Mireya Marquez Ramirez
Mireya is a 3rd year PhD student supervised by Professor James Curran. Her project examines the interplay between political transition in Mexico and the resulting transformation (and re-accommodation) of contemporary journalistic culture. The aim is to analyse the contradictions and tensions entangled in the relationship between the press and political system to critically challenge the claims of media opening and the alleged adoption of a watchdog model of journalism in the country. It focuses on the multiple ways newsgathering and sourcing mechanisms, packing and narrative devices, ideological positions, and self-assumed societal roles on the part of journalists continue to serve and sustain the interests of political and economic elites. Ultimately, the PhD explores the culture of media production in comparative perspective, specially the way that doing journalism in Mexico reflects the hybrid, atypical, often cyclical, patterns of change and continuity.
Her research interests include news production and spaces, comparative journalism cultures, political communication and media systems.
Mireya undertook her MA in Journalism Studies in Cardiff University, Wales; and has a BA degree in Social Communication from Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico City. She is currently a Visiting Tutor for the Department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, as well as a part-time research assistant for the project “Spaces of News”, sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust.
Her PhD is being funded by the Mexican Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt), and has received further financial support from other trusts such as FUNED and the Hidalgo Institute for Education Funding (IHFES). In 2003, she was the annual recipient of the BBC-British Council Chevening Scholarship; and in 2004, the winner of the 2004 Academic Excellence Scholarship given by Fundacion Jose S. Healy, in Sonora.
Her journalistic experience of five years includes editorial and managerial positions in a variety of radio, print, online, and television outlets in Mexico City -such as El Economista, Televisa, Radio Mil, as well as significant work experience as a reporter in the BBC World Service in London.
Conference Papers
Presented papers at the German Communication Association conference, Bremen (upcoming, 2009); International Association of Mass Communication Research -IAMCR- Annual Conference, Stockholm (July, 2008); and the Workshop in Media and Communication Studies, Örebro University, Sweden (October, 2007).
Relevant papers given in the UK include the Annual Conference of the Postgraduates for Latin American Studies - PILAS, University of Cambridge (February 2009); the 5th MeCCSA Postgraduate Network Conference, University of Sussex, Brighton (July, 2008); the Postgraduate Media Symposium in the London School of Economics and Political Science (May, 2008) and the 6th Symposium of Mexican Studies, Imperial College (June, 2008).
Publications
'Paradojas del Periodismo Electronico', en Revista Mexicana de Comunicacion, Num. 101, Octubre - Noviembre 2006