Mireya Márquez-Ramírez
(English below). Profesora-investigadora titular del Departamento de Comunicación en la Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México. Miembro del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores Nivel II. Es Doctora en Comunicación por la Universidad de Londres, Goldsmiths, Maestra en Estudios sobre Periodismo por la Universidad de Cardiff, Gales, y licenciada en Comunicación Social por la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Xochimilco. Sus áreas de interés son periodismo y profesionalismo, culturas periodísticas comparadas, roles periodísticos, sistemas mediáticos, periodismo deportivo, y seguridad y riesgo de periodistas.
Associate Professor of Journalism Studies and Media Theory, Department of Communication, at Universidad Iberoamericana Mexico City. She holds a PhD in Media and Communications (Goldsmiths, University of London, 2012), a MA in Journalism Studies (Cardiff University, UK, 2006), and a BA in Social Communications (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana - Xochimilco, 2001). Appointed Level II Member of the National System of Researchers of Mexico's National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT). Research interests include journalistic professionalism, comparative journalism cultures, journalistic role perception and performance, media systems, Sports journalism, journalists safety and risk.
Supervisors: Professor James Curran (of my PhD dissertation) and Professor Karin Wahl Jorgensen (of my MA dissertation).
Associate Professor of Journalism Studies and Media Theory, Department of Communication, at Universidad Iberoamericana Mexico City. She holds a PhD in Media and Communications (Goldsmiths, University of London, 2012), a MA in Journalism Studies (Cardiff University, UK, 2006), and a BA in Social Communications (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana - Xochimilco, 2001). Appointed Level II Member of the National System of Researchers of Mexico's National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT). Research interests include journalistic professionalism, comparative journalism cultures, journalistic role perception and performance, media systems, Sports journalism, journalists safety and risk.
Supervisors: Professor James Curran (of my PhD dissertation) and Professor Karin Wahl Jorgensen (of my MA dissertation).
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and political authorities in a health crisis, attempting to mobilize the public to act according to the best science. Hypotheses derived from these perspectives are tested using the standard measures of journalistic roles developed by the Journalistic Role Performance Project. Results show that the deference/ cooperation/consensus perspective is better supported, with media moving away from the Watchdog and Infotainment, and toward performance of the Service and Civic roles. We also explore differences in the pattern by country.
radio, and print. The paper analyzes if journalistic roles present themselves differently across platforms, and if these differences are constant or they vary across countries. Results show that there are measurable differences in role performance in online journalism compared to other platforms. Platform had a significant impact, particularly in terms of service and infotainment orientation, while the implementation of roles oriented toward public service was more similar. Additionally, country differences in the relationship between role performance and platforms mainly emerged for roles that enable political influence on news coverage, with differences in the relationship between online vs. traditional platforms appearing to be distinct features of the specific political system.
multiple hardships journalists face in their resettlement processes at macro-structural, meso-professional, and micro-individual levels. Findings show that the most relevant aspects of the journalists’ experiences are family, economic and psychological
concerns at the individual level; the partial or total
disenfranchisement of journalistic practice, professional demotion
and deskilling at the meso-level; and the general distrust of government programs at the structural level. We conclude that displaced journalists, already victimized by occupational violence, become even more vulnerable and suffer from specific profession-related hardships on top of the challenges that usually afflict displaced populations. Journalists suffer from unique and isolated forms of displacement. We call for more studies that explore the professional traits and conditions of victimized members of risky occupations to account for their overall experiences of displacement and resettlement.
COVID-19 pandemic in social media posts of mainstream news
organizations in Brazil, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Spain, the U.K.,
and the U.S. Based on computational content analysis, our study
analyzes the sources and actors present in more than 940,000
posts on COVID-19 published in the 227 Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter accounts of 78 sampled news outlets between
January 1 and December 31 of 2020, comparing their relative
importance across countries, across media platforms, and across
time as the pandemic evolved in each country. The analysis
shows the dominance of political sources across countries and
platforms, particularly in Latin America, demonstrating a strong
role of the state in constructing pandemic news and suggesting
that mainstream news organizations’ social media posts maintain
a strong elite orientation. Health sources were also prominent —
consistent with the defining role of biomedical authority in health
coverage—, while significant diversity of sources, including citizen
sources, emerged as the pandemic went on. Our results also
revealed that the use of specific sources significantly varied over
time. These variations tend to go hand in hand with specific global
milestones of the pandemic.
