The News Media in Puerto Rico: Journalism in Colonial Settings and in Times of Crises

The News Media in Puerto Rico offers a synopsis as well as a critical analysis of the Island’s news media system, with emphasis on the political and economic factors that most influence how the media operate.

The authors also document the impact of Hurricane Maria on the media structures and the changing media landscape given the political, economic and colonial strictures. Building on interviews with news media professionals, the book further presents detailed insights about journalism and journalism education in these times of crises. The final chapters include theoretical frameworks and methodological guidelines for the analysis of other colonial, post-colonial and neo-colonial media systems, with research recommendations valuable for future studies of the Island’s media as well as for cross-national comparisons.

This book will be an essential read for students and scholars interested in learning not only about the Puerto Rican and Latin American mass media, but also the media systems of other colonial/neo-colonial countries.

Federico Subervi-Vélez is Honorary Associate/Fellow of the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Co-Editor-in-Chief, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Communication. The research for this book was developed while he was Visiting Leverhulme Professor at the School of Media & Communication at the University of Leeds in 2018.

Sandra Rodríguez-Cotto is an investigative journalist, licensed Public Relations professional, author, and publishes regularly in her blog En Blanco y Negro con Sandra, in which she often writes about the media in Puerto Rico

Jairo Lugo-Ocando is a Professor in Residence and Director of Executive and Graduate Education at Northwestern University in Qatar. He is author of several books and publication focused on the media in Latin America and was a practicing journalist before going into the academia.