VivirLatino

"Maquilajournalism" or the death of the U.S. Latino journalist

12:55 H | Topics: Bilingualism - California - Media

Latino residents of the San Francisco Bay Area got a big disappointment this week when Knight-Ridder, the company that owns the San Jose Mercury News, announced that they would be eliminating their Spanish-language publication, Nuevo Mundo. It seems that just when there is a boom in demand for Spanish-language content to respond to advertisers' needs to reach the market, Nuevo Mundo is making a sudden exit.

In addition, Knight-Ridder is also eliminating their Vietnamese-language paper, a sister publication of Nuevo Mundo. If the market is growing, why are they doing this? Because it's just too easy to get the same news "imported" from Mexico instead of paying local Latino journalists:

Felix Gutierrez, professor of journalism at USC Annenberg’s School for Communication, says Knight Ridder’s move to import a paper from Mexico is indicative of what’s going on in the industry as a whole. "Anytime you can produce for pesos and sell for dollars," Gutierrez says, "you’re going to make money."

Just like Levi's jeans made in Mexico, the business logic behind this is that if you can get the same product for a lower price, you're better off. But how can one have a local paper without local journalists? And as this article mentions, the differences between Mexicans in Mexico and Latinos in the U.S. will be reflected in the writing and will undoubtedly change the focus of the publication:

Just like Levi's jeans made in Mexico, the business logic behind this is that if you can get the same product for a lower price, you're better off.

Mexican newspapers may share cultural similarities with Spanish-language papers in the United States, but the needs of U.S. Latino readers are intrinsically different from the needs of those living in Mexico, says Jose Luis Benavides, journalism professor at California State University, Northridge and creator of the first Spanish-language journalism minor in the country. "They may speak the language but they don’t understand the context," he says.

Ethnic media has a history of helping migrant communities to assimilate, says Benavides. "They tell readers where to get vaccinations for their kids and how to operate in this country," he says, along with covering issues of concern to their communities, including immigration, education and health—all of which can only be covered by local reporters.

According to an employee of the San Jose Mercury News who did not wish to be named, the outsourcing of ethnic media represents "maquilajournalism," and is akin to "a U.S. corporation killing off one of its own to bring in a foreign product."

Replacing Nuevo Mundo with what he calls "a cookie-cutter, low-cost, factory-produced tabloid from Mexico" comes "at the cost of the quality of journalism and U.S. Latino journalists’ jobs," he says.

As the need to make money rather to inform and advocate on behalf of a community becomes more and more evident, I think it's safe to predict that this trend will continue.

Via / Berkeley Daily Planet and Pacific News Service

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