Posted by Elena del Valle on March 31, 2005
Newport Beach, CA–(HISPANIC PR WIRE – BUSINESS WIRE)–March 30, 2005–Trycera Financial, Inc. today announced the launch of the Mi Dinero y Mis Suenos Prepaid MasterCard(R) Card (the "My Money, My Dreams" Prepaid MasterCard(R) Card). The card, issued by Meta Payment Systems, a division of MetaBank (NASDAQ:CASH), and supported by the next generation processing platform of Galileo Processing, Inc., enables its cardholder to store or pre-fund money on the card for shopping at millions of merchant locations worldwide where MasterCard Debit is accepted, and for withdrawing cash via the MasterCard global ATM network. Cardholders can reload the card through Western Union(R), direct payroll deposit, bank transfer or at thousands of participating retail locations nationwide. The card program also features Click N Pay(TM) integrated bill payment, allowing its cardholder to conveniently pay bills via the Internet and phone.
The Mi Dinero y Mis Suenos Prepaid MasterCard is available online at http://www.midineromc.com and through various retail locations and direct affiliate programs. More
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 31, 2005
New York, NY–(HISPANIC PR WIRE)–March 30, 2005 CATALINA is touring the country to give Latinas everywhere the opportunity to relax and unwind with the stars featured in the magazine. CATALINA’s “Essence of Latinas” tour will stop in four additional cities through its culmination in Miami in November 2005. CATALINA magazine’s 3rd Annual “Essence of Latinas” tour kicks off Tuesday, April 5, from 4:30 to 7 p.m., at the historic Biltmore Hotel downtown. Local Latinas will join Hispanic stars from two of the hottest and most talked about shows – Sarah Shahi (The L Word) and Eduardo Xol (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition) – for afternoon tea to promote good health and The Heart Truth – a national campaign sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
CATALINA will be providing heart health information, bi-lingual resources, and complimentary “Red Dress” pins – the popular symbol of women’s heart disease awareness created by NHLBI and The Heart Truth. (Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of Latinas.) More
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 29, 2005
Executive Summary
NAHJ’s ninth annual Network Brownout
Report examined news stories about Latinos and
Latino-related issues that aired in 2003 on ABC
World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, CBS
Evening News with Dan Rather, CNN NewsNight
with Aaron Brown and NBC Nightly News with
Tom Brokaw as well as the networks’ weekend
nightly newscasts.
As in prior studies, Latino-related stories were
identified by searching the index of Vanderbilt
University’s Television News Archives. Other
network newscasts, including those on Fox and
MSNBC, were not included in the study because
they are not archived at Vanderbilt University.
This year’s report contains a quantitative
review of the number and length of stories about
Latinos. However, distinct from previous years,
NAHJ made a more exhaustive effort to identify,
select and assess the “Central Involvement of
Latinos” in news stories.
NAHJ also conducted a qualitative analysis
of a sub-sample of stories about Latinos. For the
first-time ever, NAHJ performed a content analysis
of news stories that aired during a five-day
period (Oct. 20-24, 2003) to further examine the
portrayal of Latinos. The goal was to better
understand how Latinos appeared in stories
during a typical news week and to examine how
non-Latino related stories were covered.
The quantitative analysis of the Network
Brownout Report revealed:
Of the more than 16,000 stories that
appeared on ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC in
2003, only 131, or 0.82 percent, were about
Latinos. While that was an increase from
2002, when there were 120 Latino-related
stories, or 0.75 percent, it still remains a dismal
record given the growth and importance
of the nation’s Latino community. Latinos
make up close to 14 percent of the U.S.
population.
Overall, CNN aired 47 Latino stories that
received almost an hour and a half of
air time, the most of any network.
Out of 639 hours of network news stories
that aired in 2003 (38,325 minutes), a scant
0.63 percent (4 hours and 2 minutes) was
dedicated to Latino stories.
The majority of Latino stories covered a
limited number of story topics. Overall,
44 percent of Latino stories were about
immigration (30 stories) and crime (27
stories). That figure climbs to 55 percent
when human-interest stories (15 stories) is
included and to 73 percent when the topics
of election politics (12 stories) and celebrities
(11 stories) are added.
A significant percentage of stories about
Latinos lacked in-depth coverage. Of the
131 stories about Latinos that aired last
year, 24 percent (31 stories) were less than
30 seconds long. Many of these stories
were network news round-up segments.
Stories about Latinos lacked diversity of
viewpoint and opinion. Of the 131 stories
about Latinos, 43 percent (56 stories) did
not cite a single source. In addition, 58
percent did not feature an interview with
a Latino.