and the Continuing Challenges of Journalism Research in
Latin America
Encontramos que funciones asociadas a los roles de servicio y cívico recibieron el mayor apoyo. Respecto a coberturas, la mayoría dio uso y seguimiento a fuentes oficiales y actores institucionales, especialmente estatales. Por otro lado, los periodistas no sólo fueron alcanzados por la COVID-19, los despidos y la degradación de las condiciones laborales, sino que están más sobrecargados, cansados, estresados y angustiados por su futuro. Muchos debieron sortear dificultades logísticas y coberturas altamente riesgosas para su salud en condiciones de escasa capacitación y protocolos de seguridad mínimos por parte de su medio.
hybrids plagued by antipress violence. In-depth studies additionally suggest gender or occupational characteristics such as risky newsbeats increase the likelihood of being
threatened. We overcome data limitations in many of these studies by analyzing work related threats reported by journalists in Mexico, a territorially uneven democracy.
Findings confirm that contexts of criminal insecurity are the strongest predictor of threats but only for journalists who are frequently harassed. For the infrequently threatened, democratic normative commitments are a stronger predictor. Subnational government corruption is another important predictor of threat but operates counter to expectations. We believe this is because clientelism sufficiently controls journalists without the need for threat. Neither occupational traits nor gender were individually
important predictors. Findings suggest future research should compare threat and harassment across lower and higher risk contexts, and measure public insecurity
and clientelism at the local level where journalists actually work. Measurement improvements might better reveal the gender dynamics of threat. More broadly, comparative research and policy-making in democracies and authoritarian hybrids should focus on how local authoritarians limit journalists’ democratic normative aspirations.
express the objective method through the use of verifiable information.
publicadas en diarios de Chile, México y España. El método objetivo predomina en los
tres países; sin embargo, en los diarios latinoamericanos se concreta sobre todo en el
uso de citas, mientras que sus colegas españoles manifiestan el empleo de la objetividad
principalmente a través de la verificación de evidencias.
and political authorities in a health crisis, attempting to mobilize the public to act according to the best science. Hypotheses derived from these perspectives are tested using the standard measures of journalistic roles developed by the Journalistic Role Performance Project. Results show that the deference/ cooperation/consensus perspective is better supported, with media moving away from the Watchdog and Infotainment, and toward performance of the Service and Civic roles. We also explore differences in the pattern by country.
radio, and print. The paper analyzes if journalistic roles present themselves differently across platforms, and if these differences are constant or they vary across countries. Results show that there are measurable differences in role performance in online journalism compared to other platforms. Platform had a significant impact, particularly in terms of service and infotainment orientation, while the implementation of roles oriented toward public service was more similar. Additionally, country differences in the relationship between role performance and platforms mainly emerged for roles that enable political influence on news coverage, with differences in the relationship between online vs. traditional platforms appearing to be distinct features of the specific political system.
multiple hardships journalists face in their resettlement processes at macro-structural, meso-professional, and micro-individual levels. Findings show that the most relevant aspects of the journalists’ experiences are family, economic and psychological
concerns at the individual level; the partial or total
disenfranchisement of journalistic practice, professional demotion
and deskilling at the meso-level; and the general distrust of government programs at the structural level. We conclude that displaced journalists, already victimized by occupational violence, become even more vulnerable and suffer from specific profession-related hardships on top of the challenges that usually afflict displaced populations. Journalists suffer from unique and isolated forms of displacement. We call for more studies that explore the professional traits and conditions of victimized members of risky occupations to account for their overall experiences of displacement and resettlement.
