By Juan S. Larrosa-Fuentes (December 9, 2024)
Today, I would like to begin a series of three installments in which I will evaluate Enrique Alfaro’s six-year term in terms of communication.
Communication was a central element of Alfaro’s government, not only during his governorship but also as mayor of Guadalajara and Tlajomulco and even as a legislator. Throughout his career, there has been a significant transformation in the relationship with the media and a shift towards digital communication through various platforms, which was accentuated during his term as governor.
A highlight of his administration was the redistribution of public resources earmarked for communication. Money that previously went to traditional media such as newspapers, radio, and television – through official advertising or other commercial relationships – was channeled to three private companies: EuZen, La Covacha, and Indatcom. These companies managed a large part of his government’s communication, designing strategies, as well as information and propaganda products and distributing them mainly through transnational digital communication companies such as Meta, Alphabet, and X.
This shift had a significant impact on the political economy of local communication. First, it implied outsourcing functions that weakened state government communication offices. What was previously done internally passed into the hands of these private consulting firms, giving them greater freedom to hire suppliers and design strategies and generating greater opacity over the use of public resources.
Secondly, this transfer of economic power to private consulting firms transformed the dynamics of the local media system. Resources stopped flowing to traditional media such as Televisa, TV Azteca, El Informador, and Mural, which economically weakened journalism. This led to the emergence of another front in the process of pauperization of the media system, affecting the production of news content by local companies.
Thirdly, this dynamic made EuZen, La Covacha, and Indatcom become influential political actors. These companies -which initially worked for Alfaro- began to be hired by other state and municipal governments and even participated in political communication strategies at the federal level. They became so influential that, at the end of his term, Alfaro himself criticized them in an interview for the newspaper El País, where he declared that, and I quote: “The groups that manage the communication of Movimiento Ciudadano hijacked the internal life of the part.”
In short, Enrique Alfaro opted to outsource public communication services, privileging digital platforms and weakening political and economic relations with local media. This transformed the political economy of communication in Jalisco, leaving benefits and challenges I will address in the following comments.
This text was originally read on the NTR Radio newscast broadcast on December 9, 2024 and hosted by journalist Sergio René de Dios Corona.