Synthesizing the Indexing and Propaganda Models: An Evaluation of US News Coverage of the Uprising in Ecuador, January 2000

Abstract

This is a study of US-based print media coverage of the indigenous-led uprising in Ecuador which occurred in January 2000. As a result of having mobilized tens of thousands of Ecuadorans, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador managed to peacefully force the resignation of a President who had presided over one of the worst recessions in Ecuador's modern history. Nevertheless, most US news dailies covered the affair as if it was purely a military coup and a threat to democracy, in spite of the existence of hundreds of citizen-led, participatory governing councils (called the “People's Parliament,” by Ecuadorans). Previous scholarship on media performance in relation to US foreign policy has proven in a variety of cases to serve as a useful analytical tool and predictive device. This article evaluates the extent that the propaganda model by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, as well as the indexing model by W. Lance Bennett, are instructive in the case of the news media performance of US which covered the uprising in Ecuador.