Latino Representation on Prime=time Television

In Todd Gitlin's article, The Hegemonic Process in Television Entertainment he considers and questions control and ideology on prime-time television.

In a statistical report form UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center the numbers reflect the overall and disproportionate representation of Latinos and multi-ethnic characters depicted (with a primary focus on Latino characters) on prime-time television as compared to the white character roles that largely dominate these programs. The researchers report on the regularity of minority roles and how the characters across genres are stereotyped or mainly reflected.

"Latinos are highly segregated on the program schedule appearing on only 15% of series programming and on just 5 out of 12 genres" (CSRC, pg. 2) They are missing from 7 genres: news, reality, teen, variety, animation, musical, and medical, according to this study but it is dated 2004. However, this lead me to more personal research which I found on the Website to verify if there has been much change since then. The Website for The National Hispanic Media Coalition http://www.nhmc.org/videos/indexshow.php?file=nlmc_08.swf. I found from this source that the numbers still remain significantly low.

The genres they are included: crime, situational, comedy, drama, sci-fi and sports (coming in the highest percentage).

While numbers have increased somewhat and the depiction of Latino characters have been upgraded from stereotypes other than lower status occupations, cop, and criminal the fact still remains that the former outweighs the ladder.

How does this effect the ideologies of the those who watch it? Prime-time television could lead the average viewer to take on narrow visioned beliefs about Latino culture and persons. Thus, sending messages that create the impression that Latinos are not worthy of our attention are harmful to society at large. This in turn could also influence policy issues on immigration laws and the general ill or non-factual opinions of the American people towards the Latin community.

If all they see on TV are representations of the dumb funny guy, the "hot" house wrecker, the drug dealer/murderer, the cop lacking in dimension and also a servant of sorts, or the subservient maid; how could they belief otherwise. Unless of course they live in cities of diversity that offer real life interaction. But even a city as dominated by Latino culture (by 45% of the L.A. population) the show LAPD Blues is dominated by white character driven plots and roles.

That 70"s show actor Wilmer Valdarrama is constantly putting himself down or being put down as the guy "wherever he's from" type thing, and also expresses a high libido.

While shows like Ugly Betty offers a less "boxed in depiction of a Latina girl" and Law and Order which has a Latino Assistant District Attorney character this is largely due to producers of ethnicity like Selma Hayek of Ugly Betty and writers from the minority community that are slowly being given the opportunities to write for television. Herein lies the battle between a hegemony of white values, imposed from the 'power that be" within the industry.



Media is a machine that has the power to change and impress upon the people. Just last night on PBS I caught a glimpse of President Obhama dancing salsa on stage with a Latina performer. Not sure what the party was honoring specifically, perhaps the Latina supreme court judge, amongst other Latino political representatives who were in attendance. Some of the best musicians and talent from the community were represented in a way that was respectful. Some host cracked jokes however at their own expense saying things like, thank you Mr. President for inviting us to your house, in the back yard, in a tent. And while it is funny there is some hidden pain behind it. Humor is a way to talk about things which are difficult and usually masks repressed feelings. But to be witness of the President in this way towards a minority community of people rarely depicted as intelligent on Television was an encouraging display. The power of Media is enormous.

I've provided a clip from last nights performance.

http://video.pbs.org/video/1296778877/program/1073769600