Citizens of Scandal

“This is a breakthrough book. With extensive documentation, Vanessa Freije narrates the uneven and incomplete dance among the public, journalists, and government that opened the Mexican media in the 1960s and transformed the nature of public debate and political culture. With delicate attention to forward movement and sinister recoil, she brilliantly situates her study in the proliferating field of inquiry into the public sphere.” - Mary Kay Vaughan, author of Portrait of a Young Painter: Pepe Zúñiga and Mexico City's Rebel Generation

“Citizens of Scandal is a deeply researched account of the transformation of Mexican journalism during that country's economic transition from being a "miracle of progress" to its "crisis" (1960s–1980s). Vanessa Freije tracks the gradual diversification of Mexico's somewhat compromised and regulated print journalism, focusing most particularly on the press's part in managing scandal and rumor—agrarian corruption, forced sterilization, shady oil deals. This book introduces us to a vital agent in modern Mexican public life.” - Claudio Lomnitz, author of The Return of Comrade Ricardo Flores Magón

“[Citizens of Scandal] is an outstanding contribution to the literature on Mexican journalism and the communication processes involved in making scandals, and should be of considerable interest to scholars studying news in other one-party-dominant and ‘hybrid’ regimes, more generally.” - Daniel C. Hallin, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

“In her insightful and analytically lucid Citizens of Scandal...Freije interweaves the stories of key journalists, famous chroniclers like Carlos Monsiváis and Elena Poniatowska.... A selection of political cartoons and photographs enhances the impression of a press ever more willing to hold the powerful to account.” - Andrew Paxman, Hispanic American Historical Review

“Of interest to political science and communications scholars and of course journalists, Freije’s book is in harmonious conversation with other works that are fundamental to understanding the evolution of not only the Mexican media system, but Latin America’s media systems in general.” - Grisel Salazar Rebolledo, NACLA Report on the Americas

“[Citizens of Scandal] is a very accessible and engaging study, providing a better understanding of the mediated narratives and conflict triggered by pivotal historical events in modern Mexican history. As such, it builds on and adds to a growing literature on Mexican journalism.” - Stephen D. Morris, The Latin Americanist

“Freije’s richly documented argument and critical theory orientation will readily contribute to anthropologies of media and information, as well as political anthropology and political economy, both in their broadest senses.” - Juan M. del Nido, Anthropologica

“Grounded on strong field and archival research, this book offers a fresh view of Mexican politics and its protracted transition through the lens of media coverage of public affairs in a rapidly changing society. . . . Through her multilevel analysis, Freije provides a more textured appraisal of Mexican media and politics than we are used to.” - Julián Durazo Herrmann, Bulletin of Latin American Research