Global Media News

Mexican Political Campaign Videos Hosts Plagiarism

(Antonio Tarek Abdalá channels Pharrell’s Happy video for a campaign ad. Photograph: Screen grab)

Congressional Candidate Antonio Tarek Abdalá is getting ready for Mexico's June 7th votes.  His recent attempt to win the country over has been by parading his newest campaign videos around on tv.  The issue:  his videos are using songs that he was never given permission to use by the artists.  His actions have completely disregarded the copyright law.  The videos show Abdalá dancing around to Pharrell Williams recent hit Happy, with minor changes to the songs chorus lines promoting him for candidacy.  

Candidate Manuel Pozo uses Queen's We Will Rock You in his campaign video.  He also changed lyrics around to fit his campaigning.  Queen's manager responded to The Guardian stating that Pozo was given "no consent" to the song.  

So how does Mexico feel about this?  The Guardian says,

"Xavier Domínguez, the Catalan chairman of the political advertising agency Wish & Win, who has worked with Mexican candidates for years, said it is unlikely that any of the campaigns sought permission to use the hits. He dismissed the videos as “ridiculous” efforts to provide entertainment, rather than part of any clear strategy.

“Plagiarism is a tradition here, and nobody is ever sanctioned for it,” said Dominguez. “In a country where human rights are violated all the time, nobody is going to bother about copyright.”"

It seems as though Mexico has no hold on their laws.  Where "human rights are violated all the time" said by Dominguez, one could question what these candidates stand for, when they too are violating human rights by disobeying the copyright law.  

Global Media News Webcast #11: April 23, 2015

 Listen to Global Media News for Thursday, April 23, 2015

This week on Global Media News:  Mexico & Costa Rica!

• Journalists Under Fire?  Violence against Reporters in Mexico
• Carmen Aristegui: Popular Radio Journalist Fired! Why?
• Narcocorridos:  The Controversy over the Soundtrack of the Drug War
• Social Media & the Cartels: New Media in the Drug War
• Costa Rican Media Reform: Is the New Reform Bill a Step Forward?

Global Media News is a weekly webcast covering media news from around the world.  GMN is a production of  Media Studies students from the SUNY College @ Old Westbury.   We scour the web for news about the world's media.

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Banning Music in Mexico

    The musical genre of Narcocorridos uses sousaphones and accordions to provide a pleasant polka-like backdrop for lyrics that sensationalize the exploits of Mexican drug cartels. There has been a surge of violence against young narcocorridos singers in Mexico, resulting in many deaths and injuries. 

    There's a parallel between Narcocorridos and American Gangsta Rap, in that some say the music merely tells a story based off real life violence and crime while others say it feeds the very crime it sings about. As with all controversial music, there is an ongoing debate over whether or not the art promotes acts of gruesome violence or simply provides a narrative to illegal goings on. It's known that some corridos performers have actually accepted money from cartels to write about them, perhaps this is similar to paying for advertisement. Regardless, Mexican authorities have taken upon themselves to make Narcocorridos music illegal in certain parts of the country.

    This brings up obvious concerns of freedom of speech, but the immediate concern is to limit the distribution of the music. Promotion of the genre has been limited in Chihuaha, with any violators facing fines or jail time. Chihuahua is one of several states that is currently facing restrictions in Anti-Corrido legislation. Prohibition of free speech is a problem throughout the world, but this one seems to be in its own category. One of Mexico's biggest problems is drug-cartel-related-violence, and when shootings happen at concerts it's not just the performers whose lives re in danger. Maybe in this case, free speech can be too much of a good thing.

Cartels Target Narco Corridos Singers

 

  Norteno Corridos is a popular genre of music in Mexico. This folk-like poetic music has a history of telling stories and ballads. As drug cartels have come to power in Mexico, an offshoot genre has been created and is known as Narcocorridos; the music still tells stories and ballads, but the music is about the cartels themselves. Narcocorridos's lyrics glorify the drug cartels and their illegal activities, which often take deadly turns. 

    Rogelio Brambila Lizárraga, 22-year old member of a Narcocorridos group known as Los Plebes de Arranke (Above) was found dead in the driver side of a car in March, the victim of gunfire from at least two firearms. Javier Rosas, another narcocorridos singer is in critical condition after being shot six times during another incident in which he found himself under fire from an AK-47.

    The cartels and corridos seem to work together with one another, albeit in a very deadly manner. The songs help as a sort of publicity for drug kingpins, telling of which cartels are the most dangerous and what horrific exploits they're known for; the narcocorridos singers use a traditional Mexican art to gain a fan-base, but their gruesome lyrics maintain that popularity. It's a well known rule of entertainment that many have an attraction to the morbid, to violence, to shocking lyrics. As the death toll in narcocorridos/cartel related violence rises, perhaps these entertainers will think twice about the true price of fame.

Journalist threatened by government officials in Veracruz, Mexico

After "journalist Jorge Carrasco was in Veracruz this week reporting on the killing of another Proceso". The Proceso magazine has release a statement; that because of Carrasco investigation in another  Proceso's journalist death, that they have found "reports about a meeting between former officials and government officials, public safety and the Attorney Veracruz whose purpose was to agree hostile actions against the reporter in response to more recent publication Regina around for Martinez, who began circulating across the country on the same Sunday 14." and the intention of the officials might be to "kidnapping and [cause]possible death" to journalist Jorge Carraso. 

