Study: News coverage of Latinos is ‘dismal’

Television news coverage of Latinos was more favorable in 2003 -- largely because of reports on the wartime service of Latino troops -- but America’s largest and fastest-growing minority remains mostly ignored, according to an annual study released Monday.

“Network Brownout 2003,” prepared for the National Assn. of Hispanic Journalists, examined more than 16,000 stories that were on the nightly newscasts of ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN.

A total of 131 stories, or 0.82%, were about Latinos, compared with 120, or 0.75%, in 2002. Of 639 hours of news, four hours, or 0.63%, were given over to Latino stories, the study found.

Latinos make up nearly 14% of the U.S. population.

“The lack of coverage and airtime devoted to Latino stories remained dismal and Latinos continued to be covered within a narrow range of topics such as immigration and crime,” the study said.

There was an increase in favorable reports on Latinos as shown by a measurement of human interest stories about the ethnic group: 15 such stories aired in 2003, compared with three the year before.

The study also noted a decline in the number of crime stories about Latinos, from 47 in 2002 to 27 in 2003.

The study also found that Latinos are poorly represented in on-air reporting and anchor jobs and that Latinos rarely were included in stories not specifically about the ethnic group.

CNN had the most Latino coverage, with 47 stories that added up to nearly 90 minutes, followed by CBS with 30 stories or slightly more than 48 minutes in Latino coverage.

ABC was the only network with a decline in coverage, from 35 stories in 2002 to 27 in 2003.

The study relied on Vanderbilt University’s Television News Archives. Other networks, including Fox and MSNBC, were omitted from the study because they are not part of the archives.