Topic one!

EthnicMajority.com makes the statement that "Who we see, hear, and read on television, radio, newspapers, and in movies has a great deal of influence on shaping the attitudes of all Americans. How African, Hispanic (Latino), and Asian Americans are portrayed in these mediums often stereotypes and reinforces negative images of each ethnic group."

Here is a video from CNN detailing the population growth of Hispanics in the U.S. and their impact on the political spectrum:






Here are some statistics about Latino/a's portrayal in the media:

*Latino-related stories make up less than 1% of all the stories that appear on network newscasts, even though Latinos make up more than 13% of the U.S. population.

*Crime, terrorism, poverty and welfare, and illegal immigration accounted for 66% of all network stories about Latinos in 2001.

*The arrest of suspected terrorist Jose Padilla, for allegedly plotting to detonate a "dirty bomb", occupied a central role in the coverage of Latinos in 2001, with 21 network stories or 18% of all stories that aired on Latinos.

*The number of Latino-related crime and youth gang stories in 2002 was grossly excessive when compared to statistics on crimes involving Latinos.

*Illegal immigration continues to be an important focus of network news coverage of Latinos.


(Serafín Méndez-Méndez; Diane Alverio (December, 2003). "Network Brownout 2003: The Portrayal of Latinos in Network Television News, 2002". National Association of Hispanic Journalists. http://www.nahj.org/NAHJbrownoutreport03.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-04-19.

It is obvious that media portrayal of Hispanics in the U.S. is unbalanced but what could be a possible cause for this portrayal? Do you think it is an obvious attempt to report against or fail to cover stories relating to those of Hispanic decent, or are these "non-news stories" (stories not relating to crime or illegal acts) being reported on Spanish speaking broadcasts and not in English? Where is this mis, or even non-representation rooted?