When President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected in 2018, I read news stories that claimed he was “Mexico’s Trump” for his anti-establishment rhetoric—and his attacks on the press. My goal with this project was to gain a better understanding of attacks on the press in Mexico and their impact.
For this thesis project, I went back to Mexico to speak with journalists and academics about the country’s political history, the history of its press, and what it is like to work as a reporter under the López Obrador administration.
This project uses qualitative interviews with Mexican and American reporters and academics in Mexico and the United States with firsthand experience reporting on Trump and AMLO and thorough knowledge on Mexican culture and history. It will attempt to explain how, even though attacks on the press are similar on both sides of the border, López Obrador’s attacks on the press in Mexico have a larger impact because of the Mexican press’ relatively young independence, influenced by a system of government censure and control over the media, as well as the lasting effects of the Mexican political system in the 20th century.