COVID-19 pandemic in social media posts of mainstream news
organizations in Brazil, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Spain, the U.K.,
and the U.S. Based on computational content analysis, our study
analyzes the sources and actors present in more than 940,000
posts on COVID-19 published in the 227 Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter accounts of 78 sampled news outlets between
January 1 and December 31 of 2020, comparing their relative
importance across countries, across media platforms, and across
time as the pandemic evolved in each country. The analysis
shows the dominance of political sources across countries and
platforms, particularly in Latin America, demonstrating a strong
role of the state in constructing pandemic news and suggesting
that mainstream news organizations’ social media posts maintain
a strong elite orientation. Health sources were also prominent —
consistent with the defining role of biomedical authority in health
coverage—, while significant diversity of sources, including citizen
sources, emerged as the pandemic went on. Our results also
revealed that the use of specific sources significantly varied over
time. These variations tend to go hand in hand with specific global
milestones of the pandemic.
and the Continuing Challenges of Journalism Research in
Latin America
Encontramos que funciones asociadas a los roles de servicio y cívico recibieron el mayor apoyo. Respecto a coberturas, la mayoría dio uso y seguimiento a fuentes oficiales y actores institucionales, especialmente estatales. Por otro lado, los periodistas no sólo fueron alcanzados por la COVID-19, los despidos y la degradación de las condiciones laborales, sino que están más sobrecargados, cansados, estresados y angustiados por su futuro. Muchos debieron sortear dificultades logísticas y coberturas altamente riesgosas para su salud en condiciones de escasa capacitación y protocolos de seguridad mínimos por parte de su medio.
hybrids plagued by antipress violence. In-depth studies additionally suggest gender or occupational characteristics such as risky newsbeats increase the likelihood of being
threatened. We overcome data limitations in many of these studies by analyzing work related threats reported by journalists in Mexico, a territorially uneven democracy.
Findings confirm that contexts of criminal insecurity are the strongest predictor of threats but only for journalists who are frequently harassed. For the infrequently threatened, democratic normative commitments are a stronger predictor. Subnational government corruption is another important predictor of threat but operates counter to expectations. We believe this is because clientelism sufficiently controls journalists without the need for threat. Neither occupational traits nor gender were individually
important predictors. Findings suggest future research should compare threat and harassment across lower and higher risk contexts, and measure public insecurity
and clientelism at the local level where journalists actually work. Measurement improvements might better reveal the gender dynamics of threat. More broadly, comparative research and policy-making in democracies and authoritarian hybrids should focus on how local authoritarians limit journalists’ democratic normative aspirations.
express the objective method through the use of verifiable information.
publicadas en diarios de Chile, México y España. El método objetivo predomina en los
tres países; sin embargo, en los diarios latinoamericanos se concreta sobre todo en el
uso de citas, mientras que sus colegas españoles manifiestan el empleo de la objetividad
principalmente a través de la verificación de evidencias.
comunicación son aliados fundamentales de toda democracia funcional.
Y, para que ello ocurra, es necesario desde una mirada liberal clásica,
que exista una sana distancia entre los agentes del poder político y las
organizaciones mediáticas, en especial en relación con sus funciones
informativas. El caso de América Latina muestra, sin embargo, que a pesar
de contar, en general, con marcos constitucionales de inspiración liberal
en relación con las garantías de libertad de expresión y de prensa, existen
muchas formas alternativas de "capturar" las funciones informativas y de
vigilancia de los medios y del periodismo. La cercanía entre las élites
mediáticas tradicionales y las clases políticas ha sido una variable fundamental, pero no la única que hoy define las formas de captura: la regulación específica para el sector, las malas condiciones laborales para el
ejercicio periodístico, el papel de la publicidad oficial y, hasta la amenaza
y el uso de la violencia contra informadores, reporteros y periodistas, se
cuentan entre los múltiples mecanismos que se emplean para inhibir y
distorsionar la labor informativa y la vigilancia con fines políticos y corporativos en perjuicio, claro está, del interés público. A partir de propuestas teóricas y estudios de caso en diversos países, este libro presenta una discusión sobre la regulación, las políticas de comunicación y la captura de medios en México, Chile, Ecuador, Argentina y Uruguay, especialmente en periodos clave de la historia reciente como la Bolivia de Evo Morales, Ecuador de Correa, o la transición del Kirchnerismo al macrismo en Argentina. Asimismo, se discute el caso de Cuba, normalmente fuera de las consideraciones teóricas de la región, pues en la última década ha vivido.
el surgimiento, desde las orillas podríamos decir, de esfuerzos periodísticos
alternativos que han demostrado cierta capacidad de supervivencia a
contracorriente del régimen.
