Professional Affiliation

Independent journalist and editor

Expert Bio

Boris Muñoz is a Venezuelan-American journalist. He has been published in several magazines and newspapers in the United States, Latin America, Venezuela, and Europe, including The New York Times, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Gatopardo, El Malpensante, and Internazionale. In 2016, he founded The New York Times en Español's opinion page and served as a senior staff editor for Latin America on the English op-ed page. He is the author of the books La Ley de la Calle: testimonios de jóvenes protagonistas de la violencia en Caracas, 1995; Tan iguales tan diferentes, 2004, and Despachos del Imperio, 2007. A number of anthologies of Latin American journalism have featured his chronicles and profiles. Muñoz has received multiple awards, including the Maria Moors Cabot Award from Columbia University in 2019, the Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University in 2009, and the 1st Accessit for Fernando Lázaro Carreter Award in Madrid in 1999. The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars appointed him Public Policy Fellow for its Latin American Program. During this time, he conducted the study, “The State of Opinion Journalism in Latin America,” with support from Luminate. He earned a Ph.D. in Hispanic American literature at Rutgers University.

 

Wilson Center Project

The State of Opinion in Latin America

Project Summary

Since the late 90s, Latin American journalism has developed its own special aptitude for investigating corruption. As a result, it has exposed truths suppressed by governments and other forces using digital media. Lava Jato, the Panama Papers, and, more recently, the Pandora Papers, are all evidence of that expertise. Nevertheless, Latin American opinion journalism lags behind in traditional media and in digital space. It tends to stick to old-fashioned dogmatic models that don't argue a position, to express partisan views with no diversity, and to emphasize inward-looking perspectives. Latin American opinion journalism needs to be examined closely to determine the extent of the gap between it and quality journalism, and to seek ways of closing that gap. This will be the aim of part of my research at the Wilson Center. I will examine Latin American opinion-making from a historical and cultural perspective and with regard to democratic institution-building. I will inventory effective or emerging Latin American opinion journalism in digital media in order to capture new theories, practices and innovations in opinion journalism. Finally, I will look at the ways opinion is addressed in journalism education.

Major Publications

• https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/23/opinion/hola-president-biden-latin-america-has-a-message-for-you.html
• https://www.nytimes.com/es/2021/01/20/espanol/opinion/biden-investidura.html
• https://www.revistadelauniversidad.mx/articles/d0f6d8fa-9368-4b3b-9330-7ba019150dc1/entrevista-con-noam-chomsky