Honduras found its origin as part of Spain’s empire but was freed in 1821. It was annexed for two years to Mexico and finally declared independence. It is the second largest country in Central America and has the world’s highest homicide rate at 90.4 murders per 100,000 people which is almost twice as much as its runner up, Venezuela. Three of the five dailies in Honduras, El Haraldo, La Tribuna, and El Periodico, find their headquarters located in Tegucigalpa. The English-language newspaper, Honduras This Week, is also located there. San Pedro Sula is the city of the other two dailies, El Tiempo and La Prensa. La Gaceta is where the government publishes its decrees weekly.
More important that the writers and editors of the Honduran press, are the political figures. Rafael Leonardo Callejas, who is the Former President, is the primary stockholder in El Periodico. This particular paper is known for its conservative views. Jaime Rosenthal is another influential political figure who owns El Tiempo. Rosenthal is a Liberal Party leader who finished second in the Liberal Party of Honduras primary for the 1993 national election, and he leads the more liberal paper which is known to criticize the military and police. Manuel Gamero, the editor of the daily, has been jailed many times because of this.
We can see how easily the media in Honduras is manipulated. The significance of the implications carried out by the puppet masters of the press in Honduras isn’t so easily measured however. This should provoke thought in all viewers and audience of any sort of media, into analyzing the source and origin of said media, and whether or not secondary motives lie in the hearts and hands of the curators. La Prensa has many connections to a number ...
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...t, of the truth that hides in the shadow of it’s government’s web of lies. But every year, the window is closing and the truth it becoming much harder to reach. And this only pertains to newspapers and magazines. There is a lot more information being manipulated under the umbrella of media. There is still television, movies, internet, and other mediums of accessible information that is being censored and manipulated.
It’s sad really, because in theory, the rights of the press are generally respected, but in practice, they sometimes appear to be breached. The press and media altogether is subject to corruption and politicization, and there have been many times when journalists have committed to self-censorship or moments of allegations of intimidation by military authorities in power. Unfortunately, this is the current state of Honduras in our moderns times today.
...e live seem to be too dangerous for them to fell happy. However, they are against the evil and violence, ignorance and lie. Corchado is quite unsure about the future of Mexico, but he also sees that these people are strong willed and they have chance to make some change in the way they live. He doesn’t pay attention to politics, instead of that he relies solely on people, their courage and strong will. We should all be so strong enough to change, what we want to change, and preserve what we need to preserve. Alfredo Corchado showed us the example of how brave hearted a person should be and how much we should all love our motherland. After reading this book, you won’t remain ignorant about Mexico and the journalism in general.
Nevertheless, the movie undoubtedly mirrors many of the current socio-political time in which the film was made. The title itself refers to a famous quotation from the Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, who once referred to Mexico's ruling party, the PRI, as a "camouflaged dictatorship," thereby making it "the perfect dictatorship." In this way, the movie is directly acknowledging its relevance to modern Mexico and its politics and is clearly very self-aware. The plot itself was based on the real life perceived Televisa controversy during the 2012 Mexican presidential election, in which Mexican citizens believe that the media was unfairly showing a preference for the PRI candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto. While it could be argued that the movie takes this idea of favoring one candidate over another to extreme lengths (although perhaps it isn’t showing anything unduly unrealistic – there’s no real way to know) and hyperbolizes the effect of the media in Mexican politics, there is clearly a strong element of truth and reality there. The movie would not have had nearly the same effect if it was not at least somewhat grounded in reality. And I think that, while the media does not have absolute and final control over politics, they do to a very large and important extent and this extends far beyond the movie alone, especially in today’s age of fake
Honduras was a part of the “Guatemala Kingdom” of provinces and was mainly settled by the Spanish for silver mining purposes. The northern part however was more resistant to Spanish conquest and was allied by Europeans and Jamaica. Honduras became independent from Spain in 1821 before becoming a member of the United Provinces of Central America. Comayagua was the capital at the time until 1880, it was then transferred to the city of Tegucigalpa. The social power in the book revolves around the government restricted many people ability to make a steady living and there is no way to move up in social classes.
Derby Lauren, The Dictator's Seduction: Gender and State Spectacle during the Trujillo Regime, Callaloo 23.3. Summer 2000, pp. 1112-1146.
Héctor Tobar is an American journalist and author, who was born in Los Angeles and a previous journalist and editor for The Los Angeles Times. He now teaches journalism at the University of Oreagon. His work covers imperative political topics and examines the relation between US and Latin America. Tobar has been awarded multiple prizes for his books, such as for the novels “The Tattooed Soldier” and “The Barbarian Nurseries”. Tobar was the bureau chief for the newspaper, The Los Angeles Times, in Mexico City and Buenos Aires, where he covered political subjects. He won and achieved the Pulitzer Prize with a journalism team for reporting the 1992 riots. The article “Why Latino Children Are Scared of Donald Trump” was published in the newspaper,
Harry E. Canden. , & Gary Prevost, (2012). Politics Latin America. (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Another controlling method that is diffused through television, radio and written publications; is any reported information about world politics and news. Powerful political groups narrow people’s views of what is going on around them by tainting and twisting information to their own device. They decide what to say and when to say it, revealing as much or little information as desired, in ‘befitting’ instances; thus enabling them to hide information they consider deleterious to themselves, from the public. It also permits them to depict opponents in overly negative terms.
