As Victoria Camps puts it: [ to take] information as a reflection of reality is a myth. What it really deals with is with the disclosure or exposure of the things that happen... and, at the same time, shaping that which in fact happens. Yet, the act of giving reality a format is not an aseptic exercise, since it implies omissions, exclusions, and silences that end up presenting half-truths, as was the case with the way two local newspapers covered Universidad del Cauca's conflict in 2007, fact which raises questions as to the social function of mass media in the construction of citizenship skills and the strengthening of democracy.