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Thursday, June 16, 2005

NAHJ Discouraged by Network News Coverage of Latinos in 2004

NAHJ Discouraged by Network News Coverage of Latinos in 2004

FORT WORTH, Texas, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Association of Hispanic Journalists is once again discouraged by the lack of coverage of Latinos on the network evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC. These networks are among the major sources of television news in the country.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050512/DCNAHJLOGO )

In its 10th Annual Network Brownout Report released today, NAHJ found that out of an estimated 16,000 stories aired on the network evening newscasts in 2004, only 115 stories, or 0.72 percent, were exclusively about Latinos. This was a decrease from 2003, when there were 131 stories about Latinos (0.82 percent).

Network coverage of Latinos remained dismal in 2004, given the growth of the nation's Latino community. Latinos accounted for 58 percent of the country's population growth between 1990 and 2000 and currently make up 14 percent of the U.S. population. Out of an estimated 548 hours of network news stories aired in 2004 (32,880 minutes), a scant 0.62 percent (3 hours and 25 minutes) were dedicated to Latino stories.

"The dearth of coverage of Latinos is a disservice to our society," said Ivan Roman, executive director of NAHJ. "Despite the staggering growth of the U.S. Latino population, viewers across the country continue to learn very little about the Hispanic community by watching the network news."

The Brownout Report also found that Latino stories in 2004 covered a limited number of topics. Overall, 34.7 percent were about immigration (40 stories). That figure climbs to 47 percent when human-interest stories (14 stories) are included and to 66 percent when the topics of homeland security (12 stories) and elections and politics (10 stories) are added.

NAHJ found that Latinos have consistently been absent in news coverage since 1995, and that immigration and crime dominated coverage of Latinos. These two topics accounted for 36 percent of all Latino stories aired since 1995. Out of 140,000 stories the networks aired, only 1201 were about Latinos (0.85 percent).

The Network Brownout Report can be downloaded on the NAHJ Web site at: http://www.nahj.org/. Founded in 1984, NAHJ's mission is to increase the number of Latinos journalists working in our nation's newsrooms and to improve news coverage of the country's Latino community.

To contact the author of the study, call Dr. Federico Subervi at 512-965-5267

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050512/DCNAHJLOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: National Association of Hispanic Journalists

CONTACT: Joe Torres of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists,
+1-202-285-3949

Web site: http://www.nahj.org/

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