View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UT Digital Repository Copyright by Maria de los Ángeles Flores Gutiérrez 2008 The Dissertation Committee for Maria de los Ángeles Flores Gutiérrez Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Who Sets the Media Agenda? News vs. Advertising Committee: Maxwell E. McCombs, Supervisor Dominic Lasorsa Chappell Lawson Paula Poindexter Joseph Straubhaar Who Sets the Media Agenda? News vs. Advertising by María de los Ángeles Flores Gutiérrez, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2008 Dedication In the memory of my grandmother Doña Margarita Talamás Vázquez de Gutiérrez Treviño (1918-2008) Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to my advisor, Maxwell E. McCombs, for his mentorship and encouragement throughout the process of this dissertation. Additionally, I want to thank my dissertation committee members—Dominic Lasorsa, Chappell Lawson, Paula Poindexter, and Joseph Straubhaar—for their advice and assistance. I extend my gratitude to Carol Adams Means for assisting me closely, especially in reviewing early versions of this research, and Dr. Herbert M. Levine for editing my dissertation. My appreciation is also extended to the Center of Communication Research at Monterrey Tech (CINCO) director José Carlos Lozano and his graduate students: Citlalli Sánchez Hernández, Esmeralda González Coronado, Eduardo García Reyes, Andrea Menchaca Trillo, and Paola Gabriela López Arnaut for their assistance with the coding conducted for this research. I would like to give a special acknowledgment to my son, Juan Gerardo Madero Flores, for giving me the inspiration and support to continue working when my strength and motivations seemed to fade away. Finally, I am grateful to my family and friends for their support and affection. v Who Sets the Media Agenda? News vs. Advertising Maria de los Ángeles Flores Gutiérrez, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2008 Supervisor: Maxwell E. McCombs Grounded in the theory of intra-media agenda-setting, this research will analyze the dynamic process among the Mexican national television networks during the 2006 presidential election campaign period. Specifically, what were the intra-media agenda-setting effects between the Mexican television media Televisa and TV Azteca during the 2006 presidential election campaign? The television content analysis data set is from a systematic random sample of national Mexican prime time television news programs broadcast during the official Instituto Federal Electoral's (Federal Electoral Institute) presidential campaign period, which runs from January 19 to June 28, 2006. The Mexican television newscasts that were analyzed are Televisa's El Noticiero con Joaquín López Dóriga, and TV Azteca's Hechos de la Noche. Overall, the results indicated that television news strongly influences a presidential candidate’s television political spots. The flow of communication between television news and a candidate’s television political spots was scrutinized in several time frames in order to examine the influence from a general perspective (3 months, then 2 months) into a specific (month by month) perspective. The outcome at the 3-month scale indicated that television news strongly influenced a candidate’s vi political spots. The same pattern was observed at the two-month interval. Finally, the month-by- month outcome also indicated that television news influenced a candidate’s political spots. vii Table of Contents List of Tables ..........................................................................................................x List of Figures ....................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1 Introduction ...........................................................................................1 Negative Television Spots ..............................................................................5 Election Results: The Starting Point of the Postelectoral Controversy ..........7 PAN's Political Marketing Techniques...........................................................7 Negative Campaigning Effect: What went Wrong? .....................................13 The Accusation of Fraud...............................................................................17 Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación Ruling ....................22 PRD vs. PAN: The Failure to Achieve Legislative Agreement....................26 The Regression to an Authoritarian Media Regimen ...................................29 Purpose of the Study .....................................................................................37 Chapter 2 Review of the Literature.......................................................................40 Agenda-Setting Theory.................................................................................40 Political Marketing as a Global Phenomenon...............................................51 Political Advewrtising and Voter Turnout....................................................59 Videocracia and Mediocracia .......................................................................70 Brief History of the Television Era and Its Electoral Coverage ...................75 2006 Election: Candidates and their Political Platforms …………………..86 Chapter 3 The 2007 Electoral Reform: The New Role of the Media ...................94 Talk Show ...................................................................................................106 The Senate Chamber...................................................................................110 The Right to Reply......................................................................................112 Chamber of Deputies ..................................................................................119 Electoral Reform Was Ratified in Mexico..................................................123 viii Chapter 4 Spots: The Candidates' Major Political Communication Strategy.....128 AMLO is Dangerous for Mexico................................................................133 Gordillo's Revenge Plan..............................................................................140 Vicente Fox's Revenge Strategy .................................................................144 IFE's Media Watch......................................................................................150 Penalties……………………………………………………………………153 Spotgate……………………………………………………………………155 Chapter 5 Political Campaigns as Entertainment: The Commodification of the Presidential Candidates...................................................................................................159 2000 Election Phenomenon ........................................................................161 ¡Qué Madre, tan Padre!...............................................................................163 El Privilegio de Mandar..............................................................................164 The Other Campaign...................................................................................172 Summary.....................................................................................................181 Chapter 6 Electoral Law: From 1824 to 2000 ....................................................185 1976 Election ..............................................................................................192 1988 Election ..............................................................................................195 1994 Election ..............................................................................................204 2000 Election ..............................................................................................206 Chapter 7 Methodology ......................................................................................220 Research Hypotheses ..................................................................................221 Method ........................................................................................................221 Hypotheses 1...............................................................................................225 Hypotheses 2...............................................................................................227 Hypotheses 3...............................................................................................229 Hypotheses 4...............................................................................................231 Hypotheses 5...............................................................................................234 Hypotheses 6 ..............................................................................................235 Chapter 8 Television News vs. Television Political Advertising .......................237 Hypotheses 1...............................................................................................237 ix Hypotheses 2...............................................................................................242 Hypotheses 3...............................................................................................262 Hypotheses 4...............................................................................................270