BBI45 post_id=71484 time= user_id=1008 Wrote:Multichannel, Mexico, 3rd March 2022. Activation of the earthquake warning system:
https://youtu.be/afqGdNFSAMw
The user who posted this video has also posted previously similarly focused videos during major earthquakes in Mexico, including the destructive September 19 earthquake in 2017, the 32nd anniversary of the 1985 one. The compilations the user makes are very well informed.
As a Mexican, the earthquake warning system is inferior compared to similar systems in other nations, like Japan. The reason is that Mexico lacks a standardised emergency warning system, like EAS in the USA or Alert Ready in Canada (there have been attempts to implement such a system unsuccessfully, including buying outright the Alert Ready system from Pelmorex); however, most of you might find the “Alerta Sísmica” sounder jarring, it is quite useful for those living in Mexico City, the second most populous city in the Americas (behind São Paulo). The origin of the system harks back to the destructive 1985 earthquake which happened in September 19 that year; the unexpected situation of the earthquake and the lack of previsions about such caused, as well as the late response in the aftermath of the event, the federal government to start looking at a solution to the problem, which led to the implementation of the Alerta Sísmica programme in 1992, consisting of a network of loudspeakers which could alert of any disrupting and/or threatening earthquake in the Mexico City metropolitan area; the government had also made a benchmark to expand the project nationwide to a mixed outcome. Every September 19, there is a nationwide mass test to make people learn and understand how earthquakes can affect them. However, the system is still quite basic compared to the more developed emergency alert systems in other earthquake-sensitive areas.
On a side note, another thing of Mexican TV, alongside the lack of a standardised EAS, is that television newscasts have been long considered a mouthpiece of the government, partly because of a close relationship between broadcasting and the government. During the golden age of the single-party government, newscasts opened with a piece on what the president had been doing that day, followed by reports on government announcements and meetings, commentaries on major economic and policy issues, and the activities of national leaders.
However, with increased competition, particularly the privatisation of former state broadcaster Imevisión as TV Azteca, newscasts have been very tabloid ever since. When TV Azteca launched Hechos, the brainchild of Cuban-born producer Federico Wilkins and Argentinian Alexis Núñez, the newscast, led by Javier Alatorre, became known for its lurid and visually intensive presentation, heavily inspired on that of WSVN’s 7NEWS. Main rival Televisa (long the most dominant broadcast in Mexico and Spanish America) began to pay attention to Hechos, and, after a leadership change (the death of Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, which led the broadcaster during its golden age, both in audiences and in politics), Televisa snapped Wilkins and Núñez, resulting on a carbon copy of the Hechos style for its new news programming.
Thanks to the new style led by both broadcasters, the coverage of the murder of popular presenter Paco Stanley, a successful light entertainment presenter in our country, in 1999, generated high ratings, but also high criticism from left-leaning political circles, accusing them of heavily spectacularising the murder of the well regarded host (who had left Televisa the previous year to join TV Azteca) and being the target of attacks by both broadcasters’ bosses. This led to a massive boycott of advertisers and a drowning in audience figures and credibility. As a result, both broadcasters had to tone down the tone of its newscasts. In recent years, more serious and not so serious broadcasters (mostly on cable) have arrived to the crowded landscape of Mexican TV, but the big problem is the excess of meddling in coverage of sensitive issues in our media landscape.