[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-145431-105":59,"doc-detail-145431-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","balance-on-the-border-evaluating-us-news-media-portrayals-of-mexico","Balance on the Border? - Evaluating US News Media Portrayals of Mexico","","Mexico has become a major focus in the US news cycle, reflected in sustained public interest and worsening perceptions. Recent polling shows growing unfavorable views tied to drug-trafficking violence and increased Mexican migration, including polarized reactions to Arizona’s SB 1070. The article evaluates how US print media portrays Mexico, analyzing coverage of drug violence and immigration to identify both distortions and more accurate, nuanced narratives. It examines whether reporting advances an open debate and balanced truth-seeking or instead amplifies simplistic, sensational misrepresentation.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/balance-on-the-border-evaluating-us-news-media-portrayals-of-mexico/145431/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/balance-on-the-border-evaluating-us-news-media-portrayals-of-mexico/145431.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Caleb Sterling","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-03","2026-08-26",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":52},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What main factors does the article link to negative US attitudes toward Mexico?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It connects worsening views to Mexico’s violent struggle against drug trafficking and to rising Mexican migration into the United States, which fuels a polarized immigration debate.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the article assess US media coverage of Mexico?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It characterizes the coverage as mixed: sometimes misrepresenting drug violence, its implications, and the US role, while at other times offering more comprehensive portrayals and challenging myths.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why does the article focus on print media and specific sources?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It examines widely disseminated depictions through press coverage, analyzing selected “drug war” series in major newspapers and relying on prior research for immigration coverage due to more existing scholarship.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},145431,1787722455,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":52,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":36},962084925290,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","Balance on the border? Evaluating US news media portrayals of Mexico By Michael Shifter and Rachel Schwartz 1  \nOver the past decade, Mexico has emerged as a major flash point in the US news cycle. Despite involvement in two wars in the Middle East and rising competition from nations such as China on the world stage, US attention has not been entirely diverted from its closest neighbors. The US public continues to be significantly concerned about the state of affairs in Mexico. A February 2011 Pew Research Center poll reported that some 62% of respondents were “very interested” or “somewhat interested” in what happens in Mexico. In this regard, Mexico ranks alongside other global hotspots such as Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, and Egypt post-revolution.2  \nYet, this high level of interest has been accompanied by increasingly unfavorable views toward the United States’ southern neighbor. According to a February 2011 Gallup poll, US attitudes toward Mexico are the most negative they have been in over 20 years. As reported in this latest poll, 51% of Americans hold an unfavorable opinion of Mexico while only 45% maintain a positive image–only the second time in the last two decades when negative perceptions have exceeded positive ones. Moreover, current public sentiment toward Mexico shows sharp decline from 2005 when favorable opinion was ata high of 74% .3 In just six years the deterioration of Mexico’s image in the United States has been dramatic.  \nThese negative attitudes are no doubt connected to two factors: Mexico’s violent struggle against drug trafficking and the significant flow of Mexican migrants into the United States. First, organized criminal activity led by highly sophisticated drug cartels have brought high levels of insecurity to areas that sit just south of the US border. Since current president Felipe Calderón assumed office in 2006, drug violence has claimed roughly 40,000 Mexican lives. Secondly, soaring Mexican migration levels over the past decade have generated an increasingly visible and polarized debate on immigration in US public discourse. This mood was on display in the impassioned positive and negative reactions to Arizona’s SB 1070, which would have authorized law enforcement agents to question any individual suspected of residing in the country illegally.  \nThese developments have at once placed Mexico at the top of the US news cycle, while also generating rising levels of ill will among the US populace. The situation raises concerns and questions about the connection between US media coverage and public perceptions of Mexico. What is the nature and quality of US news reporting on Mexico? In what ways has US coverage contributed to an open and pluralistic debate on issues of concern, and in what ways has it fallen short of its main responsibility to report the truth in a balanced and accurate manner?  \nThis article will examine these central questions by analyzing press coverage of the two themes that have most recently dominated discussions of Mexico in the United States: drug-trafficking and immigration. Although there have been a number of examples marked by sensationalism and misrepresentation, US media coverage of Mexico is best  \ncharacterized as a mixed bag. The most widely circulated print news sources have, at times, circumscribed the public debate by misrepresenting the scope and nature of Mexican drug violence, its implications for US national security, and the role the United States plays in contributing to the problem. In other moments, however, these media sources are lone voices in bringing to the fore more comprehensive and accurate portrayals ofthe situation, dispelling myths propagated by US and Mexican officials, and broadening the conversation on the causes and consequences of drug violence.  \nUS reporting on migration from Mexico is similarly mixed. While the US media has often fed nativist fears of an imminent Mexican takeover and exaggerated the link betwee","cbCailT0bedaFmsD","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailT0bedaFmsD","pdf",193684,16,"English","# Introduction\n## Public interest and shifting perceptions\n## Drivers of negative attitudes\n## Research questions and scope\n# Mixed media portrayals\n## Drug trafficking coverage\n## Immigration coverage\n# Mexico through the prism of war\n## Historical framing in US journalism","[{\"question\":\"What main factors does the article link to negative US attitudes toward Mexico?\",\"answer\":\"It connects worsening views to Mexico’s violent struggle against drug trafficking and to rising Mexican migration into the United States, which fuels a polarized immigration debate.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article assess US media coverage of Mexico?\",\"answer\":\"It characterizes the coverage as mixed: sometimes misrepresenting drug violence, its implications, and the US role, while at other times offering more comprehensive portrayals and challenging myths.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the article focus on print media and specific sources?\",\"answer\":\"It examines widely disseminated depictions through press coverage, analyzing selected “drug war” series in major newspapers and relying on prior research for immigration coverage due to more existing scholarship.\"}]","Balance on the Border? - Evaluating US News Media Portrayals of Mexico | PDF"]