Before the midterm election frenzy takes over, I wanted to have a real conversation with allies like you about how public media can best cover Latine voters.
I know I’ve written about this subject exhaustively. Also, I have talked with some of you who have found your coverage planning meetings tiresome. We hear the “Latino vote” reduced to just two buckets: immigration and cultural identity.
It’s a neat narrative. And it’s also completely outdated.
When you look at polling, you see Hispanic voters sweating the exact same stuff everyone else is: bills, and wondering if the government is capable of solving anything. Sounds obvious, right? But it apparently still needs to be yelled for those in the back.
Immigration will dominate the headlines. Yet, as you look closer, like me, you probably notice nuances. There is an important engagement reason to make such a distinction. When news coverage defaults to the caricature of a community, we see and feel it. Trust lives and dies here.
Here are three specific threads you should encourage everyone to pull.
The economy happens to all of us
The cost of living is shaping people’s politics, more and more.
That latest UnidosUS bipartisan poll showed inflation and bills are dominating the priority list for Hispanic voters. And that’s true across demos, from Gen Z to boomers.
I see major opportunities for public media, in part due to how badly financial news about Latinos usually gets framed. You have surely seen these stories about how Latine buying power rivals small European nations. Great bar trivia. What’s greater? Reflecting the genuine Latino voter panic of meeting basic needs.
Where I recognize a huge opening for local public media is in those personal Hispanic experiences. What does a rent hike do to a neighborhood? What does childcare truly cost in historically Latine zip codes? Those stories are infinitely more useful to your audience.
KQED recently did a great series connecting giant, abstract economic arguments to the pavement of a listener’s block. This kind of approach is worth emulating elsewhere.
Immigration isn’t a binary
A huge chunk of Hispanic voters want stricter border security. They also want a path to citizenship for undocumented neighbors who have been working here for years. They can hate the idea of aggressive ICE raids while still wanting a functional enforcement system. Pundits find these contradictions annoying.
I’m constantly amazed at how rarely the genuine complexity of Latino views on the border actually makes anyone’s broadcast. Hispanics can hold totally normal values like order and fairness, and not be racists who are happy to deny opportunities to others.
We don’t have to neatly resolve these conflicting community views or quarterback why someone feels a certain way. Life for most of us is a messy middle ground.
Does the government even work anymore?
This third one is the subtext of so many stories, and it’s the collapse of basic trust in government.
Research from groups like the Partnership for Public Service points to a long-term decline of faith in civic institutions. Voters now are genuinely questioning whether elected officials have the competence to improve daily life.
One solution? Explain the mechanics of why things are broken. Why is it so hard to build an affordable apartment complex? Who actually rubber-stamps city permits? Why does a bill pass Congress but nothing changes locally for three years?
While these are not necessarily Latino stories, we have the same questions others do, and our communities tend to be most impacted.
Priorities shift
As I wrote back in January, Latino voters aren’t a monolith. We in public media are best positioned to investigate such truths.
Is your organization’s reporting mirroring what’s keeping this community awake at night? Strong economic coverage and more nuanced immigration framing will help. I encourage you to start now though, before the midterm circus completely rolls into town. 🟢
Cafecito: stories to discuss ☕
Recognition. Texas Public Radio’s Ruben O. Garcia has been posthumously inducted into the San Antonio Radio Hall of Fame. 😎 The longtime media leader passed away in February.
Pubmedia resilience. NPR spotlights ways public radio and television have weathered the federal funding rescission. Fury at Congress has been a driver. 😡
El Grito. Legacy advocacy group the League of United Latin American Citizens has launched a media venture. 🚀 The Columbia Journalism Review notes the initiative has been in discussion since last year, and is mostly staffed by recent college grads and students.
Fighting misinformation. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists is offering pay for projects attacking Spanish-language misinformation, using the tool Verdad. 👁️
Viewpoints and journalists. Pew Research Center has fresh polling of younger media consumers. 👀More of them say it is okay for journalists to advocate for the communities they cover and to express their political views and religious beliefs on social media.
El radar: try this 📡
Point out Hispanic voting access. Connecticut Public has a great piece on how Latinos of different political persuasions are seeking to remind the public about the importance of voting. 👆🏽
Also: Houston Public Media and CT Public look at how Latine voters are feeling about their choices among candidates. 🌤
Highlight potential abuses. Beyond the Border investigated the misuse of weapons during immigration protests. 🚓 This piece prompted me to wonder if public media is looking more closely at these matters in their regions and noting patterns.
