“News with an Accent”: Hispanic Television and the Re-negotiation of US Latino Speech

Abstract

Using Bourdieu's concept of “linguistic capital” as an analytical concept, I examine the value of language as both a means of comprehension and a product that has currency in the television marketplace. Focusing on Fusion, an upstart cable network designed to engage Latinos civically and in English, I examine the ways in which television networks employ language as a device through which to create audiences. I argue that Fusion and other networks are attempting to re-constitute the Latino audience in ways that more closely align with the dominant culture, leading to forms of erasure that challenge the legitimacy of Spanish altogether. I further argue that in the process of pursuing the acculturated Latino, the network pivots away from those most isolated from civic discourses.

Keywords:

• Latina/o
• Television
• Linguistic Capital
• Spanish
• Language Ideology

Notes

[1] Jorge Ramos, interview by George Stephanopoulos on This Week, October 27, 2013. http://fusion.net/America_with_Jorge_Ramos/video/jorge-ramos-talks-fusion-abcs-week-156154.

[2] ABC and Univision, “ABC and Univision Introduce Fusion,” news release, February 11, 2013 https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/sites/default/files/ABCNewsUnivisionFusion.pdf.

[3] Christopher Chávez, “Building a ‘New Latino’ in the Post-Network Era: mun2 and the Reconfiguration of the US Latino Audience,” International Journal of Communication 7 (2013): 9.

[4] Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991), 18.

[5] Ien Ang, Desperately Seeking the Audience (New York: Routledge, 1991), 13.

[6] Jose Del Valle. “US Latinos, La Hispanofonia, and the Language Ideologies of High Modernity,” in Globalization and Language in the Spanish-speaking World, ed. Clare Mar-Molinero and Miranda Stewart (London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 43.

[7] For more information on the characteristics of speech communities, see Alessandro Duranti, Linguistic Anthropology (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1997) and John Gumperz, “The Speech Community” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New York: Macmillan, 1968).

[8] Pew Hispanic Center, “5 Demographic Realities Behind the Creation of Univision/ABC News’ Fusion channel,” news release, October 28, 2013 http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/10/28/5-demographic-realities-behind-the-creation-of-univisionabc-news-fusion-channel/.

[9] Robert Horwitz, “On Media Concentration and the Diversity Question,” The Information Society, 21, issue 3 (2005): 181.

[10] For insight into the impact of deregulation on minority interests, see Kristal Zook, Color by FOX: The FOX Network and the Revolution in Black Television (London, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999) and Berretta Smith-Shomade, Pimpin’ Ain't Easy: Selling Black Entertainment Television (New York: Routledge, 2008).

[11] Jeff Valdez, “The Spanish Imposition,” Huffington Post, June 4, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-valdez/the-spanish-imposition_b_3381187.html

[12] Henry Puente, “NuvoTV: Will it Withstand the Competition?” in Contemporary Latina/o Media: Production, Circulation, Politics, ed. Arlene Davila and Yeidy M. Rivero (New York: NYU Press, 2014), 78.

[13] Luis V. Núñez, Spanish Language Media after the Univision-Hispanic Broadcasting (New York: Nova Sciences Publishers, 2006).

[14] Juan Piñon and Viviana Rojas, “Language and Cultural Identity in the New Configuration of the US Latino TV Industry,” Global Media and Communication 7 (2011): 129.

[15] Frazier Moore, “Rodriguez Gives It to Viewers Straight with El Rey,” AP, March 10, 2014, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/rodriguez-gives-it-viewers-straight-el-rey.

[16] Mari Castañeda Paredes, “The Reorganization of Spanish-language Media Marketing in the United States,” in Continental Order? Integrating North America for Cybercaptialism, ed. Vincent Mosco and Dan Schiller (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2001), 120–135.

[17] Pierre Bourdieu, On Television (New York: The New York Press, 1998).

[18] Pierre Bourdieu. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 57.

[19] Bourdieu, On Television.

[20] Ida Schultz, “The Journalistic Gut Feeling: Journalistic Doxa, News Habitus and Orthodox News Values,” Journalism Practice 1, issue 2 (2007): 193.

[21] Robert K. Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 4th ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2009).

[22] Ang, “Desperately Seeking the Audience.”

[23] Nielsen, The State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative, 2012.

[24] New York Times Customer Insight Group, 2013: The Year of Video Survey, 2013.

[25] Pew Research Center, News Consumption Survey, 2012.

[26] The US Census Bureau, Statistical Report, 2012.

[27] Nielsen, The State of the Hispanic Consumer.

[28] Nielsen, The State of the Hispanic Consumer.

[29] NBC Universal, Familia Americana Moderna Study, 2012.