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)
micro levels, from regulatory capture to investment in media firms, political advertising, paid articles, subsidies, or bribes. Is capture a new form of media control or just another name? Can capture account for any form of deliberate control or just the subtle means of infl uence? Does capture materialize only in democracies or also in authoritarian regimes, where governmental control and intrusion in the media tend to be explicit? Does it only count at the macro-level of actors seeking to distort news media functions for their benefit or apply to the micro-level of
newsgathering and routines? This chapter argues that, although media capture is becoming a practical term to name familiar phenomena, the term risks becoming a meaningless “catch-all” concept, affecting all societal contexts indistinctively. Further scholarship must
adopt a more systematic approach to capture and aim for a more solid theorization to move the concept forward and allow for better comparison across various dimensions of media and journalism. The chapter’s purpose is to reflect and shed some light on the multiple pathways that research on media capture has taken, offering a cursory chartering of the various literature threads that address such trajectories, first by providing different stances that qualify as capture, then by tracing the origin and expansion of the concept in the literature. It briefly reflects on the multiple levels, objects, actors, and actions encompassing the concept of media capture. A call is made for a more systematic theorization of media capture for better trans-disciplinary use of the concept when studying media and journalism.
Este trabajo presenta una variedad de posturas, análisis y aplicaciones respecto a conceptos que han caracterizado la investigación en sistemas de medios en el mundo, en general, y en América Latina, en particular. Con distinto grado de diálogo con la literatura previa —la nuestra y la existente— y el reconocimiento a sus conceptos, limitaciones y desafíos, los autores de los ocho capítulos que integran este volumen han tenido toda la libertad para interpretar, conceptualizar, analizar o describir aspectos que consideran importantes para el estudio de los sistemas mediáticos latinoamericanos, ya sean los marcos regulatorios o las políticas de comunicación, las dimensiones y las variables de los icónicos trabajos de Hallin y Mancini (2004; 2012), el modelo liberal capturado que hemos propuesto en obras anteriores (Guerrero 2014; Guerrero y Márquez, 2015) o el propio concepto de captura de medios.
Respecto de la noción de captura, los autores han podido decidir entre aplicar, rebatir, mejorar o desafiar el modelo liberal capturado a través de la exploración de diversos países, regiones y casos. Los tres primeros capítulos —de Guerrero, Márquez, y Mellado y Lagos, respectivamente— establecen formas de entender y revisar, a partir de nuestras realidades regionales, otras miradas, dimensiones, variables o indicadores tanto para analizar los sistemas mediáticos, como para entender el modelo liberal capturado, o concebir, de forma más integral, el fenómeno de la captura de medios. A estos capítulos les siguen estudios de caso de naturaleza más descriptiva y analítica en Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Argentina y Uruguay, sobre aspectos muy puntuales que los autores consideraron medulares para analizar los sistemas de medios en sus respectivos países.
que surge «de adentro hacia afuera» de los medios (Hughes, 2003) pero que,
al mismo tiempo, se ubica en los márgenes del sistema de medios cubano. Se exploran las concepciones profesionales para comprender los modelos emergentes de periodismo a los que se adhieren estos medios digitales, las normas y misiones que persiguen sus miembros y la relevancia de estos puntos de vista en la discusión más amplia sobre roles periodísticos. Se argumenta que dan muestra de una vibrante profesión periodística en proceso de desarrollo.
terrorist attacks, mass shootings, plane crashes, and earthquakes are flagship examples of journalistic role performance in action. But so are more ordinary developments like G20 summits, presidential speeches, parliamentary sessions, council meetings, daily crime news, judicial processes, protests, and industry reports. All kinds of news stories and story angles can, at some point or under certain circumstances, serve as exemplars of how the interventionist, loyal-facilitator, watchdog, civic, service, and infotainment roles not only manifest in practice, but also co-exist and interact across and within cultures, topics, types of newspapers, and even single news stories.
In this book, we analyzed how professional journalism roles materialize
in print news in different organizational, institutional, and social settings, examining journalistic practice under the umbrella offered by the multidimensional concept of role performance. We have made a case
for the ever-changing, fluid, and dynamic nature of journalistic roles,
which are activated and deactivated by certain triggers, events, and circumstances, showing the extent to which news stories in a given country exhibit indicators of one or more of them.
In doing so, we have gone beyond the expectations of journalistic
norms to locate our work at the heart of journalism and media practices.
