Collection of the Cartoons for Analysis

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Chapter 3 Method

This study utilizes a qualitative content analysis to answer the research questions. It is intended to identify the main frames and symbols through which to understand the U.S.-Mexico border wall issue as portrayed in editorial cartoons from both countries.

3.1 Collection of the Cartoons for Analysis

Content analysis has been developed as “the major systematic and empirical method for analysing visual material” (Ball and Smith 1992: 20). This research employs the same operational definition as Edwards (2001) used for a political cartoon: “Visual/verbal non-narrative commentary, typically in single-panel form created by a staff member or a newspaper or appearing originally on the editorial pages of a newspaper” (p.2149). A border wall structure may vary in materials and placement with regard to international borders or topography.

However, a wall serves as a kind of separation barrier built to limit the movement of people across a certain frontier or to separate two populations. The editorial cartoon is daily published in newspapers and acts as a means of expression through the use of humor, irony or satire containing a political or social message to point, critic or disagree with a current event or personality.

The sample consists of one-frame political cartoons published from 2003 to 2008 based in major dailies from Mexico and The United States of America. This time period was selected to coincide with the approval of the Security Fence Act of 2006 which authorizes the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security to construct “the infrastructure necessary to deter and prevent

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illegal entry on our Southwest Border, including pedestrian and vehicle fencing, roads and technology” (U.S. DHS, 2010); dividing the U.S.-Mexico border with a wall running from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

The cartoon examination was realized in Taipei, Taiwan, from August to December, 2008 thru the use of English keywords such as “U.S.-Mexico border fence, separation barrier, security fence, border wall, walled border” and their equivalent in Spanish “U.S.-Mexico muro fronterizo, muro divisorio, frontera, muralla, barrera, valla” in Internet search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, bing and diverse cartoon databases since they were not readily available physically or accessible in libraries and other research depositories. Among these, all categories of the following were searched: cartoonweb.com, cartoons.nytimages.com, caglecartoons.com, cartoonstock.com, politicalcartoons.com, amureprints.com and editorialcartoons.net. This time period was selected because the tensions at the U.S.-Mexico border were heightening when a Border Patrol agent was the first to be tried for murder since 1994, raising huge controversy.

Arizona’s Border Patrol Nicholas Corbett’s defense portrayed the death of the 22-year-old Mexican migrant Javier Domínguez Rivera as a case of self-defense by the 40-year-old agent when he said the migrant tried to throw a rock on him. But the prosecution told a different story, because it revealed that while surrendering, the young man went down on his knees, put his hands in the air, and then he was shot from behind. Corbett had a history of domestic violence, assault on a civilian in Pennsylvania and a professed hatred of Latinos and even the eyewitnesses’ statements which were consistent with the autopsy, ballistics and forensics didn’t match with Corbett’s story, he had two trials but each ended in with the jury unable to decide, so both judges declared mistrials. From 2006 to 2008 U.S. Border Patrol agents killed 12 people but Corbett’s trial incensed again bitter national debates about immigration policies and his trial case was a political lightning rod in the United States (Nathan, 2008).

In total, 154 editorial cartoons depicting the U.S.-Mexico border wall were first selected.

However, 51 of them were published in foreign countries such as Austria, China, France, Philippines, Israel, Panama, Ireland, India, Brazil, Cuba and Canada. But since this thesis intends to analyze the cartoons published only by the two main actors in the American-Mexican border

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wall construction, they were eliminated as they did not entirely correspond to the sample required for this study. As a result, 69 Mexican and 34 American cartoons were used for analysis.

In view of the fact that the search process for the cartoons was realized thru the use of Internet search engines and databases, the scope of this research is limited to the availability of the samples published in major Mexican dailies such as El Universal [Universal], Milenio [Millennium], La Jornada [The Day], El Norte [The North], El Imparcial [The Impartial] and foremost American newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Denver Post and The St. Louis Post Dispatch.

The cartoons chosen for analysis are from the dailies of impact in their respective country.

El Universal is considered the most influential and widely read newspaper in the country. During the 1980’s El Universal fought to end the governmental monopoly on newsprint. In 2001 it initiated its online version which offers free access to all content and is ranked the second most visited news site in Mexico with an average of more than 3 million unique visitors each month.

The circulation of its print edition counts more than 300,000 copies and reaches from middle class to urban educated people. La Jornada is Mexico’s leading left-wing newspaper read by elites. It has some of the country’s best political cartoonists, publishes more readers’ letters than most, and includes high quality coverage in its arts and provinces sections.It was described by the American linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky as “the one independent newspaper in the whole hemisphere” (French-Monge, 2010). It has a circulation of 107,291 copies and its website has approximately 180,000 daily pageviews. Milenio is a major conservative national newspaper published in eleven main cities across the country. It has a circulation of 103,000 copies and its readership is composed from middle to upper level class. Milenio online offers free access to its constantly updated information and also links the visitor to Milenio TV and radio, registering 1.5 million monthly visitors. The 3 newspapers mentioned are based in Mexico City and distributed in all the country.

In contrast with Mexico City where the newspapers’ readership can choose among more than 24 dailies, the situation outside the capital is very different because diversity has been replaced by virtual local monopolies (Sarmiento, 2005: 289). Such are the cases of El Norte and

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El Imparcial based in the states of Nuevo Leon and Sonora, respectively. Although they face some competitors, these single newspapers have almost total dominance in North Mexico (ibid, 290). For instance, El Norte is the leading newspaper in Mexico’s third largest city, following the independent journalism model it remains one of the newspapers with the most credibility. It has a circulation of 142,561 dailies and its Internet site currently requires a paid subscription for access. El Imparcial ranks in the first position in the Mexican Northwest and has an edition of 21, 426 copies. Both are local dailies, however, they occupy the first and the second largest penetration between national newspapers, respectively. Since both newspapers are based in states bordering the U.S., they are being directly affected by the construction of the American Security fence. Therefore, the national but also the regional Northern Mexican perspectives as portrayed in these newspapers’ cartoons are being included for analysis.

Besides, the American dailies also render diversity to the samples. In one hand, The New York Times and The Washington Post are the third and fifth largest newspapers in the United States in terms of circulation with 1’097,000 copies and 762,000, respectively. The New York Times is considered the most influential newspaper which sets a standard for quality journalism unparalleled throughout the country with daily readership of about 5 million people. Known for its general reporting and international coverage, its website receive more than 18 million unique visitors per month. The Washington Post has a particular emphasis on national politics, is America’s capital largest and oldest newspaper with an average weekday circulation of 582,844 dailies. In addition to the wide range of American audience these two papers reach, the provincial perspective is also considered for the cartoons analysis through The St. Louis Post Dispatch, a large metropolitan newspaper famous because after his acquisition by Joseph Pulitzer became a model of crusading urban newspaper to attack political corruption, wealth, and privilege, is also one of the largest newspapers in the American Midwest with a circulation of 255,057 reproductions. Finally, The Denver Post is the sole major newspaper and Internet website published in Denver, Colorado with an average weekday circulation of 255,452 exemplars and more than two million visitors each month on its online version. Both dailies rank

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in the top 50 largest-circulation newspapers in the U.S., occupying the 29 and 12 places, respectively.

The different sources of the cartoons sampled suggest that the present research has a comprehensive universe of the border wall cartoons for analysis. However, to clarify both nations’ newspapers’ visions, interests and concerns as portrayed in their political cartoons is necessary to come across briefly in the most significant characteristics and development of the press systems in the two countries.