Mexican Expatriates Vote? Framing and Agenda Setting in U.S. News Coverage About Mexico

摘要

This content analysis examined framing and second-level agenda setting in U.S. newspaper pre-election coverage of the 2006 Mexican presidential elections and the new Mexican expatriate voting law. The authors conducted a quantitative analysis of 161 articles and a qualitative analysis of 36 articles in U.S. newspapers from August 2005 through mid-April 2006. Findings indicated that Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador received more coverage (59.6%) than Roberto Madrazo (27.8%) or the eventual winner, Felipe Caldern (29.1%). Candidate attributes were highlighted more than Mexican domestic or Mexico-U.S. issues. The dominant procedural frame was the election horse race. The main substantive frames were the election as an extension of U.S.-Mexico economic relations and the election as an extension of Latin American leftist/populist movements. The expatriate voting law was characterized as unsuccessful and blamed on apathetic voters, the Mexican government's faulty implementation, and a corrupt system.