Review of Andrew Paxman, Mexican Watchdogs: The Rise of a Critical Press since the 1980s (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2025), 340 pp.
Author: Jacques Coste
Affiliation: History, Stony Brook University, Lauterbur Drive, Stony Brook, 11794, United States
Nuova rivista storica 2026, 110(1), 397-400 https://doi.org/10.32604/nrs.2026.083652
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Abstract
This review examines Andrew Paxman’s Mexican Watchdogs: The Rise of a Critical Press since the 1980s (2025), a comprehensive study of the transformation of Mexico’s media landscape. Paxman moves beyond traditional institutionalist narratives of Mexico’s democratic transition to focus on the “political and business history” of the press. He explores how a once-subservient media—bound to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) through subsidies and “incentives”—evolved into a more professional, independent, and critical force.
The book traces this evolution from the opening of the 1980s and the pivotal 1994 crisis to the contemporary challenges posed by rising violence against journalists and the polarized political climate under recent administrations. While the review notes a relative lack of theoretical depth regarding the transformation of the public sphere or neoliberal hegemony, it highly praises Paxman’s extensive empirical research. Drawing on over 180 interviews and detailed case studies of major newspapers, the book provides a textured, granular account of how the rise of critical journalism both resulted from and accelerated Mexico’s democratization. Ultimately, the review identifies Mexican Watchdogs as an essential work for understanding the interplay between media, power, and the ongoing struggle for freedom of expression in Mexico.
KEYWORDS
Mexico, Mexico’s transition to democracy, journalism, freedom of expression, press
