Degree Name
Master of Science
Graduate Program
Mass Communication and Media Arts
Advisor
Dr. William. A. Babcock
Abstract
In the last decades the population in United States with Hispanic roots, comprised of many different races, such as Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Peruvians, and Spaniards, with also including individuals who either speak Spanish as native language or whose families or ancestors are native to countries in Latin America, have increased exponentially to reach 54.1 million people in 2014. By 2050, United States is expected to become the largest Spanish speaking country in the world, will constitute 30%, and Hispanics the majority group within the country. (Rojas and Pinon, 2014). More than 35 million Latinos claim to speak Spanish at home, despite the language policies that tend to put a hindrance to the development of bilingualism, Hispanic media channels such as Telemundo (NBC Universal), and Univision (Televisa) have become spaces that provide maintenance, dissemination and development of Spanish, particularly in the context of cultural and media consumption in private and public environments in United States, especially in cities with highly Latino population such as: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, and Phoenix. However, these numbers are not being equally representing in media industry, where according to the National Latino Arts, Education, and Media Institute, in 2014 Latinos in numerous cases are portraying in mainstream media as a thrives, drug dealers, or comedians, perpetuating inaccurate, and negative stereotypes toward Hispanic communities. Besides that,
their presence in executive positions is almost inexistent, only 1 of the 52 top media executives has a Latino heritage. At the other side, immigration, particularly from Latin American countries has been prevalent within the American political news and main part of the U.S national agenda over the past two decades, in 2007 the Pew Research Center concluded that 55% of Americans claimed that illegal immigration should be a top priority for the government (Keeter, 2009), concern that has been extensively cover media in all formats, as everyone for instance seen along the last presidential campaign. Understanding the origins of stereotype content is important for at least two major reasons. First, stereotype content shapes groups’ typical behaviors because these beliefs about groups not only describe typical attributes but also often function as prescriptive rules for appropriate behavior., specially within the American society where according to the American Press Institute more than 90% of Americans get the news every day through television, Second, stereotype content is crucial for understanding and ameliorating prejudice and discrimination, which arises when group members’ stereotypical attributes are miss-matched to the requirements of social roles. (Rojas, 2002) This research examines how Mexicans Male individuals are representing in the Telemundo Chicago news 5 p.m. edition from Monday to Friday, seeking answer questions as Does the Mexican population in Chicago feels equally and truly represented by Hispanic media?