Mexican Watchdogs

The Rise of a Critical Press since the 1980s

Andrew Paxman

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9781469684987
  9781469684970
• eBook ISBN:
  9781469684994
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Political Process
• Index: Social Sciences

In the first narrative history of Mexico’s contemporary press, Andrew Paxman recounts the evolution of print and online media between the 1980s and the present. From showing widespread subservience toward authority to playing a watchdog role as the country democratized, journalism both reflected and propelled changes in Mexican society.

Paxman also traces how the media responded to outright state hostility and major threats to its existence, including a war on drugs that made Mexico the riskiest country for reporters outside a combat zone, a decline in revenue as readers and advertisers migrated to the internet, and a partial return to government cooptation. Based on interviews with 180 current and former journalists and extensive research in newspaper libraries, Mexican Watchdogs interweaves critical analysis with the stories of key reporters, editors, and publishers as well as the trajectories of Mexico’s leading print and online media.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface: A History of Violence and Resistance
• Acknowledgments
• Map
• Introduction: An Expatriate Memoir
• Chapter 1. Prensa vendida: The (Mostly) Sell-Out Press, 1896–1988
• Chapter 2. Combative Regional Papers and the Salinas Watershed
• Chapter 3. Siglo 21: Guadalajara Conceives a Prodigy
• Chapter 4. Reforma: Monterrey Conquers the Center
• Chapter 5. Challenges on the Left: Proceso
• Chapter 6. Challenges on the Left: La Jornada
• Chapter 7. Under President Fox: The Promise and Problems
• Chapter 8. The Press and the Powerful: AMLO, Calderón, Carlos Slim
• Chapter 9. Reporting on Crime Syndicates and the Corrupt
• Chapter 10. President Peña Nieto: Invented by Television, Crushed by the Internet
• Epilogue: The Fourth Estate and the “Fourth Transformation”
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index