Human Rights, Scandal, and the Press: The Symbolic.

How does the concept of human rights become part of the public discourse of a nation? In this book, the author argues that the role of the print media ?and more specifically, the symbolic work of media scandals? is a pivotal yet underestimated aspect to explain the rise and consolidation of human rights as a public discourse. This book relates the case of Mexico to demonstrate this importance. Mexico?s political system has taken major steps toward the achievement of democracy, namely the rise of more independent media. Based on three human rights scandals between 1978 and 1996, and using text interpretation, this study analyzes the news articles related to each crisis in different mainstream newspapers. The book concludes that despite other significant explanations, the symbolic frameworks that emerged in the course of each of these critical events, forged by an increasingly independent press, were key in the rise and consolidation of human rights as a discourse in Mexico?s public sphere, which in turn shows the significance of symbolization and its eventual social effects.

Luis Escala-Rabadán is a sociologist who completed his graduate studies at the University of California in Los Angeles. He is currently on the research faculty of the Department of Social Studies at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana, Mexico.