Find a recent (last 3 months) article about Mexico. Please choose an article from an American news source. Summarize the article briefly and then analyze the way the story is being told. How is Mexico and its citizens represented in American media? Is there evidence of the stereotypes we discussed in class (or not)? Please feel free to respond to each other, though it is not required for this assignment. Make sure you sign your name and add a link to the article!
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Find a recent (last 3 months) article about Mexico. Please choose an article from an American news source. Summarize the article briefly and then analyze the way the story is being told. How is Mexico and its citizens represented in American media? Is there evidence of the stereotypes we discussed in class (or not)? Please feel free to respond to each other, though it is not required for this assignment. Make sure you sign your name and add a link to the article!
26 Comments
Jesse Rudnick
8/26/2015 12:23:32 pm
So the first thing to note even before I began to read my article is what came up when I searched Mexico in the NY Times search engine. It listed articles and at the top it said "related: Mexico Travel Guide, Mexican Drug Trafficking." That, in it of itself, speaks to what the media--and consequently the public--chooses to highlight.
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8/26/2015 02:21:53 pm
Like Jesse, I also chose to read an article from the New York Times as it is arguably the most trusted American news source. Even such a trustworthy source can not help but have their writing influenced by stereotypes of the time. Despite this, such stereotypes are not used in an article recently published by the times entitled: "Investigation Lifts a Cloud Over President of Mexico."
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8/26/2015 02:37:54 pm
This article's focus was on the tourism industry in the Riviera Maya. It talks about how small towns like Playa del Carmen and Tulum thrive when it comes to tourism because of their low crime rates. It compares this thriving area to Los Cabos, where tourism has been affected by an increase in violent crime. It continues to talk about crime rate in various states that have lost tourism because of crime. The story is told in a seemingly positive light, because despite mentioning increase in violence in certain previously renown touristic spots, it focuses on destinations that are becoming increasingly popular. It also portrays Mexicans in the tourism industry as good entrepreneurs. However, in a way it diminishes them to a position of servitude. It shows Mexico as little more than a place where one will be tended and pampered. The statistics simply refer to how worthy a place is of being visited by American tourists, omitting how crime affects the people who actually live there. There is a reference to a couple of the stereotypes we talked about in class, the main one being violence. The second one is that the only worthy thing about Mexico is its beaches and nice resorts. I must admit that the second stereotype as well as the image of Mexicans as servants is rather subtle; and for the most part this articles serves to promote tourism in Mexico.
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Sara Muñoz Ledo
8/26/2015 02:39:57 pm
I thought I'd linked the article, but here it is again http://fortune.com/2015/08/26/mexico-tulum-tourism/
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Spencer Zeff
8/28/2015 01:04:19 am
Great analysis!
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Jesse Grove
8/26/2015 03:06:53 pm
Like Sammy and Jesse R, my article came from the New York Times. I chose this source because of its extensive amount of articles, along with its popularity. Because so many Americans read the New York Times, whatever is published has a lot of power in shaping Americans' perceptions of Mexico.
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Jesse Grove
8/26/2015 03:17:21 pm
Whoops forgot to copy the link! http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/03/world/americas/huge-rally-over-killing-of-mexican-journalist.html
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This is a short article from Huffington Post focused on the killing of a Mexican activist, Miguel Angel Jimenez. He was one of the 15 people killed in the Mexican state of Guerrero. He focused his activism on leading searches for missing people in Mexico, which lead to the finding of a mass grave site full of students who had first been abducted by police and then handed over to drug traffickers to be killed. The article itself is not overtly biased, but the nature of it is. The article primarily focuses on the shootings and murder rates in Guerrero. It also touches on how Acapulco, where 10 of the 15 people were killed, is a tourist town. This creates a connection for the readers of the article, showing that even tourist towns in Mexico are not safe. Readers of the article will take this information with them when they learn about other tourist towns in Mexico, and due to the connection this article draws, may continue to associate all Mexican tourist towns with violence- regardless of whether they are violent or not. I think this article supports the violent and drug ridden stereotype most because when I was searching for articles this was one of the first that I found in the HuffPost Mexico section. Because this article is headlining Huffington Post’s Mexico section, most Americans skimming through the article headings to find information on Mexico would see the article almost immediately, and create or continue to reinforce an association between Mexico and violence.
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Grace
8/27/2015 03:07:58 am
If you click on the little arrow next to each commenters name, it will take you to the website (if they linked it). Here is the url, in case someone wants it- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/activist-who-helped-search-for-mexicos-missing-students-killed_55c8a106e4b0f73b20b9d0c6?utm_hp_ref=mexico&kvcommref=mostpopular
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Miranda
8/27/2015 07:11:39 am
Cool - thanks for figuring that out!
