Mexican media sticks to the agenda set by the government, while U.S. media set their own. Mexican journalists still have to provide coverage for a sector that somehow empowers the source and that\u2019s when official rhetoric prevails. They are bound to the agenda set by national sectors.<\/p>\n
This article is not about political agreements that enabled the former leader of the teacher\u2019s union to operate freely during the past administrations (I apologize to readers that clicked on the link because they thought it would be about that matter). No, this article is a brief analysis on how some newspapers covered the apprehension of Elba Esther Gordillo on the days after the arrest (February 27th to March 8th) in correlation to some basic principles and theories of journalism.<\/p>\n
The (few) information sources<\/p>\n
From a total of 48 information notes that appeared on Mexican newspapers (Reforma, El Universal, Milenio and La Jornada), only 11 have more than two information sources. Among all these sources, 41 of them are official. On the other hand, \u201cunidentified sources\u201d are quoted three times, \u201ca variety of sources\u201d once, \u201cunconfirmed reports\u201d twice and \u201crumors\u201d once.<\/p>\n
The (official) media agenda<\/p>\n
Even though the first-hand information for this event comes from an official source, the Attorney\u2019s General Office (PGR), the ensuing coverage offers little source contrast, and apparently, no search for more information regarding the apprehension\u2019s procedure. For instance, it is reported that the Unit of Financial Intelligence of the Ministry of Finance filed a lawsuit with PGR the procedure that the Intelligence Unit had to go through is never mentioned, based on the 117th article of the Credit Institutions Law, in order to ask banks for accounts information is conspicuous by its absence. Why and when was this information asked for? Other issues that are covered are diversion of resources, organized crime and money laundering, but the arrest itself is not dimensioned, the difference in each offence is not explained and its implications are not discussed.<\/p>\n
Likewise, there doesn\u2019t seem to be an inquiry set up in parallel with the coverage of the arrest that may observe a new informative approach. As a consequence, it is possible to notice a dominance of the official agenda over any journalistic research.<\/p>\n
The informative (and conflicting) framing<\/p>\n
According to the framing theory, the media sets a series of guidelines (frames) that favor a given interpretation of the events they are informing. Using this theory it is possible to observe that the framing of the conflict was the one that received the greatest deal of attention ever since it refers to winners and losers since quotations of political parties that are in disagree are presented. Some examples of this so-called \u201cbickering\u201d are:<\/p>\n
\u201cPRI legislators claim that law has been enforced: PAN members acknowledge a deficit in the fight against union bureaucracy, and PRD affirmed that President Pe\u00f1a Nieto will not go against those who think differently\u201d. El Financiero.<\/p>\n
\u201cPAN national leader, Gustavo Madero, regretted that his party\u2019s administrations weren\u2019t able to apprehend Elba Esther Gordillo and, therefore, fight corruption and authoritarianism within the National Teachers\u2019 Union (SNTE)\u201d. El Universal.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Madero) asked for the apprehension of Romero Deschamps, as well as for former Governor (Andr\u00e9s) Granier, former Governor (Humberto) Moreira and former Tamaulipas Governor, since they are flagrant and visible cases\u201d. El Universal.<\/p>\n
\u201cFormer Secretary of Finance and Public Credit, Ernesto Cordero, stated that on former President Felipe Calder\u00f3n\u2019s government there was a lack of knowledge of the irregular procedures of Elba Esther Gordillo and he denied that the former union leader was absolved during that administration\u201d. Milenio<\/p>\n
\u201cOrganizations opposed to the Mexican Oil Workers Union (STPRM) claimed that they submitted petitions to the President\u2019s office and lawsuits in order to investigate the mismanagement of public union resources in which leader Carlos Romero Deschamps may have incurred\u201d. La Jornada.<\/p>\n
National vs. foreign media coverage (different incentives)<\/p>\n
With the aim of contrasting and understanding that they don\u2019t necessarily compete in the same market or news cycle, I reviewed the foreign media coverage and occasionally, it is possible to identify that it makes more daring statements and it is, perhaps, more visionary. Opting for a less rigid narrative allows the inverted pyramid\u2019s structure not to prevail on the news, thereby allowing increasingly free texts. For example: the information missing on the national agenda is precisely what the future hold for education in Mexico and what are the consequences of Gordillo\u2019s apprehension. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo quotes:<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of Mexico is waiting for her picture walking into prison while the major debate on the media is whether Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto\u2019s new PRI has really started a crusade against corruption or the apprehension of Gordillo is only due to a political vendetta\u201d.<\/p>\n
USA Today has a riskier column, assuming the possibility of the arrest being a change in which unions are run. Its second paragraph is a quote, not from an official source, but from the director of an independent citizens\u2019 association:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe arrest of the head of Mexico\u2019s national teachers\u2019 union on charges of embezzling $200 million may signal a shift in the way Mexican politicians handle the country\u2019s poor school system\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn all developed countries, the union plays a role \u2026 but in Mexico, it\u2019s turned into a kidnapping,\u201d says David Calder\u00f3n, director of the education advocacy group Mexicanos Primeros. Even the school calendars have both the union and public education secretariat logos\u201d.<\/p>\n
