The Social Impacts of Televised Media among the Yucatec Maya

The development of the Yucatan region has brought a wide range of new issues and pressures to indigenous Maya communities. Many of these are transmitted through the discourse of televised media, which is becoming increasingly popular among the rural Maya. Televised programming depicts an array of values, social roles, and behavior patterns that are in direct contrast to Yucatec Mayan culture. As exposure to the media and its urban orientation becomes more accessible, and contact between national and local cultures through the televised media increases, members of the Yucatec Mayan community of Yalcoba are rapidly renegotiating their senses of self and community. The tensions and contradictions that result from the political economy of television viewing are highly evident in how people talk about their consumption of televised media, as well as in emerging contrasts regarding language, social role performance, and household economy.