| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Monday, June 10 2002 |
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| An organization that's dear to my heart is holding its 20th annual conference this week in San Diego to discuss, among other topics, the current state of Latinos in the news media. The National Hispanic Media Conference will attract hundreds of Hispanic news professionals from across the country. But even before the speeches, plenary sessions, banquets and workshops take place, the outcome is predictable.
The state of Latinos in the news media can be summed up in one word: dismal.
I'll go back to the very beginning. I was there when the first group of Hispanic journalists met for a national convention in 1982 in San Diego. Our goal back then was to increase the number of Hispanic reporters, editors and other professionals in the news media. We were also intent on promoting a more realistic portrayal of Latinos in the media in hopes of dispelling old myths about Hispanics. Twenty years later, we have made some progress, thanks to the hard work and dedication of many Latino journalists. But the bulk of the work remains to be done.
Although Hispanics are the largest and fastest-growing minority in the United States, our numbers are shamefully low on the news staffs of American newspapers, magazines, and TV and radio stations -- excluding Spanish-language media, of course. News coverage of Latinos in the mass media is atrocious. Consequently, old stereotypes of Latinos being law-breaking, welfare-cheating, undocumented immigrants remain alive and well due, in part, to the lack of Hispanics in American newsrooms.
Every year for the past six years, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists has studied the portrayal of Hispanics on the major English-language TV networks. The results of the latest "Network Brownout" do not paint a pretty picture. The study found that out of 16,000 news stories that aired in the year 2000 on ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, when you eliminate the Elian Gonzalez stories, only 84, or 0.53 percent, were about Latinos.
The amount of Hispanics in the country's TV newsrooms is about 10 percent, according to the Radio and Television News Directors Association. But turn on the nightly network news in English, and you will see Rather, Jennings and Brokaw. You won't find Hispanics on morning television since the departure of Antonio Mora from "Good Morning America," and on cable, the only Hispanics who come to mind are Soledad O'Brien and Rick Sanchez on MSNBC, and Geraldo Rivera on FOX. I can't think of a single Hispanic anchor on CNN. The only Latino correspondents we see with any regularity on the networks are John Quiñones, Jim Avila and Elizabeth Vargas. Surely the networks can find more qualified Latinos.
NAHJ President Cecilia Alvear says this raises a question about the quality of journalism practiced by the networks. "If journalism is supposed to hold up a mirror to society, and it is not reflecting Hispanics -- with all their worth, with all their warts, with all their contributions -- then the networks are not practicing good journalism."
Alvear's theory also applies to the nation's newspapers. According to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Hispanics account for less than 4 percent of newsroom employees at daily newspapers. The lack of Hispanic presence in a newsroom makes it difficult for a newspaper to do a thorough job of covering the community it is supposed to serve. The same can be said of other ethnic groups.
Including a more accurate portrayal of Hispanics in the news media should be viewed as more than simply a social service. At a time when news viewing is down and newspaper circulation is decreasing as many Americans turn to other sources for information, it makes good business sense for media companies to reach out to the growing Hispanic market.
So this week in San Diego, while we celebrate the 20th anniversary of our conference and the progress we have made, it will also be time to roll up our sleeves and get ready for a bigger and better struggle to improve the quality of journalism in America. Hopefully, it will one day become that mirror that reflects the true face of America. |
