U.S. media lags in covering Latin America

THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT

U.S. media lags in covering Latin America

Posted on Thu, Mar. 20, 2008Digg del.icio.us AIM reprint print email

By ANDRES OPPENHEIMER

aoppenheimer at MiamiHerald.com

If you think that Latin America is getting a short shrift in the U.S. media, you are right: a new study shows that the percentage of news from the region in mainstream U.S. media is pathetic.

The study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which examined more than 70,000 stories in 48 mainstream U.S. media over the past 12 months, shows that coverage of foreign news other than Iraq, Iran and Pakistan was minuscule: the rest of the world accounted for less than 6 percent of the overall coverage.

According to the study, which included television, radio, newspapers and Internet outlets, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict accounted for 0.5 percent of the total U.S. news hole, violence in Darfur 0.2 percent and U.S. relations with Russia 0.2 percent.

Latin America was not measured as a separate category, but it is safe to assume that it accounted for less than the 0.5 percent devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The study's authors told me that even some of the most dramatic events in Latin America got very little coverage in the mainstream U.S. media.

Consider:

• During the week of March 3-9, when Colombia attacked a FARC guerrilla camp inside Ecuador, killing rebel leader Raúl Reyes and triggering threats of war from Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, the story accounted for 1 percent of the total U.S. news coverage. By comparison, the U.S. presidential campaign accounted for 52 percent, and the U.S.-Palestinian conflict for 4 percent.

• During the week of Feb. 18-24, when Cuban President Fidel Castro announced his resignation after nearly 50 years in power and endless confrontations with the United States, the story accounted for 6 percent of total U.S. news coverage. By comparison, the story about Kosovo's independence got 7 percent.

• During the week of Dec. 2-7, 2007, the Venezuelan referendum in which Chávez suffered his first major electoral defeat, amounted to 2 percent of the U.S. news hole. Comparatively, news from Iran got 7 percent.

• During the week of April 8-13, 2007, the 6.0-magnitude earthquake that shook Mexico City and Acapulco got 0.3 percent of the U.S. media's attention. It was no match for the scandal about radio talk show host Don Imus' racial remarks, which consumed 26 percent of the news hole.

Interestingly, the study found that people looking for foreign news are most likely migrating to the Internet. Non-U.S.-related foreign stories accounted for 25 percent of online coverage, compared with 13 percent in newspapers, and 4 percent in radio, the study shows.

Tom Rosenstiel, head of the Project, told me that part of the reason for the little attention to Latin America, apart from news organizations' budget cuts, is that the region lies low in the White House's list of priorities.

''If Latin America is not a major part of the administration's agenda, it becomes a smaller part of the media's agenda,'' he said.

My opinion: I agree, but I would add that the people who run the mainstream U.S. media are guilty of being too driven by the White House agenda, and too out of touch with their own country's ethnic diversity.

While U.S. news organizations may be right in making Iraq, Iran and Pakistan their top foreign affairs priorities, they forget that Latin America is the world's region that most affects Americans' daily lives, whether it's on immigration, trade, the environment or energy issues (yes, we import more oil from our neighbors than from Saudi Arabia).

Most importantly, most U.S. news organizations -- and I have to give credit to The Miami Herald here for being a notable exception -- are oblivious to the fact that there are more than 45 million Hispanics in the United States, and millions of other Americans who because of business or family reasons are interested in the region. The very fact that this study only measured English-language media reflects the mind-set of most U.S. media organizations, which forget that Spanish-language television stations in cities such as Miami and Los Angeles often have a bigger audience than their English-language counterparts, or that millions of Hispanics are getting their news from their native countries' newspaper websites, because they can't find it in their local newspapers.

In other words, the United States is changing, but the people who report the news are the last ones to find out about it.

By Simon on Apr 6, 13:38 in Politics & the war.

goin_south says on Apr 6, 13:59:

""Hispanics are getting their news from their native countries' newspaper websites, because they can't find it in their local newspapers.""

What's the point of the post, then?
That's part of the point of the internet, eh?
It's all right here, at your finger tips, when you want to see it.

why can't the freakin Chung King Chinese just LEAVE THE FREAKN DOLLY LLAMA and Tibet ... ALONE!

Simon says on Apr 6, 14:02:

The point is that the other media outlets, such as television, radio, and newspapers ignore Latin America.

"You want to talk to God? Let's go see him together, I've got nothing better to do."---Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark)

Simon says on Apr 6, 14:03:

The point is that the other media outlets, such as television, radio, and newspapers still ignore Latin America.

