Universidad Iberoamericana - Mexico | Comunicación

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- by Ximena Aldana
- •
- Social Sciences

This paper examines Mexican journalists’ perceived roles, values, and practices that shape the reporting of political conflict, such as the 2006 presidential elections—one of the most critical moments in contemporary political history. It... more

"Este texto examina algunos de los ejes que sostienen las prácticas de reporteo y valores profesionales de periodistas mexicanos a la luz de narrativas teóricas que sugieren la profesionalización del periodismo mexicano como proceso... more

"Este texto examina algunos de los ejes que sostienen las prácticas de reporteo y valores profesionales de periodistas mexicanos a la luz de narrativas teóricas que sugieren la profesionalización del periodismo mexicano como proceso paralelo de la democratización política. Tras una investigación cualitativa basada en entrevistas con 90 periodistas de 21 medios nacionales, sostenemos que los periodistas mexicanos discursivamente manifiestan apego a los valores liberales-anglosajones del periodismo, como la autonomía, la objetividad o el papel del perro guardián (watchdog). Sin embargo, en la práctica, tales principios se han re-interpretado y adaptado a usos culturalmente heredados y a reglas no escritas del autoritarismo. Por ejemplo, la objetividad ha perpetuado hábitos de narratividad existentes antes de la alternancia política, que privilegia a las fuentes oficiales y a su discurso, y que deviene en el llamado “periodismo declarativo”, que tiende a la superficialidad y oficialismo y no a la investigación, verificación o contextualización, como supondría la lectura que han hecho sobre México los investigadores que apoyan la tesis de la apertura democrática.

This paper examines reporting practices and professional values of Mexican journalists, especially in regard to theoretical narratives that suggest the overall professionalization of newsrooms as a parallel process to those of political democratisation and economic liberalisation. Based on a more comprehensive qualitative study consisting of 90 in-depth interviews with print and radio journalists from 21 news organisations of the national press, the paper argues that Mexican journalists pay lip service and discursively attach to the traditional Anglo-Saxon normative values such as autonomy, objectivity or the watchdog role of the press. However, in practice, such principles have been re-interpreted and adapted to existing practices culturally stemming from the authoritarian days. For example, through values such as objectivity, journalists perpetuate pre-democratisation narrative habits that privilege (almost solely) elite sources, producing what is locally called sound-bite journalism. Upon relying heavily on political statements on-the-go, such a methodology generates officialism and superficiality rather than the investigation, cross-checking, accuracy or contextualisation of news stories that the “journalism in change” thesis assumes as a trait of professionalisation."

"Based on a qualitative study consisting on 40 interviews with radio journalists from seven news organisations, this study examines the notion of journalistic professionalism and its impact upon the journalistic culture of the... more

Durante eventos políticos que suponen conflicto y confrontación —como las elecciones presidenciales del 2006 en México—, muchos conceptos normativos del periodismo, como el de ser vigilante del poder o mantenerse editorialmente... more

Para nadie es un secreto que el periodismo vive un constante proceso de transformación debido al impacto de las nuevas tecnologías de la información tanto en las salas de redacción, como en las identidades profesionales, rutinas de... more

Para nadie es un secreto que el periodismo vive un constante proceso de transformación debido al impacto de las nuevas tecnologías de la información tanto en las salas de redacción, como en las identidades profesionales, rutinas de producción o cargas de trabajo de los periodistas, así como en su cambiante posición respecto del mercado, las audiencias, los modelos de negocio y el entorno político. La producción, procesamiento, distribución y presentación de noticias se han modificado sustancialmente a través de diversas plataformas, herramientas y canales. Como consecuencia, no sólo los límites conceptuales y prácticas de lo que es periodismo y lo que es ser periodista se han ampliado, sino que también se han allanado diferencias cruciales que distinguían a los productores de los consumidores de noticias.

Tan sólo en la última década los investigadores de todo el mundo han volcado su interés en analizar fenómenos como la convergencia mediática, la integración de salas de redacción, las diferencias entre las culturas de producción impresa y digital, las prácticas periodísticas y las herramientas técnicas del periodismo digital. Las decenas de estudios han llegado de manera casi unánime a la misma conclusión: el periodismo está cambiando de forma acelerada y las plataformas digitales han sido cruciales en ese proceso. Pero quizá no todo sea color de rosa.

"New Media, Old News: Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age" es uno de los intentos más sólidos, serios y sofisticados de la literatura anglosajona en interrogar los viejos paradigmas sobre el cambio tecnológico en el periodismo. El libro se basa en los resultados de investigación de un grupo de académicos británicos de la Universidad de Londres, Goldsmiths, cuyo proyecto indaga los procesos de transformación e integración en medios emblemáticos como The Guardian o la BBC. Entre las áreas de investigación desarrolladas en el libro destacan las prácticas periodísticas y cambios operativos y organizacionales, el análisis de cómo se han incorporado las nuevas tecnologías a las técnicas de reporteo de una centena de periodistas de medios impresos y digitales, la relación que establece el “nuevo” periodismo con sus audiencias, competidores, y periodistas ciudadanos, las relaciones de periodistas con actores políticos en la era digital, el papel de los sitios de ciberactivismo o la competencia por acceso y visibilidad mediática en la era de la sobre-información.

