Demographics drive the Latino media story

With the demand for more media has come a need for bilingual journalists. Some are being wooed away from mainstream media by Spanish-language publications and networks. Those who do the hiring say it can be tough to find staff who can speak and write well in both languages. Some Latinos, for example, don't speak Spanish; others have strong Spanish skills but can't do interviews in English or translate written reports.

Those who do cross over say there are advantages to working in Spanish-language media, including the opportunity to advance into management, to work with colleagues who understand the needs of the Hispanic community, and to practice advocacy-based journalism in which the target audience is clear. "There is this sense that you are really doing something to help the community," says Angelo Figueroa, editor of the monthly People en Espanol, and former editor of Nuevo Mundo, sister publication to the San Jose Mercury News.

He and others in the industry say that rather than segregating Spanish-dominate Latinos, Spanish-language media can help them to be better citizens.

"We never say to people, 'Don't learn English' -in fact, we encourage them" to learn it as a way to participate in the community, says Fernando Lopez, general manager of Telemundo station KVEA in Los Angeles, who was recently hired away from a local CBS station. (Telemundo is the No. 2 Spanish-language network.)

Many immigrants in his audience want to participate. He says -speaking from experience. They want to live like other Americans do, educating their children, buying homes, and voting. But first, many need to understand how everything from PTA meetings to politics works.

Spanish-language media often take a different approach from mainstream outlets -focusing, not surprisingly, on issues of importance to their audience. Some outlets might adopt a more opinionated tone, as is taken by media in immigrants' home countries, or cover international news from those countries.

On a national level, Ms. Salinas says that her coverage would include questions to politicians about policies that affect Hispanics. Or, when there is an earthquake in El Salvador, for example, she might spend four days reporting from there. Local outlets also target stories mainstream media spend less time on. When the federal government recently offered amnesty to undocumented immigrants, KVEA had continuous coverage on the deadline day, reporting how many hours were left to file.

In Miami, The Miami Herald and its Spanish-language sister paper, El Nuevo Herald, often take different approaches to the same issue. When the Elian Gonzalez custody battle came to a head, and the Miami relatives refused to give Elian back, the front-page headline of The Miami Herald read: "Family Defies Order." Whereas El Nuevo Herald captured the relief many in the local Cuban community felt: "Jubilo en Miami" (Joy in Miami).

"People pick up El Nuevo Herald not only because it's in Spanish, but because it speaks to them," says Barbara Gutierrez, a reader representative for both papers, who points out that El Nuevo Herald has shorter articles and is more opinionated. "It's just a different kind of style, and closer, I think, to what many Hispanics are used to."

The census took some people by surprise, but Ms. Gutierrez says she and her colleagues could see what was coming. She looks forward to what happens next: "The next 10 years are going to be very exciting."

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor

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