"You want to talk to God? Let's go see him together, I've got nothing better to do."---Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark)

Monpirri says on Apr 6, 14:13:

I do not know if the ruling media in the states both the Spanish and English ignore Latin America, I would say they trash Latin America! Ok maybe yes, to small degree they conveniently ignore Latin America because of fear of losing their status quo in the states.
Although I’m more content with the changes I have seen here in states in the last four years or so and I’m even more please to know that I have the choice to watch the channel that is going to educate myself about a particular subject, Colombia for example.

MAC

Annette Taddeo for US Congress 2008

DodgerDogs says on Apr 6, 14:16:

Latin America seems to get more media , and too much media coverage for it's bad news, such as
a political corruption , or when a Latin American does something wrong.

Then when good things are happening with Latin America ,or a Latin American is doing something good or has accomplished something outstanding, they seem to get too little media coverage.

For example how many radio stations and people jumped at the rumor of Shakira having a sex video, then look how many radio stations spoke up when the rumor about the sex taped was found to be untrue.

( Many reported the sex video, but not many after it was found to be a lie reported it as a lie )

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4464569a1860.html

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.Martin Luther King:

bamacellist says on Apr 6, 14:16:

G_S, your point is valid, but this also means that unless they are already interested and seeking the information out, people are not likely to ever be exposed to the goings-on in Latin America, nor ponder the relationship between the two hemispheres. If the citizens are not aware, informed, and interested, there is less impetus for the government to develop policy and any debate of policy is not going to be very meaningful. Casual exposure would obviously create more awareness which might lead to increased interest. It would be a good thing :)

"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."

romy says on Apr 6, 14:17:

Not everyone has the time to go through the amount of media sources that it takes to stay updated on the world's happenings. So I'll agree with the concern presented by the article.
I would however argue that the main concern is not about % of coverage that each incident obtains, but whether all incidents are reported. ie. I don't need 10 articles telling me that Castro resigned, but perhaps 1 article on what else is happening in Cuba.

If I want an overview of what's going on, I read BBC News. But lately, I've found that the best source/engine is google news as they provide reports from so many sources. You can specify an incident and get the different sides to the story. People have even told me that I can make it give me reporting in different languages in the same search, which makes the coverage even more impressive. Now, just finding the time to read it all...

nueva york bombero says on Apr 6, 14:29:

US media coverage on Latin America straight out sucks.
Television news is the absolute worst. I tune to BBC to see more of what's going on in the Americas??? WTF!!
Way more informitive is the internet. But if you're not specifically looking for something, chances are you're not finding much of value on the area that interests you.
Meanwhile, people who strictly watch TV for their news, don't know Latin America exists!!!

Mike19 says on Apr 6, 17:47:

I live in New York and i agree that the news on Latin America should be more positive than the negative stuff that might arrive. I'm sick of watching hillary talk nonsense.

I never been but want to tavel to several latin america countries and explore my vacations each year. As far as Iran ,Iraq and Pakistan ummm no comment....I'm a survivor of 9-11 and don't care for traveling to those places.

goin_south says on Apr 6, 18:10:

The Amount of Media Exposure is NOT ALWAYS ONLY A RESULT OF THE MEDIA... BUT......the actions of those people seeking the exposure.

I took a course once, from the GUY WHO SOLD THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE... on how to get MILLIONS OF DOLLARS of FREE PUBLIC EXPOSURE THROUGH THE MEDIA.

99 % of people don't know these things.
Why do certain 'STORIES' get so much time on the air? like the story about the girl killed in Aruba. When people make and submit their story, in the proper fashion.... it it likely to become ... NEWS.

THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS..... WHAT THEY SEEM.

why can't the freakin Chung King Chinese just LEAVE THE FREAKN DOLLY LLAMA and Tibet ... ALONE!

BillBigD says on Apr 6, 18:56:

I agree with Simon. Just go to Yahoo News Latin American section. What a joke.

tomtom33 says on Apr 7, 01:32:

And the damned US media doesn't cover Tibet very well, either.

What about East Timor?

The average US citizen outside of some southern States and maybe New York doesn't give shit about LA and could not care less about the coverage. Hence, the lack of coverage.

bamacellist says on Apr 7, 04:47:

If only the universities in Colombia had football teams (not talkin' about soccer!)... The exposure/interest correlation is a horse and cart thing in my opinion, noone being able to say which is the horse and which is the cart. There has always been much better coverge of Asian news and events in the popular press here than South American. This includes dramatic events in Indonesia, the Philipines and Tibet. You can't listen to NPR or read a local paper probably anywhere without reading multiple stories about much more mundane goings on - usually business related - in China, Japan and South Korea.

"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."