How to Cover Hispanic America--And Why

By: Allan Richards About six months ago, after visiting several newspapers on the west coast of Florida, a faculty member in our journalism department at Florida International University (FIU) emailed these comments: ?I felt sad about the newspapers . . . it?s as if time had passed them by . . . the staff looked like me?white folks who were mostly middle-aged.?

That really shouldn?t have come as such a surprise to our faculty member. According to a recent report for the Knight Foundation on employment at 1,410 papers, newsroom diversity is below its peak levels in the U.S.--about one in four newsrooms are all-white.

But his oversight is forgivable. FIU, a public university in Miami, has perhaps the most diverse student enrollment of any journalism program in the United States: 69% of our students are Hispanic and 11% African-American. Working in this environment day after day, it is easy to think of this as the norm. But it is not.

As chair of FIU?s Department of Journalism and Broadcasting, I have watched many young and talented Hispanic journalism students confront ?whiteness? in the newsroom, as they struggled to crack the color and culture barrier and work in the mainstream media.

Many students who have gone on to work within the Hispanic enclave that is Miami have had less of a struggle. Our journalism department has had a longtime relationship with the Miami Herald, a paper that has reflected the Cuban-American community for the past two decades. Thirty-five of our graduates and interns?the majority Hispanic--currently work at the paper. Six FIU graduates, all English-speaking Hispanic journalists, shared in eight Pulitzer prizes while at the Herald.

Walking through the Herald?s newsroom, you would never know that, according to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Hispanics make up only 4.3% of the total full-time employment at daily English-language newspapers across the United States.

It has been more problematic for those who want to have careers outside of South Florida, although some Hispanic students have broken through the cultural divide and have been pioneers?often lone pioneers--in areas not known for diversity.

But something new and very different is stirring within the editorial offices and newsrooms of many regional and national media outlets. Over the past year-and-a-half, I have watched as the mainstream media has suddenly awakened to the emerging Hispanic communities in many states and the growing need to reflect them. Our school, which recruiters have admitted was ?not on their radar screen,? has suddenly been discovered because of the wealth of our Hispanic students.

Judging by the numerous calls and regular visits to our campus by editors, broadcast producers and teams of recruiters, it seems that they realize that nearly one in five Americans is Hispanic, and that there is a move to Hispanicize their newsrooms. Some eager media recruiters even bypass my office and poach our interns directly from the newsrooms where they work.

At first glance, this seems like a win-win situation for our students and the media. But the challenge is very different for editors and news directors than it is for our students. As many editors are discovering, and openly admitting, there is more to hiring a reporter than snagging someone with a Hispanic last name.

Many are confronting a fundamental problem: They do not understand the complexities of the emerging Hispanic demographics. One editor on the west coast of Florida best captured the dilemma when he lamented about having sent out a Mexican-American reporter to cover a small Venezuelan community: ?Biggest mistake we made . . . it was like apples covering oranges . . . Same language, very different culture.?

Our students also report confusion in the newsroom. A gifted Nicaraguan-American writer landed his first job in a newspaper in Jacksonville but was quickly dubbed ?The Mexican.?

Another student inaugurated the Hispanic business beat in Bradenton, not because of her experience as a business reporter (she had none), but because of her ethnic background and the possibility that she might have a greater sensitivity to the community than an Anglo. But which Hispanic community were the editors referring to?

A primary problem is that Hispanics are often lumped into one generic group. But the Hispanic population does not share a common culture. Their traditions, even the language, differs among Hispanic cultures. A Mexican-American living in the Southwest is, at best, a distant relative to a Cuban-American or a newly-arrived immigrant from Central or South America.

South Florida may be one of the most varied and dramatic examples of the diverse number of Hispanic communities in the United States--especially since recent economic downturns and political changes in Latin America have led to a large influx of Colombians, Venezuelans, Argentines and Nicaraguans. But this phenomenon is by no means limited to our region. Diverse Hispanic communities are not just in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, but in smaller urban and suburban communities, from North Carolina and Georgia to Michigan and Oregon.

The ?whiteness? that our faculty member lamented about--and the challenges it poses both to editors and young Hispanic reporters--is not isolated to the newsrooms on the west coast of Florida. The problem exists and, if anything, will continue to spread throughout the United States through population mobility.

Outreach to leaders of their respective Hispanic population, re-training and sensitizing reporters and editors to relate better to their particular Hispanic community, and hiring Hispanic reporters who have firsthand knowledge and are already attuned to the needs, nuances and interests of the burgeoning Hispanic communities can all improve coverage of important issues. It can help close the gap--the distance between the newsroom and their readers.

But even more than that, editors and news directors need to ask a fundamental question, even before visiting campuses and interviewing young Hispanic journalists: What does it mean to be Hispanic in America? They will discover that there isn?t one answer, and that is the key in beginning to understand and represent this varied people they will have to serve, increasingly.