As unemployment and inflation strengthened poverty throughout the country, especially in the rural outskirts, in the city a new political movement, threatening the long established oligarch-military complex began to develop. When the radio began to announce that opposition’s, PDC candidate, Duarte was sweeping up votes, the radio was cut and when the transmission, the army government’s choice, Molina, was ahead. The blatant fraud encouraged liberal junior and jealous senior officers to stage a coup, attempting to place Duarte in power. After receiving help from forces in the Central American Defense Council (CONDECA), the which was formed in 1963 under the influence the United States to protect Cental America against “possible communist aggression,” and US military advisors, the senior military command put down the coup attempt. (___) The United States
Panama is the southernmost country of Central America. It sits on the isthmus connecting north and South America. Panama remains bordered by Costa Rica to the west. Colombia is to the southeast. The Caribbean is to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. Panama City is the capital of Panama. Explored and settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, Panama broke with Spain in 1821.Panama has the third largest economy in Central America and it is the fastest growing economy and the largest per capita consumer in Central America. In 2013, Panama ranked fourth in Latin American countries in terms of the Human Development Index, and is ranked 59th in the world. Studies in 2010 show that Panama remains as the second most competitive economy in Latin America. Panama’s jungle is home to an abundance of tropical plants, animals, and birds and some of them found nowhere else in the world.
Anita Isaacs focuses on the consequences the new democracy faces after the rule of former President Molina, “The Congress stripped him [Molina] of immunity, thus diverting attention from its own corruption cloud; in last week’s elections, half its deputies were re-elected, and the same three incumbent parties obtained the bulk share of seats.” This lack in alternation of political parties may maintain a similar form of government but the new President Morales expresses reformational interest towards the corruption of the country. Guatemala does not have a strong enough justice system to properly restrain governmental power, but the state justly accused higher governmental officials of customs fraud resulting in the imprisonment of former President, Otto Pérez Molina, and Vice President, Roxana Baldetti. The removal of the top two rulers of the country from office uncovered Guatemala’s legitimate, democratic stability through one of the most important factors of a strong democracy, the rule of
Filmmaker Oliver Stone embarked on a journey across the Latin American continent pursuant to the filling of gaps left by mainstream media about the social and political movements in the southern continent. Through a series of interviews he conducted with Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Cristina Kirchner and former president Nėstor Kirchner of Argentina, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Lula da Silva of Brazil, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Raúl Castro of Cuba, Stone was able to compare firsthand information from the leaders themselves with that reported and published by the media (“Synopsis,” n.d.). It gives light to the measures these leaders had to take in order to initiate change in their respective countries, even if their public identities were at stake. Several instances in the film showed the mismatch between these two sources, pointing at the US government’s interests for greatly influencing the media for presenting biased, groundless views.
Through manipulation and lies, media manages to modify objective news into biased news in order to convince the public of what the media wants them to believe. The article, “How the Media Twist the News”, by Sheila Gribben Liaugminas discusses the major influence that news has on readers based on their choice of stories and words. “How the Media Twists the News” has borrowed from multiple other texts such as the books like Public Opinion and Liberty and News, news magazine writers such as Ruderman, and news networks like CBS through Bias, A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News and CNN to make her arguments valid and prove that the news is biased and that it does influence readers significantly because of it.
Martinez, Ibsen. "Chaos, Chavismo and Telenovelas." The New York Times. The New York Times, 8 Apr. 2014. Web. 26 May 2014. .
The introduction of the internet to modern society has brought about a new age of information relation. Since there is no longer a need to wait until the next print day, news from all over the world is available at a person’s fingertips within hours or even minutes of the event. With this advent of such easily accessible information, new problems for the news media have also arisen. Aside from potentially losing good economic standing because newspapers are no longer being purchased in the quantities they used to be, the credibility of the information itself is also put into question. No one would argue that credibility of news sources is unimportant, but there is a discrepancy in what takes precedence; economy and speed or getting the information out correctly at the first publishing by taking the time to make sure all facts are checked. The importance of having a system of checks on all information submitted is paramount. People trust what they read and believe it to be so without always questioning. If all information were to not be checked thoroughly, there would be instances where people read an article only for information included to be wrong and they go on believing such information. This can be very dangerous as misinformed people make misinformed decisions. With an increase in errors being made by citizen bloggers and even major publications, many are worried that journalistic ethics and credibility in the news media are being sacrificed in order to maintain swiftness in the news circuit and to retain personal profits. Though getting information to the masses quickly is a major part of the media’s importance, this should not mean that the credibility of that information being presented should be sacrificed for it...
The purpose of journalism is to report a story accurately; simply to tell it like it is. Over the past two decades, with increased tension over political and religious ideologies, the media’s original purpose is being lost. Yes, being well-informed remains an asset in the world today. Our now, globally-focused world will always value knowledge and awareness. With the television, internet, newspaper- all mediums of entertainment- available at the snap of a finger, we have non-stop access to news. One problem with this is the blatant bias of news networks. Every news source has a bias. Viewers typically recognize the platform of the major sources, therefore deterring them from certain networks. When reporters feed viewers the same opinion through different stories, the viewer isn’t getting a balanced intake in terms of overall understanding. In today’s society, viewers are truly at the mercy of what those in authority provide. Think of George Orwell’s 1984 where the all-powerful “Big Brother,” through “The Party” oversees every little piece of information that passes through the telescreen (along with everything that passes by the telescreen on the other end.) The citizens of Oceania are essentially clueless to the truth because they have no access to it. The television: typically a source of entertainment, transformed itself into an instrument for controlling. Yes, the modern technology is