Normative roles might be firmly anchored in journalists’ mindsets
as guiding ideals and aspirations that give meaning to the profession,
but journalistic practice is by no means static and does not depend on
individuals’ will alone. Our efforts have unraveled the complex nature
of such dynamic practices to account for journalistic role performance
in news content, allowing us to more fully understand the issues at stake when discussing similarities and differences in journalistic cultures
around the world.
will write about them are made in newsrooms, it is worth going
beyond the individual and organizational features of the press to study
the societal-level environment in which roles are performed. Depending
on the characteristics of that environment, news professionals may have
more or less agency in regard to conducting investigations into improprieties.
They may also have more or less interest in addressing the audience
as spectators, representing citizens’ questions and demands, or helping
the public solve everyday problems. Moreover, they may combine several
of these roles. A societal-level approach to the study of journalistic role performance provides an opportunity to analyze macro-structural dimensions and their indicators alongside the relationship between the media system and political, economic, and social systems. Such a broad perspective includes numerous external factors that influence journalistic performance. This chapter is guided by the following research question: How do societal factors affect newspaper journalistic role performance across 18 countries? We follow previous media studies by examining political and economic factors shaping journalism across countries. We
also avoid assumptions about regional similarities. Instead of employing
a “classic” media system approach, we study relationships between types
of journalistic role performance and measurements, describing select
aspects of the political and economic conditions that contribute to the
media environment.
around the world; the professional roles performed in different social,
political, and economic contexts, media outlets, and thematic beats; the
factors that explain the performance of specific roles; and the strength or
weakness of the link between ideals and practices. The results discussed in the chapters that give life to this book are based on data gathered from 64 newspapers in 18 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. This chapter outlines the general design and methodology used by our
teams during data collection and analysis processes, and serves as general framework that guides the reading of the empirical chapters. We used a three-stage research approach for this project.
Based on standardized operationalization of the watchdog, civic,
interventionist, loyal-facilitator, infotainment, and service roles in journalism (see Chapter 2), we first measured journalistic role performance through the presence of each of these roles and their indicators in the news through content analysis. Each role is characterized by different measures of professional practice. While role performance can be studied at earlier stages of the news production process, such as news routines, in this book we focus on the performance of roles as materialized in the final news outcome, i.e., news content. Second, in order to address the link between ideals and practices, we conducted a survey on role conceptions and perceived role enactment with journalists working at the news outlets included in our sample, further comparing journalists’ role ideals with the average performance of their news media organization for each country. Finally, for each participating country, national teams collected information at the organizational and institutional levels of news media organizations, and at the societal level, e.g., considering staff sizes,
audiences, market influences, press freedom, political system factors,
and economic factors. Social system and organizational-level variables
further, provide an explanatory framework for how to explain the ideals and practices gap. All of the data from the content analysis, survey, and structural context measures were independently collected. This enabled the organization of our work into different levels of analysis: news stories, journalists, news media outlets, and countries. We analyzed the data separately but also through multi-level techniques in recognition of the nested structure of the data
umbrella that helps explain the extent to which globalization in
general, marketization and commercialism in particular, regional bodies
and the nation State all play contesting roles in redefining the media’s
role in Latin American societies: the captured liberal model. In a nutshell,
it is a technically – and in many ways formally – liberal commercial model that has been captured both by economic and political interests
and thus shows that political instrumentalisation and State intervention
in private media need not to happen necessarily at the formal or
legal level. This collection addresses the diverse shades, nuances and
extents of ‘capture’ by either the State or the market in a variety of
issues. The book explores the configuration of national media systems
and their challenges, the competing forces shaping communication
policies, the reporting cultures stemming from authoritarian political
regimes, the journalistic ethos shaped by global discourses per se, and
to a lesser extent, the degree to which certain cultural markets –be it
‘national cultures’ or the publishing industries – are either overlooked
and left entirely to the forces of market or protected by political interest
and national agendas. What must be noted is that both trends: Neoliberal privatization and the re-emergence of state intervention – move in Latin
America within the same context of clientelism and discretional
and uneven application of regulation and the law. At the end, the
Introduction 13
context in which both trends unfold contribute to the distortion of
a private commercial model that does not foster pluralism and where
conditions are kept for preventing the development of watchdog
roles (See Guerrero’s Chapter 2). Thus, as we argue thoughout the
book, the formally liberal model consisting of private media remain
constantly – and complicitly – captured either by corporate or political
interests: the cases analyzed in this volume in Colombia (Chapter 3),
Perú (Chapter 4), El Salvador (Chapter 6), Guatemala (Chapter 7) and
Mexico (Chapter 15) attest to this.
