Project Week - NSA leaks reports that US had been hacking into Mexico's ex-president's email account

I have decided to focus on the allegations from a German magazine, which published a leaked document from NSA contractor Edward Snowden that suggested that the US had been hacking into Mexico’s ex-president’s public email account during his time in office.

I have chosen two news articles from the Guardian and the Daily Mail to illustrate the point of how the political beliefs of a particular news source can offer a different slant or perspective of a given news controversy.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/21/mexico-condemns-us-nsa-hacking-presidents-emails

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2469490/NOT-eyes-NSA-exploited-mail-server-SPIED-Mexican-presidents-email-account-FOR-YEARS.html

The Daily Mail openly expresses a more biased, negative and disgraced perspective of the alleged findings, which can be out rightly witnessed in the headline: ‘Not for your eyes only! NSA 'exploited' mail server, spied on Mexican president's email account for years’.  The headline states the allegations as fact and paraphrases the word ‘exploited’ to construct the Daily Mail’s own negative opinions of the story.

The Guardian’s news article of the story, however, seems more unbiased, and less focused on sensationalising the allegations. The article seems to focus more on Mexico’s outrage than using this as a way to enhance the news source’s own contempt for the allegations, as can be seen in the Daily Mail’s article. This is demonstrated in the use of relevant sources, including the ministry’s statement that ‘this practice is unacceptable, illegal and against Mexican and international law".

To summarise, the Guardian’s article seemed to give me a broader appreciation of the controversy, by stating how this scandal could affect US and Mexico’s ties and their attempt to “improve co-operation on cross-border security, migration and fighting organised crime”. This helped me to place this story in a bigger political context, which the Daily Mail failed to do with its sensationalising of the allegations and ham fisted approach to presenting an unbiased construction of the events.

Jonathan Hawes