Latinos did not often appear in non-Latino
related stories. Out of 16,000 stories that
aired in 2003, Latinos appeared as sources
in an estimated 285 non-Latino related
stories (1.8 percent). Interviews with. Gen.
Ricardo Sánchez, California Lt. Gov. Cruz
Bustamante and New Mexico Gov. Bill
Richardson accounted for 40 percent of this
total.
Positive trends:
Despite the overall lack of news coverage,
Latinos were more positively portrayed in
2003 with many news stories highlighting
the contributions that Latinos are making to
society. For example, the number of human
interest stories increased from 3 in 2002 to
15 in 2003. Many of these stories profiled
the service and sacrifice made by Latino
soldiers.
The overall number of crime stories about
Latinos declined from 47 stories (39 percent)
in 2002 to 27 stories (21 percent) in
2003. Most of these stories portrayed
Latinos as the victims of crime.
Qualitative analysis of Latino stories found:
Several stories about Latinos, regardless
of topic, portrayed Latinos as immigrants
seeking a better life in the United States in
an effort to obtain the “American dream.”
Immigration and crime stories portrayed
Latinos as victims. In previous years, Latinos
were more often featured as perpetrators
of crime or burdens to society.
Latino soldiers killed or wounded in Iraq
were portrayed as heroes.
Several stories about politics focused on
the growing influence of the Latino vote.
Content analysis of all network stories during
the week of Oct. 20-24, 2003 found:
Out of 241 stories that aired, not a single
story was exclusively about Latinos.
Moreover, Latinos appeared only in four
stories. One story featured interviews with
Latino soldiers while two other stories
contained an interview with Gen. Ricardo
Sanchez. The last story featured Colorado
Attorney General Ken Salazar.
When comparing Latino-related stories to
stories that appeared during this five-day
period, a greater percentage of Latino
stories did not cite sources (42 percent)
compared to non-Latino related stories
(28 percent).
In addition, 19 percent of non-Latino
related stories cited sources with a mixture
of opinions compared to 8 percent
for Latino stories.
Conclusion
While we are encouraged by the improved
portrayal of Latinos in 2003, this year’s report
found several trends that continue to disturb
us. The lack of coverage and air time devoted
to Latino stories remained dismal and Latinos
continued to be covered within a narrow
range of topics such as immigration and
crime. This is troublesome because it is rare
for the network news audience to view a story
about Latinos, and when they do, the coverage
often does not reflect the totality of life
for Latinos in the United States.
About the author
Dr. Federico Subervi, a native of Puerto Rico, is a media
consultant and scholar living in Austin, Texas. For more than
20 years, he has been teaching, conducting research,
and publishing on issues related to the mass media and
ethnic groups, especially Latinos in the United States.
He is the director of the Latinos and Media Project (www.
latinosandmedia.org), and chair of the board of Latinitas Inc.,
a Web-based magazine (www.latinitasmagazine.org) and an
organization dedicated to helping empower Latina youth via
media and technology. Subervi has held academic appointments
at the University of California-Santa Barbara, the
University of Texas at Austin (where he also served as
graduate advisor for the Department of Radio-TV-Film),
and Pace University in New York City. Joseph Torres,
Daniela Montalvo and Marisella Veiga worked on conducting
the research and the analysis of the Brownout
report. Torres is NAHJ’s deputy director of communications
and media policy. Montalvo is a graduate student at
George Washington University in media and public affairs.
Veiga is an English professor and a freelance columnist.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on March 28, 2005
We have written many times over the years about the size, growth and importance of the Hispanic market ($1 trillion by 2010), and the significance of the Hispanic youth market as a bellwether, leading-edge group. In issue #945 (September 2002), we reported on several sources of research that suggested a trend toward English preference among a large majority of US Hispanic youth in terms of media usage (TV, radio, print media, film and Internet). That trend appears to be accelerating. According to a recent study conducted by researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY), English remains the language of choice among the children and grandchildren of Hispanic immigrants, despite continuing waves of migration from Latin America. In contrast to concerns from some analysts that English may be losing ground to Spanish in some parts of the United States, the study finds the majority of Hispanic Americans moving steadily toward English monolingualism. Among third-generation Hispanics, the fastest-growing segment of the US Latino population, 72% speak English exclusively. Further, the study finds that this trend has generally continued among Mexican-Americans, the country¹s largest immigrant group, even during the immigration boom of the 1990s. Even for Hispanics in Los Angeles, a magnet for immigration from Latin America, the pattern of language shifts across generations remains similar to those among Hispanics nationally. The report suggests that many other researchers and analysts have underestimated the pressures of assimilation, and are missing its contemporary signs.
