, highly newsworthy, unplanned and uncontrolled incidents & on the government's perspective called event driven-news to disrupt elite influence over media debates by creating opportunities for non-official actors and anti-establishment perspectives to have a stronger presence in them. Event-driven news has been defined as incidents which have not been set or staged by governmental elites to be reported, and in which the media takes up the initiative and sets the agenda, thus forcing officials to respond. This study explores the relationship between political power and news media influence in the context of the promotion of the US agenda in the Colombian armed conflict between 1998 and 2004. The main question is how different categories of event-driven news affected the ability of the US Administration and its political opponents to influence media debate in El Tiempo newspaper vis-á-vis the Colombian armed conflict during the period when Plan Colombia was implemented. Catalina Montoya challenges generalizations about the potential of event-driven news to open media debate and argues for a more nuanced understanding about the potential of event-driven news to disrupt elite power projection in the news media across different types of highly dramatic and newsworthy unexpected occurrences.This study explores the relationship between political power and news media influence in the context of the promotion of the US agenda in the Colombian armed conflict between 1998 and 2004. The main question is how different categories of event-driven news affected the ability of the US Administration and its political opponents to influence media debate in El Tiempo newspaper vis-á-vis the Colombian armed conflict during the period when Plan Colombia was implemented. Catalina Montoya challenges generalizations about the potential of event-driven news to open media debate and argues for a more nuanced understanding about the potential of event-driven news to disrupt elite power projection in the news media across different types of highly dramatic and newsworthy unexpected occurrences.Catalina Montoya challenges generalizations about the potential of event-driven news to open media debate and argues for a more nuanced understanding about the potential of event-driven news to disrupt elite power projection in the news media across different types of highly dramatic and newsworthy unexpected occurrences.