THE EVOLUTION OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN MEXICO: From a delayed beginning to the consolidation of cyberspace

The evolution of political communication in Mexico constitutes both a remarkable and atypical case study in Latin America. It is important to emphasize that political communication in Mexico began relatively late in comparison to other countries in the region. This is due to the political system that prevailed, during most of the 20th century. It was characterized by the absence of authentic electoral competition, in part due to the prevalence of a hegemonic regime. Until the 1990s, the first transitions of power began to take place at the regional level, in a process that led to the triumph of Vicente Fox in 2000. In this process, the different political forces began to resort to political and electoral marketing tactics to differentiate themselves in elections from their competitors. It is because of this transition that a powerful and competitive sector grew. Television attained an indispensable role in the presidential successions of 2000, 2006, and in the election of 2012, where media power was one of the central themes of that campaign. Since the rise of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, both the communication strategies of sectors related to the federal government, as well as of opposition groups, are based on content that is disseminated digitally. This chapter intends to not only be an account of the last 25 years of Mexican political communication history, but also aims to argue that the case of Mexico is paradigmatic within the IberoAmerican context.