NEW MEDIA IN MEXICO: A RISING FORCE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MONTERREY 000947 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPAO TINT SOCI ECON MX SUBJECT: NEW MEDIA IN MEXICO: A RISING FORCE MONTERREY 00000947 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. SUMMARY: Since the introduction of the internet in Mexico in 1992, internet usage has grown exponentially among government, business and private individuals. While poverty, lack of education and regional insufficiencies in telecommunications infrastructure inhibit internet use, more and more Mexicans - especially educated, middle-class young adults -- are using e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, web cams, blogs and social networking. Internet journalism is growing in Mexico also -- in the future, engagement with new media will be an important aspect of public diplomacy in Mexico. Mission Mexico will report on the Mission's new media outreach efforts septel. END SUMMARY. -------------- BEGINNINGS OF THE INTERNET IN MEXICO -------------- ¶2. In 1992, the internet was first introduced in Mexico by MEXNET A.C. In the following years, MEXNET began developing its internet services and in 1994 launched an experimental home page. MEXNET was a university-based organization with the participation of, among others, the University of Guadalajara, the University of the Americas, the Technological Institute of Mexicali, and the Technological Institute of Monterrey. Its primary focus was to establish a national internet network, and to create a culture of internet use. As was the case in the U.S., engineering departments were the first to adopt the internet in Mexican universities. Social sciences and humanities took much longer. -------------- GOVERNMENT ACTIVE ON INTERNET -------------- ¶3. Generally, public-sector internet initiatives were slow to develop in the 1990's, but government use of the internet has progressed considerably since then. According to data compiled by the Mexican National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics (INEGI),as of 2000, 94 percent of central government agencies and 75 percent of state agencies were using the internet to provide services and information to the public. Since 2001, dot.gov.mx domain registrations have grown an average of 25.5 percent per year and now number over 180,000. ¶4. Now, the national government and most state and local governments have caught up, and in some ways even surpassed, the business and university sectors. Every Mexican state has a web site and many have multiple web sites representing different state government agencies. For instance, in the off-the beaten path state of Zacatecas, it is possible to request vital records (birth, marriage, and death certificates) via the web. Indeed, virtually every major Mexican city government has a web site, as do a large number of smaller cities and towns. The Mexican government is now also working to broaden public computer and internet access by setting up "digital community centers" in cities and towns throughout the country. The Mexican government initiated the e-Mexico project in 2001, with the goal of linking 10,000 communities to the internet by 2006. According to the e-Mexico web site, there were about 7,200 digital community centers throughout the nation as of 2005. -------------- PRIVATE INTERNET USE VARIED, GROWING -------------- ¶5. In Mexico, netizens or cybercitizens spend an average of about two-and-a-half hours a day navigating the internet. Most netizens are middle-class or upper-class young adults who have a college or post-graduate degree. Mexico's Federal Telecommunications Commission estimates there were about 14 million internet users (13.2 percent of Mexico's population) as of 2004. The International Telecommunication Union estimates that in 2006, there were 16.9 internet users per 100 inhabitants. This compares to 15.21 for Venezuela, 14.49 for Colombia, 25.23 for Chile and 22.55 for Brazil. Political, economic and cultural information (as well as sports and entertainment) are the most sought-after types of information on the internet in Mexico. In addition to e-mail and internet navigation, Mexican netizens use technologies such as chat rooms, instant messaging, and web cams. Also, many Mexican internet users have enough of a basic grasp of English to use technologies and software not yet translated into Spanish. While trends such as blogging and social networking are not as developed as in the United States, they are taking hold in Mexico. The Mexican blog directory site, "Blogs Mexico," lists 2,887 Mexican web logs, an increase from 436 about a year ago. ¶6. Most Mexican home internet users access the internet through a dial-up modem to a local ISP, but broadband services are expanding throughout most of the country. One of the principal barriers to broadband expansion is its cost - USD 35.10 per MONTERREY 00000947 002.2 OF 002 month for mid-range broadband access, plus a USD 57.80 subscriber charge and a USD 50.30 installation fee - a figure beyond the reach of many working-class households. The number of users who access the internet from home - a key indicator of overall internet development - is still quite small and growth in home internet use (19 percent from 2000-2004) is slower than in any other category. (The overall user growth rate from 2000-2004 was 24 percent.) In 2000, slightly more than half of all Mexican internet users accessed the internet from home; in 2004, it was only 39 percent. According to Mexico's Federal Telecommunications Commission (COFETEL),about 5.5 million Mexicans access the internet from home. This amounts to slightly more than five percent of Mexico's total population. -------------- TECHNOLOGY, INCOME GAPS = LESS INTERNET -------------- ¶7. Another factor affecting internet use is the huge technology gap within Mexico. For example, the industrially developed state of Nuevo Leon has more than six times the bandwidth and infrastructure of the state of Chiapas, and Baja California has more than four times Chiapas' bandwidth and infrastructure. ¶8. Poverty also inhibits internet access for millions of Mexicans. Data collected by the consulting firm Select Mexico (2004) show a wide disparity in internet use that corresponds to income disparities. The analysis divides Mexico's populace into three income classes. The bottom third consists of about 73 percent of the Mexican population. Select found that only about 17 percent of this group uses the internet. By contrast, Select found that 46 percent of the upper income group, a group which makes up about 13 percent of the total population, uses the internet. -------------- INTERNET JOURNALISM HAS ARRIVED -------------- ¶9. Internet journalism in Mexico, while not as widespread as in countries such as South Korea, Japan and the U.S., is growing. The increase in online journalism has been a response to the perceived need to disseminate information more quickly than can be done with traditional media. To date, there exist more than 157 online newspapers, 21 online radio stations, and 10 online television channels in Mexico. The internet is currently the most studied of all media by Mexican researchers, (followed by TV). Some of the specific analyses on the changes that the .com revolution has brought about to journalism focus on the transformation of the professional journalist profile: now, more than ever, professional journalists have to be technologically adept, and internet savvy. ¶10. COMMENT: Our research and observations indicate that Mexico occupies the middle tier in terms of level of use of information technology. While many of the poor and those in isolated regions do not have internet access, Mexico continues to develop its information technology infrastructure. The number of home internet users is significant and growing, and increasing numbers of businesses and organizations have a presence on the web. Perhaps the most surprising change is how the Mexican government is using the web to make itself more accessible and transparent. In a nutshell, more and more people are getting their information from the web, and more and more institutions are offering information on the web. In this environment, we can only expect that internet journalism will also continue to grow. As that happens, our public diplomacy efforts here will have to include an ever greater emphasis on engaging and monitoring the new media. END COMMENT. WILLIAMSON