Who We Are, What We Are Becoming
For example, Samuel Huntington, a professor of political science at Harvard, touched off a furor last year by warning in his book, Who Are We: The Challenges to America¹s National Identity, that continuing high levels of Hispanic immigration might ³eventually change America into a country of two languages, two cultures and two peoples.² He is quoted in the International Herald Tribune as saying that the SUNY study reflects the experience of current third-generation Hispanics, but does little to predict the experience of future third-generations. Richard Alba, director of the SUNY study, counters that available statistics do not suggest a substantive change in historical patterns. His view is echoed by Ruben Rumbaut of the University of California, co-director of the largest multiyear survey of children of immigrants, whose findings show that continued bilingualism among Hispanics does not occur at the expense of English. Even among Mexican-born young people who came to the US as young children and are living on the border, the UC survey finds, English is still overwhelmingly preferred. What¹s behind this English preference trend? Although not generally understood or appreciated, Hispanic immigration to the US, as well as the share of the US Hispanic population that is foreign-born, both peaked years ago. Hence, the explosive growth of the US Hispanic population in the coming decades will be fueled more by natural increase (native births) than by immigration. This will speed the processes of assimilation, acculturation and English-proficiency. Spanish is certainly not going to fade away in the regions of the country that serve as gateways to new immigrants. The sheer size and continuous nature of Hispanic immigration, the proximity of Latin America to the US, and the availability of Spanish options in media, business and government services guarantee the continued proliferation of Spanish usage in the US. But it¹s not what the kids are doing: young Hispanics may be very proud of their heritage, but English is the language of that powerful machine known as American culture. According to the Latino Intelligence Report, a national survey of Hispanic teens conducted by a division of Creative Artists Agency, Hispanic teens watch more television than their general-market counterparts and cite MTV, Fox and Comedy Central as their favorite TV networks. While only 8% of those surveyed said they speak Spanish better than English or Spanish only, 48% said they speak English and Spanish equally well. Interestingly, however, only 20% of those responding to telephone interviews volunteered to take the survey in Spanish. In other words, Hispanic teens overreport their Spanish-speaking ability.
Growth Strategies Implications
Note well: while assimilation and acculturation to the mainstream is still the paradigm of ethnic minorities in the US, what is different and unique about Hispanics is how much they have changed, and are changing, the mainstream in the process. Every facet of American culture, every aspect of American society, now includes and is transformed by Hispanic influences, and young Hispanics are driving the trend (a very current example would be Spanglish rap songs). Juan Faura, president of Hispanic advertising agency Cultura, agrees that Hispanic culture has evolved into an integral part of the overall pop-culture fabric in the US. He writes in Marketing y Medios that he has come to realize, after many years in the industry, that the Hispanic market is not so much a mix of two cultures as an emerging third culture: This third culture is unique to its time in history. It is a culture rich in tradition and pride, but defined by its own values, values forged over generations in this country. It is defined more by the expectations of the future than the memories of the past. Andrew Erlich of Erlich Transcultural Consultants agrees, writing that bicultural youth are individuating and creating their own new culture, which they express and experience in just about all aspects of their daily lives. Appreciating the experience of bilingual youth, he concludes, will give marketers a window to understanding the Latino market and a key to designing successful strategies for today and tomorrow.
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 28, 2005
Escondido, CA–(HISPANIC PR WIRE)–March 28, 2005–El Semanario de San Diego announced today that it has launched http://www.elsemanarioonline.com, an attractive and powerful site to better serve its readers and advertisers. El Semanario’s Web site was created by and is now part of Hispanic Digital Network (HDN), the nation’s first network of Hispanic publications online, with an ever-growing network of 47 Hispanic publication websites. More
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Posted by Elena del Valle on March 24, 2005
Miami, FL (March 24, 2005) – The Hispanic Marketing & Communication Association (HMCA) announced today four new board members: Suzanne Irizarry de López of Bilingual Research Services, Sylvia Nieto-Vidal of Multicultural Insights, Juan Guillermo Tornoe of The Wizard of Ads, and Richard Velez of MASS Promotions.
Suzanne Irizarry de López is Director of Business Development for Bilingual Research Services (BRS), a unique supplier of dual-language (Spanish/English) telephone interviewing for consumer research and public opinion polling. BRS is based in what the U.S. Census named the most bilingual city, El Paso, Texas. A native of Puerto Rico and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communications, Suzanne has been doing Hispanic market research since the early 90’s and has also worked as educator, simultaneous interpreter, social worker, and journalist.
