Ignorance Still Persists About Latinos
Joseph Torres

The figures are staggering. Latinos now comprise one of every seven U.S. residents, or 14 percent of the population, according to a recent U.S. Census report. In addition, Latinos accounted for nearly half of the nation’s population growth between July of 2003 and 2004. From 1990 to 2004 the Latino population doubled from 22 million to 44 million.

And by 2050, people of color will make up half of the U.S. population.

As our nation celebrates its birthday on this Fourth of July weekend, it is undergoing a historic demographic shift. Yet, despite these changes, the country knows surprisingly little about the Latino community.

A major reason is that the news media have failed to cover one of the biggest stories of our time. Each new Census report should serve as a wake-up call. But for most it hasn’t. Instead, the news media continue to fail to integrate the perspectives of Latinos in their coverage, particularly on the network evening news.

A recent report by my organization, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, further illustrates this point. During its convention in Fort Worth June 15-18, NAHJ released its 10th annual Network Brownout Report that found that out of an estimated 16,000 stories that aired on ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN evening newscasts in 2004, only 115 stories, or 0.7, were about Latinos. Of the 548 hours of news the networks aired, only 3 hours and 25 minutes, or 0.6 percent, were devoted to Latinos.

In addition, the report found that out of an estimated 140,000 stories the networks have aired since 1995, only 1,201, or 0.85 percent, were about Latinos.

The public has learned little about Latinos by watching the network news. It is unlikely they would have seen a Latino-related story during any given week in 2004. And when they did, the coverage often portrayed Latinos as problem people living on the fringes of U.S. society.

Immigration, particularly undocumented immigration, has come to define the networks’ coverage of Latinos. More than a third of all stories were devoted to this topic. Most featured images of immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. Coverage of immigration has change since the September 11 attacks. Stories prior to Sept. 11 focused on the burden of undocumented immigration on U.S. society. These stories now focused on the alleged national security threat posed by undocumented immigration.

The public has also learned very little about issues concerning Latino voters. Even though 2004 was a presidential election year, the number of stories about Latinos and politics actually decreased from 2003 (12 to 10). Coverage of the presidential candidates campaigning for the Latino vote was superficial. These stories focused on the candidates’ strategy to attract Latino voters, including whether their position on immigration would garner more votes. Additionally, language was another critical focus. Each story showed the candidates’ awkward attempt to speak Spanish. The correspondents peppered their reports with a word or two in Spanish for added emphasis. One reporter made a non sequitor that Sen. John Kerry would have to learn how to dance “mariachi” to attract more Latino voters.

The dearth of Latinos working at the major news networks is a principal reason why NAHJ believes there continues to be a virtual absence of coverage of Latinos on the evening news. NAHJ is not aware of how many Latino journalists work at the networks. The networks have refused to make these figures public despite repeated requests.

This concerns us, because the network evening news still plays a critical role in defining our society. They help shape the national news agenda. And the majority of U.S. citizens and residents still receive their news from television. As a result it is hard to blame the public for not knowing more about the Latino community or for being fearful of the demographic changes that our nation is undergoing. What they have watched on TV may not leave many celebrating on this Fourth of July weekend.

(Joseph Torres is deputy director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. He can be contact at jtorres@nahj.org. The NAHJ report is online at www.nahj.org)

© 2005, Hispanic Link News Service
07/03/05
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