<p>This dissertation examines the role that scandals and print media played in Mexican politics between 1960 and 1988. It argues that, while political corruption was commonplace, journalists determined which transgressions would become flashpoints for public protest. By creating scandals, print journalists shaped political decision-making and debates about Mexico's democracy during the decades commonly associated with the country's political opening. As scandals circulated through Mexico City media, they catalyzed critical reassessments of legitimacy and gave public opinion greater weight in shaping processes of political decision-making. By forging new linkages between reading publics and ruling elites, reporters created an increasingly mediated form of Mexican citizenship. This dissertation also reveals that scandals not only reflected elite dissent, but also sharpened internal party divisions that eventually led to organized opposition in 1988 against the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), the political party that held the Mexican presidency and most public offices for seventy-one years. </p><p>A history of print journalists sheds new light on how Mexico's one-party regime consolidated and retained power. Scholars increasingly emphasize the coercive aspects of the PRI's rule. However, this research indicates that the regime was divided, responsive to public opinion, and even contributed to the opening of Mexico's public sphere. This work also intervenes in the literature on Mexico's political transition. Scholars identify economic crisis as the catalyst for popular mobilizations and elite defection. This dissertation argues, however, that economic hardship was not new and would have failed to assume a larger political meaning without journalists' contributions. It was they who elevated quotidian episodes of political corruption by assigning them the significance of a rupture. Finally, this research highlights the blurred boundaries between civil society and the state. Journalists acted as intermediaries between ordinary Mexicans and political elites. At different moments reporters were civic protesters, while at others they acted as arms of the state. This history of journalists, then, offers new ways of imagining Latin American politics and the everyday practices of governance.</p><p>This study makes use of materials from Mexican journalists' private archives. New sources, such as leaked documents, correspondence, and newsroom memoranda and meeting minutes, challenge the pervasive image of a reactive and supine press. Congressional records, official meeting minutes, printed public relations ephemera, and domestic intelligence reports illustrate the ways in which ruling elites reacted to scandalous press articles. Political scandals sparked intense debate and sharpened internal party rivalries. These sources reveal that print journalism represented a key site of dissent, debate, and division during Mexico's political opening.</p> / Dissertation
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DUKE/oai:dukespace.lib.duke.edu:10161/9950 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Freije, Vanessa Grace |
| Contributors | Olcott, Jocelyn |
| Source Sets | Duke University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
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