Coronado Rincón

National security is associated with such a degree of violence that even the media must minimise or maximise it, depending on their interests, in order to influence public opinion and the political agenda. Agenda Setting Theory (AST) has explained the media’s bias towards national security facts and policies of the state. Given that homicides are the main indicator of violence in Mexico, the present paper focused on discussing the asymmetrical relationship between the state, the media and the citizenry. To this end, the forms and regimes of government are reviewed as the cause of the level of violence in the country. Subsequently, the relevance of violence is explained with reference to the media and its media function. The discussion of coercive and persuasive socio-political power facilitated a two-stage methodological approach to OER.