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8/27/2015 09:56:09 am
Sid Miller, Republican state agriculture commissioner, made several comments comparing Mexico's voting protocol to the recently overturned Texan voting restrictions. The Republican - majority legislature mandated discriminatory voting laws, that resembled voting laws from the 1960's. The legislators tried to reinstate restrictions such as poll tax, and district redistribution (red lining), while in Mexico, Each voter is forced to submit proof of citizenship, a photo, and a thumbprint, to create a voting photo id card. Supporters of Miller found a “double standard” between the celebrated Mexican approach to combating corruption, and the discriminatory law put in place to exclude certain voters from the booths.
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8/27/2015 12:21:28 pm
The article I chose focuses on the improbability of Joaquín Guzmán’s, El Chapo, escape from a high security prison in Mexico. Millions of Mexicans are positive that El Chapo’s escape tunnel was nothing more than a clever cover-up to allow the Mexican government the ability to free him without any backlash. This article does a great job of quoting Mexican citizens on their opinions of the escape, while resisting the use of anti-government emotions, in the writing. Corruption is very common in the Mexican government and the people of Mexico know that this was just an example of how part of the government actually functions. The drug lords rule over Mexico and basically have total immunity to the law. This article highlights a common Mexican stereotype, that the government is completely corrupt, but it has a positive view of the Mexican people. The people are not oblivious of their government’s corruption, but do not have the firepower to change it. It is widely believed that each president has agreements with the powerful gangs and drug lords that grants them immunity, if they are willing to pay the price. This clear corruption of Mexico’s judicial system has allowed criminals to live free, without fear of government intervention. This article takes a fairly abnormal, for US media, direction and uses the El Chapo situation to bring to light how informed the Mexican people are and how vast the corruption of most government positions are.
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8/27/2015 01:13:34 pm
This article analyzes the escape of El Chapo and concludes that the likelihood of finding him is low because the Mexican government is not well equip to do a proper investigation. It states that workers have been found guilty of having a connection to his escape and that the head of the federal police’s intelligence unit was fired. The article also quotes some people’s concerns about the governments ability to handle the situation. The entire article is outlining all of the ways the Mexican government is at fault for the escape and doesn’t display any confidence that they will be able to handle the situation. The language of the article is also very extreme such as in one quote where someone said that the investigations department is known for “shoddy work” and in another part it states that the investigation could be “fatally compromised”. This is very consistent with the stereotypes we discussed in class and that we saw were prevalent in the survey. It suggests that the Mexican government is inferior and incompetent and the law enforcement is not doing what is necessary to contain El Chapo and the Sinaloa cartel. It also perpetuates the stereotype that Mexico is dangerous because it is doubting the law enforcement and government in their ability to handle crimes. Whoever reads this article will not want to go to Mexico because they will be scared that El Chapo is on the loose and think that Mexico is unstable and weakly secured. It has been proven that seven workers had a connection to his escape and I’m sure there are other facts that would definitely be concerning in terms of the abilities of the law enforcement so I understand this opinion and concern. However, I think that the article makes it seem like the government does not understand the importance of finding him and is not trying to handle it urgently which I don’t think is entirely true.
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Matt Kingsley
8/27/2015 01:13:40 pm
My article is about the reception of Donald Trump in Mexico from Mexicans. In this New York Times article, it speaks of all of Trump's comments. Obviously, the Mexican perspective on Trump's campaign and his comments have not been supportive. Many people in Mexico are frustrated because all that Trump states are stereotypes about Mexicans. The article itself sides with Mexico and its citizens. Both are represented well. I must bring up a few things found in the article. One of the most interesting parts of the article are the quotes from Ostensia Bonilla, a 56 year old Mexican resident who moved in 2007 to Illinois for two years. She moved back because she was concerned about the people her daughter she brought was mixing with. There "were too many people using and selling drugs." Using the context of Trump's statement, "They are bring drugs. They are bringing crime. They're rapists." we can realize how ridiculous and radical Trump's view really is. Notable organizations and people who previously backed Trump have now dropped partnerships. For me, this article reiterates that the US and Mexico are probably not all that different in terms of safety and drugs. Both have glaring drug issues.
