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Economically-Driven Partisanship—Official Advertising and Political Coverage in Mexico: The Case of Morelia



Author(s)

Ruben A. Gonzalez Macias

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DOI:10.17265/2160-6579/2013.01.002

Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Puebla, Mexico

Partisanship and dependence on government support have characterized Mexican media along its history. That is, on the one hand, the journalistic practice has been determined by the alignment towards a political stance. On the other, thanks to the intervention of the state, news outlets—especially newspapers—have survived in an economically difficult environment. Nowadays, the support from the government mainly comes in the form of official advertising, which has become a token to trade revenues for publicity. Therefore, this paper argues that media partisanship in Mexico has shifted from ideological to economic. Based upon a case study conducted in Morelia (the capital city of Michoacán), this article analyzes the impact of the official advertising on the political information published by the local newspapers.

Mexican media, journalism, partisanship, coercion, official advertising