Mexican journalism and democratic transition : clientelism in the Mexican media system.

The defeat of the longstanding PRI party in the presidential elections of year 2000 has
been acknowledged as a milestone in the democratisation of Mexico. Nevertheless, for
over 40 years, many authors have suggested that Mexico has been undergoing a
democratic transition. These repeated assertions highlight just how difficult it is to
define a democratic transition or when or how such a process begins or ends. Media
theorists have been intrigued as to what changes a media system goes through when
experiencing a democratic transition, as new political arrangements have an impact on
the dynamics of journalism and newsmaking.
This study aimed to examine to what extent the close relationship that the media and the
government traditionally held during the PRI regime had changed as a product of
political transformations. This research adopted the concept of political clientelism of a
media system as a theoretical framework, in order to identify aspects in which the
Mexican media system had altered from how it occurred in the past. The study relied on
the use of two types of qualitative research methodologies, interviews with Mexican
journalists, as well as content analysis of newspaper articles.
Through the examination of the ways in which Mexican journalists carry out their work
as well as their role perceptions in regards to democracy on the one hand, and on the
other through the evaluation of how coverage has differed over time, this thesis aims to
contribute to the understanding of the way in which media systems in transition are
studied. It argues that changes in media systems should be studied in relation to more
routine journalistic practices, rather than on the assumption that changes in politics or on
the apparent finance of the media unequivocally transform journalistic culture towards
democratisation