El Universal newspaper has the following headline, highlighting the event: \u201cElba in prison\u201d. The informative note in local press sticks to prioritize, from more to less, that is to say, the closest possible relation between what\u2019s been said and what\u2019s been written. I hereby quote the note\u2019s first paragraph:<\/p>\n
\u201cElba Esther Gordillo Morales, leader of the National Teachers\u2019 Union, was apprehended yesterday and was referred to the Santa Martha prison for the crime of transactions involving illegally-sourced founds, that at this point amount 2.6 billion pesos, which has been classed as a serious offence, which is why no bail shall be allowed\u201d.<\/p>\n
Exc\u00e9lsior provides a good kicker: \u201cShe used to deduct an average of 100 pesos from every teacher\u201d. Headline: \u201cElba collected 140 million pesos on a monthly basis\u201d. This is followed by: \u201cAs leader of the SNTE, she left promises unfulfilled, such as the city of education\u201d.<\/p>\n
How a headline is constructed<\/p>\n
On the news, context can make all the difference. In this section it should be emphasized how the newspapers prioritized the information. It is important to analyze what is printed on the headline and what\u2019s put on the last page. Not all the time what\u2019s said is the most important. It could be omitted altogether.<\/p>\n
El Universal shows a headline that highlights the event: \u201cElba in prison\u201d, while La Jornada displays the following: \u201cPe\u00f1a shows his power, Elba Esther Gordillo is arrested\u201d, which tends to create a framework that attributes responsibility. It also shows a picture of the President (during his time as Governor of the State of Mexico) and Elba Esther laughing together with the caption \u201cDays of Glory\u201d.<\/p>\n
Reforma reveals a headline with a framework that attributes responsibility: \u201cA masterstroke\u201d. It contains good additional elements such as paragraphs stating that Gordillo intended to paralyze the system. It explains that the arrest was made a few hours before the SNTE council began. And that its timing was in accordance with protests against the education reform. It displays a graph with the route of the money, ranging from dues to luxuries.<\/p>\n
Exc\u00e9lsior provides good additional information with four master strikes, quoting Elba Esther Gordillo herself, the Federal Attorney General, the leader of the Mexicanos Primero organization, Francisco Bravo, as well as the Secretary General of the 9th section of the National Teachers Union.<\/p>\n
Reforma and Exc\u00e9lsior both display in their front pages a citizen survey regarding whether or not the general public favors the arrest. Reforma shows another headline on the second day after the apprehension with the kicker: \u201cPANAL and SNTE dissociate themselves from the union leader\u201d, which is a framework that attributes responsibility and the following headline is added: \u201cGordillo is left on her own\u201d.<\/p>\n
Conclusions<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all a matter of agendas. Domestic media follow the agenda set by the official rhetoric, while international media, for instance USA, set their own. A Mexican journalist still has to cover sectors, which somehow empowers the source and that\u2019s when the official rhetoric prevails. The journalist is bound to the agenda set by national sectors. Time is money. The American press is not bound by sectors in order to make a deep research and creating its own agenda. It has more time to monitor a news event instead of publishing the event daily.<\/p>\n
Plain facts on the front page. Even if it is a secondary factor, sometimes, in order to analyze the lack of information or sources in a note, it\u2019s worth considering the economic crisis that media is going through, which may affect the coverage on each note. The difference between balanced journalism may rely on the economic resources that a newspaper may be able to get. It\u2019s not the same if they have correspondents or if a transcription is made. This can make the quality of information to vary. News are more homogenous, there are no exclusive notes given the time constraints or lack of reporters. It\u2019s an issue related with the roles and working methods of a journalist.<\/p>\n
Seeing is believing. Us journalists organize reality and that is how we make news. Whenever we read a note, let us check its hierarchical order, its distribution of sections, sources, credibility resources and objectivity, as well as its style, context, language and ideology. If we take this into account, we will\u00a0 read between lines, identifying what is not said and questioning what, in fact, is.<\/p>\n
Lorena Segura<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mexican media sticks to the agenda set by the government, while U.S.
\nmedia set their own. Mexican journalists still have to provide coverage
\nfor a sector that somehow empowers the source and that\u2019s when official
\nrhetoric prevails. They are bound to the agenda set by national sectors.<\/p>\n
This article is not about political agreements that enabled the former
\nleader of the teacher\u2019s union to operate freely during the past
\nadministrations (I apologize to readers that clicked on the link
\nbecause they thought it would be about that matter). No, this article
\nis a brief analysis on how some newspapers covered the apprehension of
\nElba Esther Gordillo on the days after the arrest (February 27th to
\nMarch 8th) in correlation to some basic principles and theories of
\njournalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-3355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications","tag-op-ed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4114,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355\/revisions\/4114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}