The Handbook of Spanish Language Media

Alan Albarran

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781135854294
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Media & Communications Industry
• Index: Business

With the rise of Spanish language media around the world, The Handbook of Spanish Language Media provides an overview of the field and its emerging issues. This Handbook will serve as the definitive source for scholars interested in this emerging field of study; not only to provide background knowledge of the various issues and topics relevant to Spanish language media, but also to establish directions for future research in this rapidly growing area.

This volume draws on the expertise of authors and collaborators across the globe. The book is an essential reference work for graduate students, scholars, and media practitioners interested in Spanish language media, and is certain to influence the course of future research in this growing and increasingly influential area.

I
Spanish Language Media

A Country-by-Country Examination

1
Spanish Language Media in the United States

Kenton T. Wilkinson
Texas Tech University, USA

Spanish language media have long been important channels for reaching people of Latin American or Iberian origin in the United States. English language and bilingual media, which also communicate with this population group, are beyond the scope of this chapter. Historically, language difference has been a key marker of Hispanic/Latino identity and is likely to remain so well into the future. Spanish language media are typically used by recent immigrants (first and second generation) to the United States, though interest in recovering or re-establishing their roots are leading Hispanics and Latinos of subsequent generations to use Spanish language media. People from other ethnic groups are also attracted to these media to improve their Spanish and learn more about the culture of a growing and increasingly influential segment of the population.

The Hispanic and Latino population of the United States has been difficult to measure precisely due to changing ethnic categories and counting methods at the US Census Bureau, and the elusiveness of some population members, among other factors. Yet even the estimated figures reflect tremendous growth. The 1940 census placed the Hispanic and Latino population at 1.9 million; by 1980 it had reached 14.6 million (6.4 percent of the US population) and by 2000 it was 35.3 million (12.5 percent of the US population). A widely reported announcement by the Census Bureau claimed that Hispanics and Latinos surpassed African Americans as the country’s largest minority group in 2003. Certainly not all of these Hispanics and Latinos speak Spanish regularly (or at all) or use Spanish media consistently. The Census Bureau estimates that 12 percent of the US Hispanic/Latino population age 5 and over speak Spanish at home. According to a Simmons Market Research Bureau (2003) National Hispanic Consumer Study, 19 percent speak only Spanish, 9 percent speak only English, 55 percent have limited English proficiency and 17 percent are fully English–Spanish bilingual. Where available, media use statistics are included in the following discussion of specific media.

The steady growth of the Hispanic/Latino population has significant political, economic and social implications for the United States, and Spanish language media play a noteworthy role. National political parties have actively sought the Hispanic/Latino vote since the 1980s, with Spanish language media as part of the strategy. As the number of registered Hispanic/Latino voters has grown, so has the group’s potential for constituting a swing vote in local, state and national elections. Thus Hispanic/Latino-oriented media have received increased attention—and advertising revenues—for their ability to reach a sizeable portion of the electorate. Politicians are also increasingly wary of their stands on issues that may impact Hispanic/Latino voting patterns such as the immigration reform debate in spring 2006, which was closely covered by US Spanish language media and prompted a swing against some Republican candidates in the national elections that year.

Although its growth has been steady, the Hispanic/Latino market has garnered fluctuating attention from the press and major corporations since the 1980s, the so-called “Decade of the Hispanic.” Demographic factors such as larger family size, higher-than-average household spending on consumer products, and long-term brand loyalty have attracted large corporations to the Hispanic/Latino market and to advertising in Spanish language media. The market growth and recognition of the profit potential it offers are likely to increase throughout the twenty-first century. Nevertheless, the percentage of total advertising spending in Hispanic/Latino-oriented media has always lagged behind the group’s population percentage. Numerous scholars and community leaders have decried this imbalance and noted a tendency for mainstream US society to welcome Hispanic/Latino spending into the economy but not the people into US political and social systems. Not surprisingly, there is particular resistance to Spanish-dominant citizens and residents who are expected to assimilate to mainstream US culture and language as prior generations of non-English-speakers have.

Before we examine each of the US Spanish language media in turn, their collective place in broader historical changes should be noted. Investment, content and business models from other countries have been influential in the development of these media. Likewise, investment, content and business practices from the United States influence Spanish language media in other countries, especially within the Western Hemisphere. US Spanish language market growth has coincided with the hemispheric and global expansion of markets and media which in turn have been facilitated by freer trade, economic reform and technological change. Communication technologies, transformed since the 1980s by the advent of digitalization, are at the forefront of change. The latter part of this chapter reviews developments in new technology as they have impacted Spanish language media in the United States.

The Press

As noted in Chapter 3 regarding Mexico, the first print press in the Americas began publishing Spanish copy in Mexico City in 1533. The first publications in Spanish within the United States territory were El Misisipí (1808) and El Mensagero Luisianés (1809), both from New Orleans (Kanellos, 2000). Significantly, these followed on the heels of the Louisiana Purchase (1803) whereby the United States acquired 828,000 square miles of French territory in the center of the North American continent. Thus the buffer was largely erased between the expansionist United States with its growing territories to the east and Spanish, later Mexican, territory to the west. Kanellos (2000) recounts the founding of Spanish language newspapers in Texas (1813), Florida (1817), the north-east (1824) and New Mexico and California (1834).

Preceding, during and following the War for Texas Independence (1835–1836) and Mexican– American War (1846–1848) regional newspapers were important sources of information for Spanish-speaking audiences in US and Mexican territories whose citizenship status, social standing and titles to property would be influenced or determined by the outcome. Newspapers established in this period continued disseminating important political, economic and social news that helped inform and unify Spanish-speaking communities well after the conflicts. Over time, and at different places, the newspapers began the transition from an immigrant press emphasizing news from the country of origin and its relationship with the United States, to a minority press focusing coverage on community development and advocating for civil rights of their readers as well as greater influence over local, regional and national affairs (Miller, 1987). A number of US-based publications also advocated change in foreign lands. Exiles and expatriates from Latin America took advantage of press freedom and access to publishing resources in the United States to create an exile press which supported movements against governments, political and economic elites, religious institutions, etc. Thus US press freedoms influenced consequential political processes such as Spanish American independence from Spain, the French intervention in Mexico, the Spanish–American War, the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish Civil War and the Cuban Revolution (Kanellos, 2000). When other non-English publications waned in number during the middle decades of the twentieth century, the Spanish language press remained strong as immigration continued and government efforts such as the Bracero program (1942–1964) brought Mexican workers to the United States to meet unmet demand for labor. Similar programs brought labor from Puerto Rico and other areas of the Caribbean to the US mainland beginning in the World War I era.

As the prior discussion suggests, Hispanic/Latino communities in the United States differed from other immigrant populations because some families and population centers were established long before Mexico gained its independence from Spain, the United States imposed its dominion over Mexican Territories through the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848) or Puerto Ricans were granted US citizenship in 1917. Geographic proximity facilitating fluid movement between the United States and the homeland a...

Table of contents

• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Foreword
• Preface
• I Spanish Language Media
• II Topics and Issues in Spanish Language Media
• Contributors
• Index