While the role of university journalism education in the professionalization of journalists has been extensively debated, systematic and comparative studies of journalism students are still scarce. This paper reports the findings from a... more

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- by María Luisa Humanes and +3
  Claudia Mellado
  Mireya Márquez-Ramírez
  Lyuba de la Reguera
- •
- 4
  Journalism, Comparative Research, Journalism Education, Students

While the role of university journalism education in the professionalization of journalists has been extensively debated, systematic and comparative studies of journalism students are still scarce. This paper reports the findings from a... more

Se examinan algunos de los ejes que sostienen las prácticas de reporteo y condiciones de autonomía del periodismo político en México a partir de la alternancia política del año 2000. El estudio cuestiona las narrativas de transformación... more

This paper examines the type of ethical concerns and principles most associated to the concept of professionalism among Mexican journalists. We argue that the perceptions of Mexican reporters about valid ethical practices emanate from... more

For the past four decades, Latin America has witnessed key institutional and political changes that have greatly impacted media systems and communication policies across the region. As a result, we can observe two contrasting yet... more

Media Systems and Communication Policies in Latin America analyzes the conflicting roles that global, regional, and local forces play in the shaping of media systems, policies, and industries in Latin America. These forces have developed... more

Media Systems and Communication Policies in Latin America analyzes the conflicting roles that global, regional, and local forces play in the shaping of media systems, policies, and industries in Latin America. These forces have developed what is called a captured liberal model, which is used as a theoretical concept to explain the communication policies, the configuration of media systems, the realities of journalism or the contexts of cultural industries in the region. The intentional lack of regulation enforcement, the pragmatic exercise of power, and the configuration of alliances between media barons and political elites all help to explain why private media developed early and why its concentration is so high in Latin America. Moreover, the fact that media conglomerates emerged under the auspices of dictatorships and authoritarian rule clashes with the existing assumptions that
private ownership entails distance and autonomy from the state. Their emergence also dispels the assumption that authoritarian states need to employ harsh regulation and secure administration or control of the media to better exert and legitimize power. This collection aims to offer fresh perspectives on old issues that have long preoccupied the academic community in Latin America.
Introduction: Communications Policies and Media Systems in the Age of (anti) Neoliberal Politics; Mireya Márquez-Ramírez and Manuel Alejandro Guerrero

1. Latin America Media and the Limitations of the 'Globalization' Paradigm; Silvio Waisbord

2. The 'Liberal-Captured' Model of Media Systems in Latin America; Manuel Alejandro Guerrero

3. In Search of a model for the Colombian Media System Today; Catalina Montoya Londoño

4. Media Systems and Political Action in Peru; Javier Protzel

5. The Complex Relationship Between the Media and the Political System in Argentina: From Co-Option to Polarization; Jorge Liotti

6. Pluralism, Digitalization and the Contemporary Challenges of Media Policy in El Salvador; José Luis Benítez

7. Media and Politicians in Guatemala: A Marriage That Will Last Until Money Do Them Part; Silvio René Gramajo

8. The State in Pursuit of Hegemony over the Media: The Chávez Model; Andrés Cañizález

9. Clashing Powers in Bolivia: The Tensions Between Evo Morales' Government and the Private Media in Bolivia; Víctor Quintanilla

10. State Intervention and Market Structures: the New Overview of Argentinian Audio-Visual Sector; Guillermo Mastrini, Martín Becerra and Santiago Marino

11. Public Service Broadcasting and Media Reform in Brazil in Comparative Perspective; Carolina Matos

12. Globalization and History in Brazil: Communication, Culture and Development Policies at the Crossroads; César Bolaño

13. The Publishing Industries in Ibero-America: Challenges and Diversity in the Digital World; Stella Puente

14. The Global Notion of Journalism: a Hindrance to the Democratization of the Public Space in Chile; Rodrigo Araya

15. Post-Authoritarian Politics in Neoliberal Days: Revising Media and Journalism Transition in Mexico; Mireya Márquez-Ramírez

16. The 'Capture' of Media Systems, Policies and Industries in Latin America: Concluding Remarks; Manuel Alejandro Guerrero and Mireya Márquez-Ramírez

(This file contains the first pages and the introductory chapter only)

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- by Mireya Márquez-Ramírez and +1
  Manuel Alejandro Guerrero
- •
- 6
  Media Studies, Journalism, Media Policy, Comparing Media Systems

Este artículo sienta las bases de lo que llamaremos “modelo liberal capturado”, un concepto teórico que ayuda a explicar que la falta de efectividad en la aplicación de las normas, el ejercicio pragmático del poder, la configuración de... more

A visible stream of changes in the way journalism is conducted has accompanied the political transition in Mexico, and without a doubt the press is free, diverse, and competitive in a way that few could have imagined thirty years... more

