Corruption and media surveillance of power in Argentina and Peru: The coverage of Clarín and El Comercio during the vaccination scandals against COVID 19

In Argentina and Peru, the COVID-19 emergency brought corruption scandals related to skipping the line to access the vaccine and its illicit application to political authorities and other figures. Although the media systems of both Latin American countries have many similarities, they also present some differences, such as the relationship with the political system. In this context, El Comercio in Peru and El Clarín in Argentina are leading media outlets and protagonists of the high media concentration in their countries. Likewise, both have high readerships, both in print and in their web portal versions. From a methodology based on the comparative politics of case studies, on media frames and predominant information source types, this study analyzes how the leading online press media in Argentina and Peru, namely Clarín and El Comercio, reported the scandals, locally known as Vaccine VIP and Vacunagate, respectively. The results of this research show that both media have a vigilant role under power, while the biggest difference is regarding the opposition role with the respective governments. Media surveillance of power is one of the most important functions of the media in society. In the case of Latin America, having media with a greater role in monitoring political power is undoubtedly relevant for its democracies.