Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-250) and index.
Contents:
Prologue -- Introduction: Trafficking, Publicness, and Violence -- 1. Prelude to Two Wars -- 2. Almost Failing. Violence, Space and Discourse -- 3. Censoring Narcoculture. Mexican Republicanism and Publicity -- 4. Narcocorridos in the USA. Deterritorialization and the Business of Authenticity -- 5. Bloody Blogs. Publicity and Opacity -- 6. Trust. The Burden of Civics -- Conclusion. Publicity's Contingent Insularity -- Notes -- References -- Index.
Summary:
"TRAFFICKING surveys the public culture that has arisen around criminal drug violence in Mexico and the U.S. over the past few decades. Drawing on an extensive cultural archive, Hector Amaya shows how the violence of drug trafficking becomes visible and audible through media and communication technologies-including newspapers, television, music, blogs, and other forms of public engagement-and how those technologies reflect the temporal and spatial displacements that characterize the transnational drug trade. Drug violence is both a site of public debate about the role of the state in maintaining democratic order, and a site of publicity, where that violence is mediated, commercialized, and used to reinforce racial and colonial orders. By considering the "narcoculture" that surrounds this violence, Amaya seeks to highlight the ways that publicity has underpinned forms of state violence, often in the name of democracy. The book begins with a chapter on the Mexican government's 2006-2007 war on drug criminal organizations and the centrality of publicity efforts-both on the part of the government and by the cartels-to how this war was waged and how the media covered it. Amaya then turns to the popularity of narcocorridos, songs or ballads that narrate drug trafficking and violence, as a mode of criticizing the state. He shows how digital recording and distribution have altered the circulation and censorship of narcoculture, offering a space for a political counterdiscourse that travels across borders. The last two chapters focus on the role of citizen journalism in bringing to light the violent realities of the drug trade, and particularly how blogs (often anonymously written) and other online news media have transformed public discourse about who gets to tell the story of drug violence and how audiences consume and respond to those stories. Amaya focuses on one controversial and highly trafficked blog, El Blog del Narco, to consider how the author's reporting gets framed as a heroic form of public duty, but also how authorial anonymity usefully challenges conventional notions of civic discourse and public trust. This timely book will be appeal to scholars in media studies, communications, cultural studies, and Latinx studies, as well as to readers interested in the role drug violence plays in U.S. and Mexican politics and culture"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.