A visible stream of changes in the way journalism is conducted has accompanied the political transition in Mexico, and without a doubt the press is free, diverse, and competitive in a way that few could have imagined thirty years ago. However, to examine the extent and direction of this apparent transformation of the media it is crucial to look at individual, organisational, and environmental factors, as well as at the historical, economic, and political forces that shape contemporary journalistic culture. We analyse their mutual interaction between changing professional mindsets, journalists’ self-assumed roles and values, reporting practices, journalists’ relation with sources, proprietor’s and manager’s economic interests, as well as the conditions of autonomy that underpin the exercise of journalism. We aim to illustrate the hybrid, often ambiguous, development of journalism in Mexico. While indisputably, a variety of dramatic changes are currently shaping journalism in Mexico, at the core of journalistic culture, many of the principles and practices still remain. We thus want to document, based in a qualitative study involving the interviewing of 90 journalists, the continuity and mutation of authoritarian traits when transferred to the context of a democratic, politically diverse, and commercially competitive setting. In doing so, we interrogate dominant narratives of media change as well as the liberal model of the press as the normative template that shapes the narrativisation of media transformation in transitional democracies. We argue that such accounts often overestimate the degree of transformation as they overlook the close-knit dynamics between journalists, news organisations, and political structures that have accompanied political democratisation. Certainly, political democratisation in Mexico has brought about certain changes and the dismantling of some vices existing during the authoritarian era—such as the culture of bribery and corruption of reporters. Yet at the same time, the nature of the economic structure of the media has remained—and to a certain extent, intensified. Some passive features prevail—such as ‘oficialismo’ or the prevalence of elite and official sources—which resemble authoritarian practices, and whose existence fail to support the thesis of a growing consolidation of ‘assertive’, ‘civic’, or ‘autonomous’ journalism, as some scholars observe.

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- by Mireya Márquez-Ramírez
- •
- 2
  Journalism, Media and Democracy

This paper examines the type of ethical concerns and principles most associated to the concept of professionalism among Mexican journalists. We argue that the perceptions of Mexican reporters about valid ethical practices emanate from... more

This paper examines the type of ethical concerns and principles most associated to the concept of professionalism among Mexican journalists. We argue that the perceptions of Mexican reporters about valid ethical practices emanate from their personal expectations and from their domestic journalistic culture heavily integrated into the political field that stems from a history of passive reporting and collusive press-state relations. We part from the position that the journalistic field and its actors consensually legitimate the rules of the game and the practices considered acceptable and transgressive, against to which each journalists evaluates professional and ethical practice. Thus valid ethical and unethical principles and behaviours stem from the relation between journalists and political structures, their talents as compared to their “un-professional” colleagues, as well as from organizational and occupational culture rather than from the adherence and observance of normative professional frameworks or universal principles.
Specifically, the paper looks at the now infamous widespread practice of bribery ·or “news for cash”, which for several decades characterized the state-journalist relations during the authoritarian one-party rule. Presenters, reporters, and news managers participating in this study reflect on the context, practices and conditions of bribery, especially those in which they considered bribe to be justified.
Likewise, we examine the conditions in which the practice of “moon-lighting”, especially among journalists who jump between newsrooms and press-offices, is either accepted or viewed as potential conflict of interest. Similarly we explore Mexican journalists’ perceptions on the acceptance of freebies and other “media attention” practices such as paid-for trips and gifts sent by sources, or equipped pressrooms. We examine whether such practices considered as unethical by literature undermine their perceived autonomy or are rather viewed as essential tools for job accomplishment.
The paper finds that while many of these practices are unproblematic for their (often lax) ethical standards, differences do arise among media occupations (editors, reporters, copywriters, news presenters), and between types of media (broadcast vs. print), each of which hold different views on the specific unaccepted practices in their work (plagiarism, uncorroborated information, un-credited audios, etc.). We did find, however, that Mexican journalists do tend to be very self-critical and aware of their overall shortcomings and show a strong willingness to debate and adhere to more realistic and context-bound ethical standards.
(Paper presented -and a much shorter version later selected for publication- for the Conference “Journalism Ethics: Individual, institutional or cultural?” Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, September 27-28, 2012)

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- by Mireya Márquez-Ramírez
- •
- 2
  Media Ethics, Journalism Ethics

This paper aims to give an overview of journalistic culture of the national press in Mexico, specifically journalists’ perceptions on sourcing patterns, reporting practices and narrative devices most commonly used as everyday... more

Suele argumentarse —y con razón—que la violencia contra periodistas genera un clima donde se merma la calidad de la información, se inhibe el periodismo de investigación y en general se pone en riesgo la libertad de expresión de los... more

Comparative research across the world has shown that nation-level variables are strong predictors of professional roles in journalism. There is, however, still insufficient comparative research about three key issues: cross-national... more

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- by Mireya Márquez-Ramírez and +3
  Jacques Mick
  Martin Oller Alonso
  Dasniel Olivera Pérez
- •
- 6
  Latin American Studies, Journalism, Content Analysis, Ecuador

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