With many of Mexico's conventional news outlets no longer willing to risk reporting on the Mexico's ongoing drug wars, a growing number of Mexicans in this country's northern cities are turning to Internet tools to keep abreast of the conflict raging around them.

They post on Twitter and then retweet what others have posted. They turn to Facebook for news through status updates and links to other sites. Increasingly, they follow crime blogs that specialize in news about narco violence. Some blogs have become popular enough they carry advertising.

The narco blog has broken some major stories, including a video where a prison warden exposed her alleged system for setting inmates free at night to carry out murders for a drug gang. Security forces arrested the warden after the blog published the video.

Yesterday, around 08:00 am, a woman executed was found in the Mexican Novel colony belonging to Ecatepec, Mexico State. Authorities were present at the scene after receiving calls from residents of the street Walls Water. She has not managed to be identified, was about 25 years old, wearing patterned shirt, blue jeans and was barefoot .

The criminals were traveling in at least five trucks and attacked the soldiers through the streets of Colonia Las Margaritas Plaza Area Path. Heavy explosions caused panic among the people that were in place, all ran for cover from bullets, no doubt terrifying moments which they lived. As the balance of the confrontation three gunmen were killed and two policemen were killed.

In a message posted on the blog, a purported spokesman for the Gulf cartel blamed soldiers linked to the Zetas - a gang comprised of former military operatives who once provided security and muscle for the Gulf cartel - for the shootings. "We don’t brag about being brave," said a member of the Gulf Cartel in a separate posting aimed at Heriberto Lazcano, an alleged Zetas leader. "You are the ones who brag [that] roosters are tested [by] fighting, not speaking."

Think of the blog as a 19th century French salon where hit men, bandits, dealers - and the people affected by their violence – congregate to discuss ideas and actions. It is Mexico’s deadly version of "he said, she said". But since other media sources don't usually quote cartel members, citizens seem interested in what the digital hit men are saying.

But that raw methodology has many critics. "The narco blog is available to anyone, even my grandchildren," professor Vargas told Al Jazeera. "It has definitely crossed the line. I don’t know what else you can do that is more graphic. There is plenty of research showing that prolonged exposure to violence de-sensitises people."

The Mexican Foundation of Investigative Journalism, an advocacy group, conducted a six-month study in 2010 that found that in some of Mexico's most violent states, local media report as few as 5 percent of the crimes that occur. That's opened the field for a handful of blogs that have emerged in the past 18 months to chronicle Mexico's drug war. The blogs routinely post videos and photos that to some seem to glorify the grisly acts of gangs and show their prowess at killing.

They have agreed, for example, not to publish gruesome images, such as the photos and film of beheaded bodies that are commonly published and broadcast at present. Both newspapers and broadcasters have also agreed not to glorify drug traffickers, saying they will refuse to publish any drug cartel propaganda. Drug barons will not be portrayed as either "victims or heroes".

More than 40 media groups, which between them own over 700 TV networks, radio stations and newspapers, have signed the agreement. However, some important newspapers and news magazines - including Reforma, La Jornada and Proceso - did not sign up in the belief that it could lead to restrictions on press freedom. Journalist Genaro Villamil of Proceso said it "opened the door to a form of prior censorship."

Most media executives who signed the pact believe it will aid the reporting of drug crime, and also assist the government in getting to grips with the powerful drug cartels. In a joint statement, they said: "The power of organised crime to corrupt and intimidate has become a threat to the institutions and practices that sustain our democracy. Today, freedom of expression is at risk".

Among the agreement's principal goals: the press must not be used by organized crime to generate terror among the public, and it must not become a propaganda tool for criminals. Addressing a major gap in Mexican newsrooms, it also sets protocols for what to do when a journalist is in danger.

The agreement also calls for something that news organizations in the most dangerous parts of Mexico almost never do: Cover crime news in their proper context. In these parts of the country if crime is covered at all, only the barest of details are made public: a body found, maybe a name or the make of a car at the scene. There is almost never anything that would let the public understand how the crime is part of a pattern committed by a group involved in other criminal activities

Mexico has become one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists: Between 2005 and 2010 at least 66 reporters were killed, with 12 more disappeared, according to a report by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). There have only been convictions in 10 per cent of the cases.

Reporters Without Borders (PWB) concluded that Mexico was one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the press. The “extreme violence” related to illegal drug trafficking has had a “major impact on reporting” in Mexico according to PWB.