[30] Adrian Carrasquillo, “Meet Fusion, the ABC-Univision Frankenbaby that Wants Millennials to Laugh and Get their News On, Buzzfeed, October 27, 2013, http://www.buzzfeed.com/adriancarrasquillo/meet-fusion-the-abc-univision-frankenbaby-that-wants-millenn.

[31] Douglas Hanks, “Just a Dash of Latino Flavor Accents Fusion's TV Debut,” Miami Herald, October 27, 2013, http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/27/3715419/just-a-dash-of-latino-flavor-accents.html.

[32] Carrasquillo, “Meet Fusion”.

[33] Larry Rohter, “Speaking to Young Latinos, in English,” New York Times, October 2, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/arts/television/fusion-sets-its-sights-on-a-multicultural-generation.html?_r=0.

[34] Nielsen, The State of the Hispanic Consumer.

[35] Alma DDB, A Brave New World of Consumadores: Introducing young Fusionistas, 2011, http://almaad.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Alma_YellowPaper_Fusionistas1.pdf

[36] Jorge Ramos, opening monologue for first episode of America, October 28, 2013, http://fusion.net/justice/story/good-evening-im-jorge-ramos-fusion-159856.

[37] Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, 81–9.

[38] Stephen Battaglio, “Jorge Ramos Breaks New Barriers on Fusion,” TV Guide, October 24, 2013, http://www.tvguide.com/News/Jorge-Ramos-Fusion-1072461.aspx.

[39] Tyndall, Year in Review Report, 2013, http://tyndallreport.com/yearinreview2013/

[40] Rohter, “Speaking to young Latinos, in English”.

[41] Rohter, “Speaking to young Latinos, in English”.

[42] Manuel Roig-Frianzia and Peter Wallsten, “Univision, ABC News Team Up on TV network for English-speaking Latinos,” Washington Post, February 18, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/univision-abc-news-team-up-on-tv-network-for-english-speaking-latinos/2013/02/18/02ab1434–7957–11e2-a044–676856536b40_story.html.

[43] Hanks, “Just a Dash of Latino Flavor Accents Fusion's TV Debut”.

[44] Hanks, “Just a Dash of Latino Flavor Accents Fusion's TV Debut”.

[45] National Public Radio, “Fusion Wants Young Latinos to Turn on Their TV's,” October 26, 2013.

[46] Jeanine Poggi, “Winking at Hispanic: Where Does TV's New Fusion Channel Fit,” Advertising Age, October 28, 2013, http://adage.com/article/media/fusion-s-big-bet-cable-news-hispanic-millennials/244951/.

[47] Bourdieu, On Television, 29.

[48] Sam Friedman, “The Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humor: British Comedy and New Forms of Distinction,” British Journal of Sociology 62, issue 2 (2011): 351.

[49] Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production, 7.

[50] Dannagal Young and Russell Tsinger, “Dispelling Late Night Myths: News Consumption Among Late-Night Comedy Viewers and the Predictors of Exposure to Various Late-Night Shows,” International Journal of Press/Politics 11 (2006): 113–134.

[51] National Public Radio, “Fusion Wants Young Latinos to Turn on Their TV's.

[52] Alicia Menendez, interviews with Alexis Madrigal and Bettina Inclan, AM Tonight, January 22, 2015, http://fusion.net/video/40170/al-madrigal-is-a-half-y-and-proud-of-it/

[53] Zygmunt Bauman, “From Pilgrim to Tourist—Or a Short History of Identity,” in Questions of Cultural Identity, ed. Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay (London, UK: Sage Publications, 1996), 28–30.

[54] Bernadette Marie Calafell and Fernando Delgado, “Reading Latina/o Images: Interrogating Americanos,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 21, issue 1 (2004): 17.

[55] Travis Dixon and Daniel Linz, “Race and Misrepresentation of Victimization on Local Television News,” Communication Research 27, issue 5 (2000): 547.

[56] Felix Gutiérrez, “Spanish Language Media in America: Background, Resources, History,” Journalism History 4, issue 2 (1977): 38.

[57] DJ Oscar G, “My Multicultural Experience,” http://fusion.net/video/178/my-multicultural-experience-dj-oscar-g/

[58] Lisa Peñaloza, “Ya Viene Aztlan! Latinos in US Advertising,” Media Studies Journal 8, issue 3 (1994): 137–8.

[59] Delores Inés Casillas, “A Morning Dose of Latino Masculinity: US Spanish-language Radio and the Politics of Gender,” in Latina/o Communication Studies Today, ed. Angharad Valdivia (New York: Peter Lang, 2008), 163.

[60] Gallup, In US, Voter Registration Lags Among Hispanics and Asians, news release, November 6, 2013.

[61] National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO), Directory of National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, 2014.

[62] Michael Jones-Correa and David L. Leal, “Political Participation: Does Religion Matter?” Political Research Quarterly 54, Issue 4 (2001): 751.

[63] Douglas Massey and Nancy A. Denton, American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993).