Sylvia Nieto-Vidal is Managing Partner of Operations at Multicultural Insights a certified minority, woman-owned full-service market research firm for multicultural and niche markets located in Miami, Florida. Multicultural Insights provides full-service qualitative and quantitative research for Hispanic, African American and other niche markets in the U.S. as well as throughout Latin America. Nieto-Vidal has designed, set-up, managed, overseen and conducted qualitative and quantitative research for over 17 years for Fortune 100 companies such as Pepsi-Cola, Cingular, SBC, Pfizer, Pizza Hut, Ford Motor Company, Colgate-Palmolive, and Radio Shack among others.
Juan Guillermo Tornoe is based in Austin, Texas and is Market Research Director for Wizard of Ads, Inc. Spearheading the Hispanic branch of the company, he is creator of Hispanic Trending, a Latino marketing and advertising Blog, which gives access to research, news, and commentaries on the Hispanic market. He has a degree in Pre-Med from the Universidad Francisco Marroquín and an MBA from ESEADE (Escuela Superior de Economía y Administración de Empresas), both in Guatemala.
Richard Velez is Director of Strategic Services for MASS Promotions, a leading Hispanic integrated marketing and strategic promotions company based in Miami. He helps develop strategies for clients to effectively touch Hispanics where they work, live, play, and shop. Richard is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY, where the first association of Latin American students (La Union Hispano Americana-1898) was ever founded in a U.S. university.
The Hispanic Marketing & Communication Association, HMCA, is a volunteer driven national nonprofit professional association dedicated to Hispanic marketing excellence. HMCA roundtables, seminars and conferences serve as forums to discuss interesting, timely issues, and encourage professional development. To learn more about HMCA and to sign up for complimentary copies of InterAcción, the HMCA newsletter, visit www.hmca.org
Suzanne Irizarry de Lopez and Juan Tornoe
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 23, 2005
Dallas, TX–(HISPANIC PR WIRE – BUSINESS WIRE)–March 23, 2005–A new conference and exposition aimed at helping retailers maximize their business to the growing Hispanic market in the U.S. will make its debut in Dallas this fall. VNU Business Media is launching the inaugural Hispanic Retail 360 Conference & Expo in Dallas on Sept. 25-27, 2005.
With the aid of a Retailer Advisory Board consisting of market leaders across all channels of retailing (including grocery, drug, mass, dollar and convenience stores), the Hispanic Retail 360 Conference & Expo is putting together an action-oriented agenda provided by industry experts, like Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert, as well as new and integrated information from VNU’s world-leading information companies. The event will also feature a product exposition showcase for suppliers to display their offerings aimed at the Latino shopper. More
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 22, 2005
Miami, FL—(HISPANIC PR WIRE)–March 22, 2005–The publisher of People en Español will discuss key findings of the magazine’s Hispanic Opinion Tracker (HOT) study at the 2005 Innovations in Hispanic Marketing Conference, April 6-7 in Miami. Jacqueline Hernandez will talk about Hispanic consumer preferences and attitudes revealed by the study in the areas of style, price and quality.
The HOT study is one of the largest national surveys comparing views of Hispanics and non-Hispanics. The study shows that Hispanics continue to embrace their own families, heritage and identity even as they become a larger force in American life. The study also reveals Hispanic opinions on a range of consumer purchases and other topics, including health, home, computers, movies, cosmetics, music, TV, magazines, Internet, lifestyles and social issues. More
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 22, 2005
Dulles, VA. & Washington, DC–(HISPANIC PR WIRE – BUSINESS WIRE)–March 22, 2005–AOL(R) Latino, the leading bilingual Internet service provider for U.S. Hispanics, and Berlitz Languages, Inc., the premier language training and testing services provider throughout the world, announced today that they have joined forces to offer multiple ways for AOL members to learn English at no extra charge. While Spanish dominant and Spanish preferred bilingual Hispanics equal more than 65% of the 40 million Hispanics in the U.S., this special offer provides this growing segment a cost effective and easy way to learn English. And, according to a recent poll on the AOL Latino service, 78% of respondents are interested in taking online English lessons. More
Posted by Elena del Valle on March 21, 2005
Washington, DC—(HISPANIC PR WIRE)–March 21, 2005–Publisher Alex Ormaza today announced the launch of the Washington DC Metropolitan Area’s premier English-Spanish weekly newspaper Washington Hoy.The Silver Spring, Maryland, based publication, which is a joint venture by three journalists, is being audited by the Circulation Verification Council (CVC). It will have a tabloid format and will be distributed free of charge at Latino Stores, Metro Stations, colleges, universities, international organizations buildings, embassies, and other venues. More
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