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By now most of you know that at about 10:00 am this morning the city will officially announce Joyce Wilson’s resignation. The news broke late in the afternoon yesterday. I know some of you are curious, as I am, as to how information flows out of the city and into the community’s consciousness. Although not all news flows out the same way studying how Joyce’s resignation became public should allow us an opportunity to begin to understand how information is currently managed or attempted to be managed by the city and how the local media reports it.

This is an exercise in understanding information flows and is based on limited information and analysis of various informational outlets. I’ve created a timeline based on information that I am aware of. Please feel free to fill in the blanks in the comments section below. All times are in the El Paso time zone and are approximate.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

5:00 pm:

City hall is informed about Joyce Wilson’s letter of resignation at about 5:30 in the afternoon.

6:00pm:

Karla Guevara Walton of the Diario de Juárez attempts to get quotes from sources at the city but is rebuffed by Joyce Wilson and other city officials. [Note: I have not spoken to Karla; I derived this information from various sources who shared this with me.]

Karla Guevara Walton tweets on her feed that Joyce Wilson had turned in her letter of resignation at 6:29.

7:00pm:

I tweet that Joyce Wilson submitted a letter of resignation via my Twitter feed a little before 7:00 pm (6:50). I had confirmed the rumor via two independent sources. Through my blog’s Facebook page, I add that a press conference will be held, today making the resignation official.

Benjamin Zamora of KTSM tweets at 7:12 that “local newspaper reports” that Joyce Wilson is resigning. Zamora follows with another tweet that “sources at EP City council confirmed” that Wilson had resigned.

KTSM News reports on their website and tweets the news about the resignation at 7:45pm.

8:00pm:

Jaime O. Perez posts on his blog the news and includes the date of September 2014 as her departure from city service. Perez quotes city representative Eddie Holguin and comments on city representative Lily Limon’s recent actions in seeking the departure of Wilson.

A Twitter feed under the name of Tatiana Judith tweets through the KVIA breaking news Twitter feed that “2 city reps” confirmed the resignation at 8:44.

KVIA’s María García’s tweets that “City Rep. Eddie Holguin confirms City Manager Joyce Wilson” turned in her resignation at 8:49pm.

9:00pm:

The El Paso Times posts on their Twitter feed that “El Paso City Manager Joyce Wilson files resignation letter” at 9:57.

I am sharing this timeline with you today because the local news media is quick to pat themselves on the back proclaiming that they were the first to break important news to the community. They will dismiss the Spanish media as unimportant and treat online sources as pariahs while using the information bloggers post for their news sources.

Keep this time handy for when the El Paso Times or KVIA proclaims they were the first to break the news.

Martin Paredes

Martín Paredes is a Mexican immigrant who built his business on the U.S.-Mexican border. As an immigrant, Martín brings the perspective of someone who sees México as a native through the experience...

3 replies on “Timeline of the Joyce Wilson Information Flow”

  1. What! I’m shocked I tell you, I’m shocked that the locals didn’t break the news first. Ha! You’re too much Martin.

  2. Oh this is rich! Reporters have to gather facts before posting news. They don’t write gossip like you.

  3. Martin – tune into my blog tomorrow where I have the answer as to how the media found out and who is really running things when it comes to council.

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