The media and their relationship between social movements for peace in Mexico (2011-2013)

• Main Author: Lidia Angeles Garcia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos 2017-10-01
• Series: Index Comunicación
• Subjects: Medios de comunicación; guerra contra las drogas; México; movimientos sociales por la paz
• Online Access: http://journals.sfu.ca/indexcomunicacion/index.php/indexcomunicacion/article/view/316
• ISSN: 2444-3239; 2174-1859

This paper analyses how the war on drugs was publicised by the Mexican government through the media to gain legitimisation of the strategy used to battle organised crime and how the issue was positioned in a monolithic and biased fashion by the Mexican media agenda the relationship between the social movements and the media, this paper analyse how this relationship is constructed, how activists and journalists feel it could be an advantage and disadvantage, and how the mainstream media relates to social media. The study is made up of a corpus resulting from a methodology of qualitative type, where twenty six interviews were conducted in depth, to experts on the issue of violence in Mexico, activists and journalists. The control that the media exercise over symbolic production is recognised and responded to by the activists and journalists with different approaches, in the face of the difficulties of receiving broad and unbiased coverage, suggested that digital journalism is an alternative as a public space to inform the public about the social movement. Additionally, for example, the mainstream media have found sources and the information needed to use them on the Internet, and social media such as Facebook have become public spaces for contention, providing an opportunity to counteract the mainstream media with their own narratives, such as expressing the reality of the violence where the mainstream media present silence and gaps in information