Mass Communication in Mexico
“Mass Communication in Mexico”
(“International Media Studies”)
JOMC 447.001
Spring 2014
This course aims at providing students with an understanding of the mass communication system in Mexico and something of the culture of the country as well. Students will read and discuss material about Mexico and its mass media systemand about related topics. Information on the mass communication system will include material on its history and development,but the emphasis will be on the present day. Media to be discussed will include newspapers, radio, TV, digital media and social media.Some material on public relations and advertising will be discussed as well.
Class sessions will be informal and consist mainly of discussions. Student participation in class is an important part of the course. A major element of the course is the required trip to Mexico City and Guadalajara over spring break to obtain first-hand information about the Mexican media system and related issues.
Class Meetings
The class is relatively small because of the spring-break trip. It is informal. At times, the instructor will lecture, but more time will be devoted to class discussions of readings and materials. These discussions will be led by individual students. This is a more effective form of education. Students will make in-class reports on their projects as well. Student participation in class is important and is a part of the course grade.
No one person can be an expert on all of the Mexican mass media or the mass communication system and certainly not on the country itself. Several outstanding guest speakers will be arranged in the first two months of the course. The speakers vary each time the course is taught depending upon their availability. Among the experts who have spoken to the class in recent years are:
Dr. Alejandro Acuna, head of the Department of Communication at Tec de Monterrey in Mexico City.
Dr. Celeste Bustamante of the University of Arizona, who is an expert on broadcasting in Mexico, especially on Televisa, the TV giant.
Rodrigo Cervantes, a journalist for several years with Reforma, the leading newspaper in Mexico City, who is now with Mundo Hispanico in Atlanta.
Dr. Altha J. Cravey, Department of Geography, UNC-Chapel Hill.
Ricardo Elizondo, director general of the Reforma news organization in Mexico.
Barry Hill, an expert in advertising who has years of top-flight experience with international firms and who has a residence in Cuernavaca, Mexico. He is completing his Ph.D. degree in international political science at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Stephen R. Kelly, visiting professor of the practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy and Center for Canadian Studies at Duke University. He is an expert on North America and on NAFTA, among other things.
Eva A. May, founder and president of Espanol Marketing & Communications, amarketing consultancy that was based in Cary, N.C.
The class meets twice a week before spring break. Since the time spent on the class during spring break is so extensive – as much as all the class sessions in a regular UNC-Chapel Hill class over a whole semester – we will not have that many meetings after spring break. We will meet periodically.
Class Trip
The class will visit Mexico City and Guadalajara over spring break. We will be in Mexico City forabout four days and in Guadalajara for about two days. The exact schedule will be determined in consultation with the class soon. Airline reservations will need to be made as soon as possible.
During the trip, our headquarters will be the principal campus of Monterrey Tec University (Tec de Monterrey) in Mexico City and the Tec campus in Guadalajara. Tec is an excellent university system, with some 35 campuses over Mexico. The Tec professors and administrators look forward to working with us and to our visit. Several professors and mass media professionals will make presentations to our class and to Tec students when we visit. In Mexico City, we will have at least one session with U.S. correspondents who cover Mexico regularly. Tec students will participate in the visit as well. We will also visit some media enterprises in Mexico City.
The visit will cost roughly $1,500 per student for airfare, hotel, etc. It is impossible to quote an exact amount because airfares vary. Personal expenses are up to the student. We will all travel together, of course; that is important. We will fly on American Airlines.
Student Term Projects
The most important single element in each student’s grade in the course is a term project. It is usually a term paper but can be in a different format if the instructor OK’s that ahead of time. It will be due toward the end of the semester, of course. The instructor will show numerous examples of term papers to students.
Student In-Class Reports
Each student will be part of a team in class and will report on a topic to the whole class in a regular class session. A team may be only two students, or it may be larger. It can be a straightforward report or a debate or some other format. Students may select the subjects of their reports, but they must be approved by the instructor ahead of time. The subjects must deal with mass communication in some way. These subjects are different from the subjects of the term projects. Examples of subjects: media coverage of a proposed wall between Mexico and the United States, media coverage of a drug cartel, the depiction of women in advertising in Mexico, the changing nature of public relations in Mexico, the killing of journalists in Mexico, Twitter and Facebook in Mexico, U.S. media coverage of immigrants from Mexico who do not have official documentation, or U.S. media coverage of the U.S. work force in regard to Latinos, especially those from Mexico. These are only examples. Many topics are possible, depending upon students’ interests.
Calculation of the Course Grade
Term paper50%
Class participation (in classes in15%
Chapel Hill and in sessions inMexico City
and Guadalajara)
In-class report 15%
Exam over readings, handouts, class sessions, etc.20%
Attendance
Class attendance is important. If a student misses a session, a signed excuse must be provided.