Spanish-Language Journalists Are in a Happy Medium

By: Mark Fitzgerald Journalists at last week's Unity 2004 were often in a celebratory mood. There was a palpable sense of pride as it quickly became obvious that the overflow crowd at the Washington Convention Center was not simply the largest gathering of journalists of color ever -- but the largest meeting of journalists period.

But by its very nature, a joint convention of black, Hispanic, Asian-American and Native American journalists is also something of a gripefest. After all, there's a lot to complain about. Newspapers and broadcast news organizations have utterly failed to hire minority journalists in anywhere near the percentages of the people of color who live in America. Diversity has been the stated goal of the newspaper industry for going on 40 years now, yet even the desperate moving of goals -- from 2000 to 2025 -- cannot disguise the painfully slow progress towards "parity" between the percentage of minorities in newsrooms and those in the community.

That's why the most surprising news to come out of Unity may be the little-noticed survey of journalists who work in the burgeoning U.S. Spanish-language press. This first-ever survey was conducted for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) by Federico Subervi, the consultant and academic who directs the Latinos and Media Project out of Austin, Texas.

The surprising news? Journalists in the Spanish-language press are happy. They like what they're doing, and they say their most important motivation is an "interest in, love and passion for journalism" and a "desire to inform and educate the Latino community." Not only that, they want to keep working in the Spanish-language press.

Both findings contrast dramatically with the results researchers have been getting in recent years when they ask journalists of color in the mainstream, English-language, press about their jobs. These surveys, especially those conducted by the National Association of Black Journalists, show substantial on-the-job dissatisfaction, and a desire to leave the profession eventually. The actual figures on retention of minority journalists show that for many, this was not an idle threat.

The disenchantment is reflected in surveys that find a substantial number of minority journalists say they would not advise their children to the enter the profession.

But the executive summary of the NAHJ study of Spanish-language journalists says that "the vast majority of the respondents indicate they plan to continue working at their news media in the near and far future."

Job satisfaction was high, particularly among managers, despite complaints about income and benefits, professional training, and promotion opportunities. About 50% to 60% of journalists and managers of both genders reported their annual incomes in the $25,000 to $49,000 range. Fully 25% said they receive no health insurance benefits at all. Professional training is virtually non-existent at their news organizations, the journalists reported: 79% said they had never received any training from a news organization.

On the other hand, this is a group that comes to the job prepared: "At least 89% of Latino media professionals have received some type of education or training in journalism." About half were educated in journalism in the U.S.

Other findings contradict stereotypes about the ethnic press, survey director Subervi said during the Unity meeting. "I was surprised to see the large number of respondents who said there wasn't any pressure or their was never any pressure applied on them (to be favorable) to advertisers or political figures," Subervi said.

Neither does the Spanish-language press feel discriminated against while on the job, the survey found.

And while 92% of the journalists and 87% of the news managers were born outside of the U.S., the study found them "well-rooted in this country." More than half (56%) are citizens, 24% are permanent residents and another 14% have work permits. Fewer than 10%, the study said, reported being temporary residents or in some "other" status.

One surprise for NAHJ President Juan Gonzalez was that only about a third of journalists are from Mexico. "Considering that Mexicans are two-thirds of the Latino population, there seems to be some under-representation."

These findings, Subervi emphasized, are still very preliminary. The survey was conducted online in Spanish. About 400 journalists responded to nearly 5,000 e-mails inviting them to participate. Those that responded did so enthusiastically, Subervi said: Some "95% to 98%" answered all 100 questions, and 51% provided e-mail addresses or phone numbers for follow-up.

The full executive summary of the study is posted on NAHJ's Web site.