Abstract

In the Argentina of 2001, there was great concern expressed in political, technical, academic and media circles regarding the impact the crisis could have the nutritional status of the poor. The media emerged as a major actor in the process of constructing the problem within that context. In this article the construction of child malnutrition in the period of December 2001 to December 2002 is discussed, and the representations upon which the print media, as a key actor in the public arena, based its discourse are identified. The methodology used was a qualitative approach and an exploratory-descriptive investigation. The data collection technique consisted of document analysis; the information was processed and analyzed using a discourse analysis methodology. The main results demonstrate the persistence of certain representations linked to the problem, even in contrast to epidemiological data generated during the same period. The identified representations, understood as the basis for defining intervention strategies, reveal meanings ensconced in the concepts of food, disease, and sick bodies, the measures needed to "solve the problem", the place of actors within the social network, and the interaction between the State and society.