This chapter pinpoints the existence of a captured liberal model of
news media and the resulting post-authoritarian journalistic culture
in Mexico. It is true that commercialism, competition, and political
reforms have arguably paved the way for a more diverse coverage of
political actors, critical voices, and disclosure of wrongdoing. But the
press is now confronted by new political arrangements in a challenging
social context, such as emerging party politics; social polarization; limp
economic growth; poverty; economic divides; immigration; and rising
concern over organized crime, violence, and the perceived ‘statelessness’.
At the same time, the power of democracy has failed to fundamentally
change the conditions that sustained authoritarian practices of journalism, such as business models based on governmental advertising. In fact, many cornerstones of the authoritarian media-state relations still
remain, although through subtler, yet still effective means that adapt to and accommodate various commercial and political interests, given the
diversification of agents of power. Not surprisingly, local media scholars’
accounts of the media’s lack of accountability and unchallenged powers
in many ways appear to clash with the positive perceptions of media
change in the liberal tradition. Hughes and Lawson (2005) in fact do
acknowledge the various barriers to media opening in the region, citing,
among several others, weakness on the rule of law, media concentration
and reliance on political advertisement. The existence of Latin American
commercial media systems with authoritarian traits shows that this
binary opposition is insufficient to account for hybrid media systems
and journalistic cultures. There is little empirical evidence that adopting global journalistic norms and trends and commercialism and deregulation amounts to media modernization, democratization, and pluralism in Mexico.
Encontramos que, por su generalidad y utilidad conceptual, la captura ha seguido una trayectoria de lo macroestructural a lo microinstitucional, abarcando diversos tipos de escenarios y situaciones. Finalmente, defendemos la idea de que sin el necesario diálogo que debe establecerse entre los estudios sobre periodismo y las disciplinas económicas donde el concepto se originó, y sin el reconocimiento de las múltiples dimensiones en que se manifiesta la captura —en especial su índole microinstitucional— se corre el riesgo de caer en la ambigüedad, redundancia e indefinición conceptual del término.
This chapter discusses contemporary labor precarity in Latin American journalism, understood in the global context of sweeping employment changes in the news industries. We discuss the causes and the dimensions of labor precarity, examine consequences, and review the resilience strategies adopted by journalists to cope and survive in challenging circumstances. We do not aim to produce an exhaustive analysis of the entire region. Instead, our goal is to identify general trends and provide illustrations from a few countries that highlight broad and differentiated
conditions of precarity.
Sin bien la crónica deportiva es una de las primeras expresiones del periodismo especializado, no es necesariamente el de mayor evolución (Domínguez, 2009), incluso en México, donde es reconocida la trayectoria pionera de su prensa deportiva. Por tanto, se argumenta que por diversas razones atribuibles al sistema de medios, a intereses comerciales de las empresas, a la cultura periodística, a la precarización de las condiciones laborales y a la falta de formación especializada, se han limitado la profesionalización, el profesionalismo y la autonomía del gremio periodístico deportivo así como la calidad e innovación profesional en el campo, incluso si empiezan a surgir algunos agentes e iniciativas que empujan a la profesionalización.
Se argumenta también que las experiencias, ejemplo y visión de un puñado de figuras autodidactas y medios en teoría especializados, así como sus formatos, géneros, prácticas, estilos de narración y reporteo han establecido las pautas o modelos de práctica, sin que se haya avanzado a la profesionalización generalizada de la ocupación. De tal forma, a lo largo de este trabajo se identifican y analizan las lógicas que, emanadas de la industria, el sistema de medios y la cultura periodística, subyacen, posibilitan o limitan la profesionalización del campo y la autonomía periodística.
and the news media is worrisome. Two major factors account for this
state of affairs: first, the government is still in the process of consolidating
the regulations, formal oversight, and necessary scientific rigor in order to
understand its national ecology. And second, national media reporting on
the environment and its problems derives mostly from governmental press
releases or as a reaction to any ecological crises experienced at the time.