Investigate disaster response in Spanish. OPB just covered how local groups are drawing attention to the lack of emergency information available in Spanish for residents. 🗯️
Check out wellness clubs. KABC provides a report on a Los Angeles wellness club that aspires to help Latino men with mental health. 🫴
The next OIGO arrives Sept. 4. A special interview with WXXI’s Jose Sandoval on deck. Such a smart, engaging journalist whose insights you will appreciate.
I’m always happy to hear your ideas on topics and people others should know.
I have recently joined the Public Media Journalists Association’s Opportunity and Access Committee. If you have thoughts on how the industry can better serve you, reach out.
PMJA’s Near + Now conference happens this month in Indianapolis and next month in New York City.
🥤 You can buy me a coffee if you’d like to support the newsletter.
America is the “Wild West” again…immigration issues are core to our economy and our credibility in the world; affordability, an everyday squeeze for millions that demands concerted attention and remediation, which the White House is ignoring…literally sleeping through.
The issue of whether the government has the ability, power and will to address these deeply consequential issues is critical and the answer is, it depends.
The fact is, in the right hands, with extraordinary talent, integrity, commitment to our Constitution, our laws, our democracy and to We the People, first and foremost, we can begin to unravel the chaos and cruelty of the corrupt business and political actors in charge that have been unraveling all
aspects of our nation and our national
security.
We can commence the unraveling of horrors and stupidity and despair only if we elect good people and we give them power and support to do this essential and extraordinary work to change course.
Talk about a high wire act: we do not trust our leaders and we need our leaders to take us out of the darkness…this is a conundrum, for sure.
We need to swing for the rafters, imho.
We have few choices and no perfect choices so we have to go with our best option available, and lean in hard to allow the ship of state to begin its turn away from the precipice and sure ruin.
Republicans are 100% committed to trump and his ruinous trajectory to take us over the precipice and into the abyss of ruin. They are NOT a safe option.
Greens, Working Families, DSA, unaffiliated, etc, alone do not have the stature to gain majorities or the highest offices we need to fill.
Dems vary — some are more liberal, conservative or moderate…but they have the stature to fill executive offices and majorities in Congress and state legislature AND they are ALL committed to the Constitution and to preserving our vote and our elections!!! THIS IS KEY.
DEMS are the ONLY party nominees who have both the ability and power to get elected and the COMMITMENT to serving, protecting and defending We the People and the power and access to our VOTE!!! DEMS, of the two main parties, are the only ones who frame policy issues in terms of their benefit to WE THE PEOPLE, first and foremost, especially when we get loud and participate in elections and advocacy and use our power by casting our ballot for them.
Our vote and our interests are on life support. Dems are the only “physicians” interested in protecting us AND if we go “all in” with them, and we show them our power with our full participation, be we D, I, R, Green, what have you, we become the overwhelming wind at their back to make the substantial and constructive changes we need to make for our survival and for our children and families.
There are some extraordinary Dem candidates across the country — Ossoff, Cooper, Talarico, Villegas, Acton, Jolly….committed to restoring the stability and promise of our nation, the supremacy of We the People in governing our nation, and honoring, protecting and defending the power of our VOTE and our voice.
Republicans are working assiduously to impoverish and disempower us, and to extinguish the power of our VOTE — people across America are forced to choose between food and heat, or medicine, and the trillion dollars of Medicaid cuts have not even landed — they are coming care of trump and REPUBLICANS this January and will cause our ER’s to fill to the gills with uninsured and highly compromised individuals seeking care. No one will be able to access timely, appropriate care in this Republican, dystopian framework REPUBLICANS have put into place…hospitals will close, healthcare systems will collapse.
DEMS are our only hope. Massive, united, I, R, D, Green etc coming together to vote for Dems is our greatest chance for the government power to begin to change the course set for imminent agony and ruin set by Republicans.
Let’s shoot for the rafters and get the biggest DEM majorities we can in the US SENATE, US House, state houses and executive offices, and local governments this November.
The bigger the DEM majority, the more substantial changes DEMS can make to avert the ruinous path REPUBLICANS have locked us into.
VOTE BLUE everyone so matter trump’s shenanigans or pronouncements, WE THE PEOPLE will prevail and have a chance to manifest a new way forward.
Blessing and peace to one and all💙💙💙
Great piece! Often even good journalists fall in to the trap of reducing certain segments of our population in to overly simplistic categories as if the members of such groups are not complex individuals with unique views on major issues.