During the latest LASA Conference that took place virtually last weekend, Daniela Rea, Mariana Mora Bayo, María Regina Martinez Casas, Daniel Moreno, Diego Peterson Farah and Oswaldo Zavala met to discuss some of the current challenges of journalistic practice in Mexico. A few highlights of the exchange include the precarization of journalists with the advent of online platforms, the increasing influence of opinion or commentary journalism, and the seemingly perennial issues of violence against journalists in the country.
Mariana Mora Bayo’s question about the feminization of journalism as a possibility for the future is the intellectual highlight of the discussion. Rea’s challenge of the romanticization of bravery and the overburdening demand for caring for women, and Peterson Farah’s questioning of the lack of individualism and lack of female executives serve as indicators of the historical burdens that news organizations and the Mexican society must correct in order to move forward.
After listening to the conversation, the question of the feminization of journalism and how it relates to the historical invisibilization of women within journalism in Mexico merits a dedicated panel of its own. Since the foundation of Las Hijas de Anáhuac in 1876, which inaugurated the visibility of women’s public participation in the national periodical culture, shows that both the collective work of reporters, in combination with female leadership, is enough to leave an outstanding mark on any field, but they are hardly enough to change the deeply rooted problems of one society. To leave the burden to correct a situation to those most affected by it remains a problematic solution as best.
Further reading suggestions: El Género es el Mensaje. Mujeres periodistas en México, Coordinated by Elvira Hernández Carballido, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, 2013. DOI: https://www.uaeh.edu.mx/investigacion/productos/6823/2013-generomensaje-coo.pdf