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Matt Kingsley
8/27/2015 01:14:31 pm
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/03/world/americas/donald-trump-gains-infamy-in-mexico-for-comments-on-immigrants.html
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Hugo Anaya
8/27/2015 01:18:25 pm
When searching up relevant news articles about Mexico on the New York Times website I found many articles highlighting the issues of drugs, violence, murder, and corruption in Mexico. This alone illustrates the image we as Americans have on Mexico. We tend to focus on the negative side instead of the positive. I found this article regarding the escape of the famously known Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman Loera or better known as el Chapo. According to the government el Chapo escaped through a hole on the floor of his shower cell and escaped through a mile long tunnel under the nose of the most secured prison in Mexico. At first many believed it but as time passed by people began to suspect how a tunnel was able to be built in the first place without raising any suspicion. The first person they turned to was their government. The Mexican government has a long history of corruption within the system. Millions of Mexicans believed that his escape was a cover up story to allow el Chapo to be set free without any consequences. This articles is mainly focused on the responses that they received from the Mexican citizens. In quoting them we see an obvious displeasure towards their government. Most citizens are very aware of the corruption within their government and we are able to notice that the stereotype of the Mexican government being corrupt is true. Although this article illustrates the corruption in Mexico we do not see any signs of anti government language. The New York Times strategically formatted this article to illustrate how the Mexican government is represented instead of how Mexico as a whole is represented which is overlooked by many journalists
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8/27/2015 02:03:26 pm
My article is from ABC News, and focuses of Mexico’s president, Enrique Pena Nieto’s Cabinet shuffle, including replacing his national security chief. The article talks about how the escape of top drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman prompted Pena Nieto to take action and make changes to his cabinet. The new national security chief is now Renato Sales. The article also mentions other problems Mexico faces as a country, including a federal police shootout, education, and the economy. The article suggests that these changes were because of the decline in popularity for Pena Nieto. In this article, ABC News portrays Mexico as a troubled country with little stability due to all the changes in government. They mention how El Chapo received help in his escape from prison authorities and guards, which suggest that the prison system in Mexico is corrupt. The article also mentions a shootout between police and drug suspects, which left 43 dead. This example perpetuates the stereotype that Mexico is a dangerous country with violent tensions between law enforcement and criminals. There are also mentions about the economic issues that plague Mexico’s economy such as, falling oil prices and the steep decline of the peso, which suggest that the Mexican government is not stable.
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Seiichiro Nakai
8/27/2015 02:04:27 pm
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-replaces-security-chief-foreign-relations-head-33365064
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8/27/2015 02:03:59 pm
I choose a recent article from the New York Times discussing the
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Bella
8/27/2015 02:04:52 pm
link here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/22/world/americas/investigation-lifts-a-cloud-over-president-of-mexico.html?_r=0
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8/27/2015 02:13:14 pm
I, too, found my article on the New York Times website, though I saw that many people had read articles on El Chapo and the cartel, so I decided to go for a shorter article about the dangers of journalism in Mexico.
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8/27/2015 02:17:21 pm
I chose an article from the Wall Street Journal which talks about the escape of "El Chapo" and how the president is under a lot of pressure to crack down on security in Mexico. Though the article talks a lot about corruption within the Mexican government, many of the negative sentiments towards the government are from officials based in Mexico City. While the article itself wasn't deliberately stereotyping Mexico or its people, one of the comments was. It talked about how we should build a strong wall that spans the entire US-Mexico border and then about how "sneaking across the border is not immigration" when the article itself never even mentioned immigration. This is an example of the stereotype that Mexicans in the United States are illegal immigrants.
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Cassis Schafer
8/27/2015 02:31:41 pm
The article that I chose discussed the escape of "El Chapo" from a high security prison and a critiqued the overall justice system in place currently. For those who are unfamiliar with the story, "El Chapo" or Joaquín Guzmán Loer is a notorious drug lord in Mexico; this is his second time evading his prosecuted life sentence. Although the piece does not seem overly biased initially, upon reading it further, the reader can see that it solely focuses on the negative aspects of the country rather than balancing those with positive aspects. This is exemplified through one passage in which the article veers off the topic of "El Chapo" and the corrupt justice system to other unrelated recent murders and kidnappings. As someone who read the article--but has had positive interactions and information regarding Mexico--I still felt consciously more critical of the country than I did before. This realization made it clear to me that it is imperative to read from multiple news sources (and maybe even some Spanish newspapers?) in order to corroborate and gain a broader perspective. This article was telling the truth about a very prevalent problem in Mexico--there is no denying that--but the manner in which it was written revealed the ignorance that we as Americans have to other aspects of the country. The piece continued to play onto many of the stereotypes that perpetuate a solely anti-Mexico mindset, which further plays into bias in the United States. This bias was statistically shown through the graphs that we viewed last class and forced me to re-evaluate where and from what perspective am I receiving information about Mexico.
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Spencer Zeff
8/27/2015 03:53:55 pm
find a recent (last 3 months) article about Mexico. Please choose an article from an American news source. Summarize the article briefly and then analyze the way the story is being told. How is Mexico and its citizens represented in American media? Is there evidence of the stereotypes we discussed in class (or not)? Please feel free to respond to each other, though it is not required for this assignment. Make sure you sign your name and add a link to the article!
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Spencer
8/27/2015 03:54:44 pm
Sorry I did not mean to post the prompt!
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