The most likely explanation for  the government officials to send threats towards Jorge Carrasco is in  the article he did on which"was critical of Veracruz authorities’ handling of the case of Regina Martinez, the weekly’s correspondent in that state, who was strangled and beaten to death a year ago this month." and how they ended up convicting a junkie for the crime who has "denied guilt, saying he was tortured by Veracruz authorities into making a confession " 

Carrasco's article in detail also "exposed numerous holes in the state’s investigation, including questionable evidence and the failure of Veracruz prosecutors to take into account journalistic work by Martinez that angered many of the state’s powerful. The magazine accused state prosecutors of ignoring justice to instead protect the image of Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte, under whose administration more journalists have been killed or gone missing than anywhere else in Mexico."

Journalists in Mexico are already in danger from kidnapping and death threats from the drug cartels but now to have government officials doing same thing that drugs cartels are doing becomes more problematic. This is a problem when people are in power and they are corrupt, they will do anything to keep their power. Even threatening a journalist that has already exposed their corrupt dealings. While this is good thing that corrupted government  officials find journalists to be threatening to their power, meaning that what journalist's report on  has the power on taking out these corrupt officials. In reality it should be the corrupt officials running for the hills and not the other way around where it the journalists that are doing this.

Twitter and drug violence in Mexico

What happens when news networks stop reporting on certain subjects? Would lifes will be lost? This has been happening in Mexico where "Mexico’s media channels have stopped reporting about drug-related violence in the country because they have been threatened with violence. In response to the lack of news many Mexican’s have started using Twitter as a means to find that lacking news."

 Everyday citizens have picked up the slack on Twitter where they "inform the public about shootings, harassment, murders and arrests,.." To note  as well that those who report about drug related violence on Twitter are in danger of receiving death threats from Mexican Cartels. While they are taking some risks reporting about the drug violence over on Twitter; they're lucky to  "remained anonymous in order to [not have to faced] the [same amount of ] risks... by traditional journalists."

These twitter users are doing good work in that "The tweets acted as a “public service announcement” that warned citizens to stay clear of certain neighborhoods." Although these twitters users shouldn't  be the only ones reporting on the Mexican drug cartel violence. Journalists that know the risks of their jobs being dangerous  at times, should be reporting on the drug violence in there country regardless of the threats they get.   

 

Global Media News Webcast #11: April 25, 2013

Media News from the Mexico and Central America!

 

Global Media News for Thursday, April 25, 2013

 

Global Media News is a weekly webcast covering media news from around the world.  GMN is a production of  Media Studies students from the SUNY College @ Old Westbury. 

This week on Global Media News:   "Media News from Mexico, Venezuela and El Salvador"

• Venezuelan President Maduro's Twitter Account Hacked?
• Are Journalists Disappearing in El Salvador?
• Duck!  Crime Apps Warning Mexicans about Dangerous Places
• Mexican Journalists under Attack?
• Spotify Invades Mexico

Next week on GMN:   Media News from Brazil & South America.

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Online journalist killed in Mexico

Being a journalist in Mexico can be a death sentcnce for many. Especially because most of the news they write, are about corruption and drug trafficking. Jaime Gonzalez Dominguez, an online 
journalist reporter and founder of Ojinaga Noticias was killed on March 3rd, 2013.

Mr. Dominquez was a reporter with Contacto for many years. In 2011 he left Contacto, because of the huge backlash and death threats the press was getting. Mr. Dominguez decided to start an online news portal called, Ojinaga Noticias, by 2012 it was also available in print.  According to guardian.co.uk, Ojinaga Noticias covered many topics in the town of Ojinaga,  Chihuahua such as local politics, sports, education, and also crime.

According to Amnesty.org, journalist in Mexico are being killed left and right, because the charges and conviction against the killer is non-existant if any.

On March 3, 2013 Univision News, reported that the El Siglo de Terreon receieved  three attacks the week before.  Javier Garza Ramos, an editor at the newspaper believes the attack was towards the police officers guarding the newspaper building.

Mexico is known as one of the most dangerous countries for journalist. So when are we going to instill a since of comfort for the news to be published in Mexico. When journalist can feel free to write or say what is going on without fearing for their lives.

 

 

Tweet's turns fatal in Mexico

According to The Global Post, the owner of the accounts for Valor por Tampaulipas on Twitter and Facebook is in danger of being killed. The account is responsible for reporting drug related violence to the media, in Northeast Mexico. The manager of the account shut down the accounts because leaders of local drug cartels had put a hit out for him. The cartels reportedly had offered up too $600,000 pesos ($46,000 USD) for anyone who can supply information leading to the location of the page owner

The Global Post is reporting that the owner of the page said  "The social networks are a battlefield on which the main users have some type of interest or role in this war"

Mexico is a little behind in the social media world. According to Microsoft and Social News Daily, from 2000-2010 the number of online users jumped from 17.2% too 34.9%. The study also said that 34 million persons in Mexico use the internet. 37% are under 18, while 40% are between the ages of 18-34. Microsoft is also reporting that 61%  of internet users in Mexico use it for social networking. The breakdown of it is 39% use Facebook, 38% use Youtube and 20% use Twitter.

 

 

 

Global Media News from Mexico: Our Eleventh Webcast!

Global Media News from Mexico

• The Mexican Media & the Drug War
• Narco Cultura:  Narco Corridos y Narco Novelas
• Televisa, Azteca & Mexican TV:  From Monopoly to Duopoly to  . . . ? 
• Mexico's Telecom Titan: Carlos Slim Helu (He's richer than Bill Gates)

Next Week:

  Media News from Brazil, Venezuala  and South America

• How Free is the Press in Brazil?
• Social Media Brazilian Style:  Tweeting to a Samba Beat?

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