While examining both governmental and media actions is essential for an
understanding of environmental issues and to promote wide public support
on conservation, this study focuses mainly on the role of the news media.
This chapter focuses on the role the Mexican news media play in reporting
on the environment, giving special attention to the press’s watchdog
function. The media are expected to keep a close eye on threats and risks
and sound the alarm before these become crises. This watchdog function
requires reporters to have had sufficient journalistic and science training to
deal with the large inventory of environmental issues requiring attention,
which include those of land, fresh and salt water, waste, and air pollution
(Starkman 2014). With this in mind, the authors first show how the media
are organized in Mexico, following this with a description of the government
agencies responsible for environmental affairs, a description of the
most urgent environmental issues across the country and lastly an analysis
of the recent air pollution crisis experienced in Mexico City.
De ahí que, desde áreas de incidencia clave como son: la formación de futuros comunicadores y periodistas, la profesionalización y actualización de periodistas en activo, la investigación y la vinculación con el sector social y profesional, hemos podido trazar y dar seguimiento a los grandes desafíos que enfrentan la libertad de expresión, el acceso a la información y periodismo de calidad. En esta primera parte del texto nos referiremos a los grandes temas y agendas que impactan nuestras áreas de interés desde la que hemos tenido agencia y en la segunda brevemente abordaremos las estrategias y ejes de incidencia específicos que hemos desarrollado en el Departamento de Comunicación. En general, nuestros esfuerzos han estado encaminados a diagnosticar y contribuir al estado que guarda el periodismo en el país, a la discusión y generación de periodismo de calidad en todas sus modalidades, a la protección y defensa de la libertad de expresión y derecho a la información, y crucialmente a la formación de periodistas y audiencias críticas.
On the other hand, apart from the challenges brought by technological change, journalists working in mainstream and traditional media face continuing pressures to their professional autonomy and to their work in general. Press freedom across Latin America has declined in the past years. ¿So what is the future for quality journalism in Latin America, and particularly, for the kind of which holds institutions accountable, scrutinizes, questions and counterbalances the established powers? Although there are many signs that social media and digital technologies have been a positive platform to empower citizens to discuss their own issues and shape alternative agendas, there are also important setbacks which remain anchored in key ingredients of the political culture and the prevailing media systems: the captured nature of the media and particularly of journalism, and the clientelistic relations between media executives and politicians.
Both capture and clientelism are pervasive factors that hinder the independence and quality of journalism, and diminish the freedom of the press and the healthy exercise of media’s watchdog role. Both are at the core of two contrasting yet overlapping developments witnessed in the past two decades in the region: a high degree of media concentration fueled by market-oriented communication policies on the one hand, and the re-emergence of State intervention in the other
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.
impact upon the journalistic culture of the contemporary Mexican radio newsroom. It discovered the existence of several factors, namely personal attitudes, organisational structures, routines and the wider political and cultural environment, that engender particular notions of professionalism which are more bound to the local environment and the complex political and societal setting than with the with the normative framework normally associated with the concept of professionalism.
Journalistic professionalism is utilised by Mexican journalists as a discursive strategy to show their attachment or detachment, engagement with or criticism to the journalistic culture, and to respond, adhere and contribute to the news organisation’s goals."
We first trace the development of journalism and the various factors that have shaped it. In the individual and organisational aspects of journalistic culture, we examine the way Mexican journalists notionally disengage from their authoritarian past and pay lip service to liberal press values and roles. Likewise, we look at the way they assimilate organisational demands, daily pressures, and newsroom hierarchy. In the analysis of conditions of autonomy, we survey the state of freedom of speech and censorship under the two consecutive PAN governments, as well as the role of political and private advertisers as agents of pressure. Moreover, the thesis analyses the way in which the collection and dissemination of political messages, sourcing patterns and the resulting narrative reflect a continuity of a passive style of journalism. Finally, we evaluate the interplay of these dimensions of Mexican journalistic culture in relation to a specific political conflict, notably the presidential elections of 2006. The study, ultimately, aims to highlight the flaws and limitations of liberal accounts of media transformation in the context of a transitional democracy.