Survey reveals good news, bad news about coverage of Latinos
By Cheryl Arvidson
The Freedom Forum Online
09.22.00
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WASHINGTON — Boosted by the beginning of a months-long custody
battle over Elián González and a spy scandal at Los Alamos National
Laboratory that fell under the purview of a Latino U.S. energy secretary, there
were more news stories in 1999 about or relating to Latinos on the three major
television networks than ever before.
But if Elian and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson were taken out of
the equation, the number of Latino-related stories would drop to the lowest
point in the five years that the National Association of Hispanic Journalists
has been monitoring network news coverage of Latinos.
Those are the good news, bad news findings of the NAHJ's fifth annual
"Network Brownout" report released yesterday at the National Council of La Raza
headquarters here. The NAHJ said although there were some "slight improvements"
in the way Latinos were covered in 1999, "Latinos still tend to be trivialized
and are seldom seen on the evening news."
"If you take away the Elián González saga and the problems
of Secretary Bill Richardson, one of the highest Latino officials in the
country, at Los Alamos, the networks would not have covered any more stories
about Latinos than they did in years past," said NAHJ President Cecilia Alvear.
"This is at a time when our percentage of the population and our economic and
political influence have grown tremendously. The networks must do better."
Of nearly 12,000 stories that aired on the national newscasts of NBC,
ABC and CBS during 1999, only 162 — or 1.3% — focused on Latinos or
Latino-related issues. However, the report said that 1.3% compared favorably
with coverage that hovered at or below 1% in the previous years of the
"Brownout" survey, which began in 1995. In contrast to their small
representation on the newscasts, Latinos make up 11% of the U.S.
population.
The networks did appear to make improvements in the use of Hispanics
as interview subjects in Latino-related stories and as identified "experts" in
stories related to Hispanics. They were included as "experts" 27 times in 1999,
almost double the number of appearances in 1998, and as interview subjects in
nearly 8 of 10 stories about Hispanics.
In terms of overall Latino-related coverage, there were more stories
about Elián González (33) than on any other single topic during 1999.
The NAHJ study noted that those stories occurred only in the final two months
of 1999, after Elian was rescued by fishermen in the waters off Miami, the
survivor of a Cuba escape attempt that claimed the life of his mother. The saga
continued well into 2000, so next year's "Brownout" report undoubtedly will
contain even more Elian stories, the NAHJ said.
Richardson's appearance stories about the possible theft of nuclear
secrets from the Los Alamos facility accounted for another 21 stories. Only
stories about Hispanics and crime scored higher (24) in the network count.
Sixteen stories focused on Latinos and the economy, and 15 dealt with health
and safety issues. Interestingly, unlike previous years, there were no stories
about Latinos and drugs
Of the three networks, NBC aired the most stories on Hispanics with 57
and had the longest average story length (slightly more than 3 minutes). ABC
followed with 53 stories averaging about 2 minutes 45 seconds in length, while
CBS trailed with 52 stories that averaged slightly less than 2 1/2 minutes
in length.
NBC's Andrea Mitchell led the list of network correspondents reporting
on Latino stories. She reported 10 of the stories, while her colleague Pete
Williams tied for second with Byron Pitts of CBS, both of whom had 7
Latino-related stories in 1999. The report said the only identifiable Hispanic
reporters to cover Latino-related stories in 1999 were NBC's Jim Avila (3),
NBC's Soledad O'Brien (1) and CBS's Vince González (3).
In conclusion, the "Brownout" report noted that since television news
tends to be "event-driven" rather than "process driven," when events don't
focus on Latinos, "they tend to disappear from the network news agenda."
"It's likely that next year's report of the coverage of Latinos in
network news will announce a record number of stories, in large measure due to
the intense coverage of the Elián González case through the first
half of 2000, and, to a lesser extent because 2000 is a presidential election
year and Latinos could be a pivotal influence in the election outcome," the
report stated.
"But, what of the year 2001? What happens when Elián
González is no longer making news and the presidential election is over?
Will the networks still be covering the Latino communities? Only time will
tell."
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