ChicanoNow: A Discussion on Radio Indígena and mainstream media's mistakes

CHICANONOW A Discussion on Radio Indígena and mainstream media's mistakes

CHICANONOW The goal of this project is to first recognize the problems found in mainstream news media in relation to their coverage of indigenous, POC, and Chicanx people. Secondly, to use Radio Indígena as an example of how to cover and connect with the Chicanx and Indigenous community.

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What is the status quo?

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What other challenges are there?

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Why does this matter?

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Radio Indígena: Created by the Community for the Community

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Concluding Thoughts

CHICANONOW What is the status quo?

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What would this look like?

In 1978, the American Society of News Editors set a goal of “minority employment by the year 2000 equivalent to the percentage of minority persons within the national population.”

As of now, that goal still hasn’t been achieved. A 2018 Pew Research Report, published that “More than threequarters (77%) of newsroom employees – those who work as reporters, editors, photographers and videographers in the newspaper, broadcasting and internet publishing industries – are non-Hispanic whites, according to the analysis of 2012-2016 American Community Survey data,” (Pew Research 2018).

JULY 2019 U.S. CENSUS REPORT 60% of the population is white alone, not including the Latinx population 18.5% is Latinx (important to recognize that people of all races can be Latinx) 0.2% of the population is Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander 5.9% of the population is Asian 13.4% of the population is Black or African American 1.3% of the population is American Native

CHICANONOW What other challenges are there?

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In Don Heider's book, "White News: Why Local News Programs Don't Cover People of Color" he argues that the biggest reason why people "No matter the size of the operation, no matter the actual number of employees in the newsroom, decision-making power generally lies in the hands of just a few managers," (Heider 2000).

Even if newsroom reflected the population percentages, another challenge is that most newsroom managing editors are white.

A reporter from the Albuquerque newsroom even recognized the disparity, and said this when interviewed by Heider, "I I think we are leaving some stuff out. There’s a lot more that goes on, particularly in this state, there's some very complex traditional communities, groups of people who we just don’t hear about on the news too much.

We’ve got people living ways of life that are so different from what people experience in the vast suburbs of America out there and we don’t often bring those stories home to our little suburbs and we don’t always give a true picture of what the state is about."

This does impact what subjects coverage of Chicanx communities. In his research, Heider analyzed two newsrooms with white managing editors, and "in regard to local TV news coverage of Latinos in Albuquerque, “on a 1 to 10 scale, probably a 3,” said one source, who is the spokesperson for the police department and a Chicana community organizer. A syndicated newspaper columnist in Albuquerque said of local TV coverage, “It would be hard to give them an ‘A’ in any field except in covering the negative aspects of news as it touches the Hispanic community.”

CHICANONOW What have we covered so far?

1. Newsrooms don't reflect the current U.S. population.

2. White managing editors are in positions of power ultimately deciding what stories get covered.

Why does this matter?

Without Chicanx, POC, and Indigenous people in positions of power in newsrooms, there will continue to be missteps in coverage (or no coverage at all) of these groups in the United States. The lack of honest reporting perpetuates negative stereotypes and stigmas, as seen when Heider interviewed the Chicana community organizer and they said that the newsroom in Albuquerque only covered "covering the negative aspects of news as it touches the Hispanic community" well (Heider 2000). As of now, there is only 5.6% of Latinos in the newsroom, making it harder to combat the stigmas created in the news (Contreras 2017).

What does accurate and inclusive reporting look like?

As a result of the lack of representation of Chicanx, Indigenous, and POC in mainstream media, these groups have had to create their news platforms to accurately represent and inform their community groups. In this issue of ChicanoNow, we're going to be looking at the Indigenous-run radio station Radio Indígena.

Indígena Radio, a radio station was created by The Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP) in Ventura County California.

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CHICANONOW Radio Indígena: Created by the Community for the Community In Ventura County California, there is an “estimated population of 20,000 Indigenous Mexicans living in the area “and in all of Ventura County, there was only one Saturdaymorning program in Mixteco language and considering its many variations and dialects, the single weekly radio program’s narrow impact limited its capacity to inform, connect, and inspire a growing Indigenous Mexican population,” (Martens, Venegas, and Tapuy 2020). As a response to this problem, The Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP) created Radio Indígena. Radio Indígena began with just a Facebook page and the radio committee in 2014. The radio committee was a group of passionate Indigenous and Chicanx community members and they created fundraisers, "the event would feature homemade Oaxacan food and regional music. [The radio committee] invited bands that were local and each specialized in playing regional Indigenous Mexican favorites, such as the Chilenas. The combination of food and music at the fundraisers helped the station strengthen its identity and reach its target audience," (Martens, Venegas, and Tapuy 2020). Radio Indígena became a huge success with 9,000 followers on Facebook as of 2019 because the station was “driven organically by community needs and MICOP’s mission. The station could have evolved along a commercial model that focused on “popular” content, but because the community station is a project of MICOP, the Indigenous community and its languages are a strategic, consistent focus,” (Martens, Venegas, and Tapuy 2020).

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CHICANONOW Concluding Thoughts There are a few distinct features about Radio Indígena that we should delve into, first is that Radio Indígena is in its entirety is made up of Chicanx creators and organizers that speak in Mixteco dialects. These radio station hosts are familiar with the language, customs, and cultures of this community in California.

The second distinct feature is that they made an effort to reach out to the local Mixteco community before they launched. A problem a lot of mainstream journalists have is that when they go into undercovered and misrepresented communities, those communities don't trust them enough to talk to them. By making an effort to bring the community together, even if it was for fundraising purposes, Radio Indígena communicated that Radio Indígena was for the local Indigenous population in Ventura County.

The third distinct feature we should address is the form of media MICOP chose to use: radio. This is strategic because a large chunk of this community works in the agricultural sector and many farmworkers bring portable radios out in the field to help pass the time, (Martens, Venegas, and Tapuy 2020).

Radio Indígena is successful because the form of media, the creators, and its close relationship was the community accommodate to the needs of the Indigenous community in Ventura County, differing it from mainstream media outlets.

My analysis has added to the field of study on Indigenous populations and media by pointing out the qualities in Radio Indígena that has made it successful, as well as establishing how mainstream media is failing to cover people of color, indigenous populations, and the Chicanx community accurately.

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