Confronting Anti-Press Violence in Mexico: Strategies of Resistance in Mexican and U.S. News Coverage of Journalist Killings

Abstract

Violence against journalists in Mexico has escalated dramatically in recent decades. This same violence limits news organizations’ ability to report on journalist killings even while news coverage is an important vehicle for raising awareness, and few studies have critically examined this coverage. The purpose of this study was to compare Mexican and U.S. news coverage of journalist killings in Mexico through the framework of metajournalistic discourse to explore how this coverage constitutes a form of resistance. In 2023, we conducted a qualitative text analysis of 77 news articles about the 19 Mexican journalists and media workers killed in 2022. Our findings demonstrate how news coverage sometimes confronts anti-press violence in Mexico through nonstandard newswriting practices and contextualization. We discuss how these findings extend the theory of metajournalistic discourse and explore their implications for public awareness about anti-press violence, journalistic autonomy and authority, professional solidarity, and the normative role of journalism.