The Ecuadorian Rainforest Presented by the Media through the Orientalist Discourse

Abstract

Purpose: To analyse the media presentations of the Ecuadorian Rainforest that the newspaper El Comercio has been elaborating during the last six decades in its journalistic articles in order to discover features of the orientalist discourse. Design/methodology: The Critical Discourse Analysis is used as a methodological tool since it helps to reveal social inequalities that occur in discourses. Within this line of study, the structural analysis of the text is taken as a methodological tool that allows deconstructing dominant discourses echoed in society through the media. Findings: The analysis found that the population, culture and geography of the region have been represented by categories that show otherness and cause social asymmetry within the country. This inequality, which has been legitimized by the media discourse, can be observed in the backwardness and marginalization that this region has suffered until now. Research limitations/implications: One of the limitations of the study is that the media interest in the Amazon region is directed on events related to the exploitation of resources, which means that the last six decades have not been studied continuously. In view of this situation, we wish to mark a historical milestone for each of the last six decades and take them as references for further research. Originality/value: The Amazon Rainforest has been a historically marginalized territory and its population has been neglected by different governments that have administered the country in spite of being the region that has contributed the most to Ecuador’s economy with its natural wealth. This situation of social injustice has not been studied before in the media discourse, which is the main discourse legitimizing inequalities today. For this reason, the present study was developed.