Conflict Resolution and the Prestige Press: El Universal and the Mexican Oil Crisis,1938

Abstract

In a test suggested in part of Galtung's theories of national press performance, this content analysis of a prestige Mexican newspaper's coverage of the 1938 nationalization of foreign oil interests found that the newspaper at first retreated to a government-support position, but within two months had regained a more independent stance. The study therefore finds some support for Galtung's argument about elite influences on the press, prestige newspaper like El Universal de Mexico, during times of national crisis.