Overcoming Latino content challenges
WUNC's Celeste Gracia details the journey to best serve Latinx audiences
There is plenty of advice on how to start Latino/a/e/x content and engagement efforts. But the honest part? Such initiatives can be hard to start.
The truth is that a lot of public media organizations have many priorities. Sometimes priorities are in competition for precious resources. There are also audience declines everywhere. Lower audiences can become lost revenue, which compounds resource problems.
In addition, hiring and retaining diverse employees and leadership is extremely competitive. As we have witnessed, it’s not just public media. Commercial media is seeking emerging talent.
If you’re a smaller public media organization with fewer staff, it is quite conceivable you will only have a few staff of color. Among them, some might want to create diverse content, but the reality is it will probably be in the context of all their other work.
Stop me if this sounds familiar.
This is why hearing from WUNC’s Celeste Gracia will enlighten you. 💡 From the outside, you might say ‘this org has it, no problem.’ WUNC is probably an station you’ve heard of. Yet they face the challenges we all do.
In October, Define American released a report on challenges to journalism in North Carolina. And WUNC’s experience reflects the real-time challenges of Latine content and engagement: it takes time, staff members need leadership support to do the work, and there is trust to be built.
Learn below about how WUNC is building its Latinx content and engagement from the ground up.
Celeste Gracia has been at WUNC since September 2019. She moved over as environment reporter after starting off as morning producer. She's interested in covering several topics within her beat, including climate change and environmental justice. A graduate of the University of North Texas, Gracia previously interned at CBS News Radio in New York and Morning Edition in Washington D.C. 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
How did you get to WUNC?
I graduated from college in December 2018. Afterward, I had an internship at NPR headquarters in Washington DC in 2019. When I went back home to Texas, I started applying everywhere and anywhere. I knew I wanted to be a reporter or reporter/producer at an NPR station and I was willing to go anywhere in the country. At that time, it just so happened there was an opening at WUNC.
I started as a morning producer, working on my station’s local Morning Edition, and now I'm the environment reporter. I’ve spent just over three years at the station and I really enjoy it.
How did you get into trying to engage Spanish language audiences in the area?
Really, it started after George Floyd. Like many other organizations across the country, my station also had a reckoning. In the aftermath, we formed the IDEA committee, which stands for inclusivity, diversity, equity and accountability. It is composed of nine staff members from across the station.
I knew that work with the IDEA committee was going on, but I was so busy as morning producer and with daily news, I didn't really do anything with it until last year.
Last December, my colleagues and I hosted a community conversation to talk about transformative education. All of the community members who showed up – well, I'm pretty sure all of them were local Hispanic moms whose kids were in schools – mostly spoke Spanish. We talked about education, but they brought up that they don't really have any local Spanish news that they go to or that they trust. That's kind of where the conversation started.
At the time, WUNC was working with Free Press, a non-profit that helps media organizations, to host three community conversations, one of them being the education one. Free Press then came out with a final report with several recommendations. One of those recommendations was to “develop a strategy for addressing the information needs of Spanish-speaking community members in WUNC’s listening area.” So that kind of made it more official, because it's a formal recommendation in a formal report.
Coming from Texas, I never had to think about Spanish-language news because we had Telemundo and Univision and all these other outlets. I feel a responsibility to give back to my community because I'm one of the few Hispanic people in my newsroom. Even if I didn't grow up here, it's still the same. It's still the same hardworking moms and dads, right? It makes me think of my own family or my boyfriend's family. So, I joined the IDEA committee because I wanted to work on Spanish language news and on reaching new audiences.
Where does the work stand right now?
The last week of October, WUNC hosted a community conversation with bilingual and Spanish-speaking community members. It was over Zoom and about 20 people showed up, which I consider a lot, especially since this was on a Wednesday evening and people took the time to talk to us. We asked them several questions like ‘where do you get your local news right now?’ ‘What are they offering?’ ‘What are they not offering?’ ‘What are some of the gaps that we could fill?’
It was a lively and informative conversation. We had this event to learn more about what community members want. We need to meet them where they are. Based on their feedback, we’re now going to start developing a strategic plan for offering Spanish language news.
How are you getting the word out about these community conversations?
To get the word out about our most recent conversation, I made a Facebook event and then emailed local Hispanic advocacy organizations and asked them ‘‘hey, can you spread the word about this?’ I also made physical flyers and I literally just went to panaderias and mercados and asked owners and managers if I could put up the flyers. Of course I bought food while I was there, but I was handing out the flyers or posting them on community bulletin boards. Establishing connections is a big part of this.
What has been the biggest challenge to get to this point?
I think the biggest challenge is the logistics, like planning the meetings and such. Everyone at my station is so supportive of these efforts. I've had a lot of help, but I'm a reporter. I am not an event planner. I mean obviously I can do the basics, like come up with a date and a time and the Zoom link. But this work involves so much outreach. One of the biggest challenges is balancing that with my reporting responsibilities.
How does the organization envision this work? Meaning, it sounds like your community conversation is going to inform some of this effort, but do you have any indications about what people are feeling?
Without definitively knowing, I would say there's been a lot of interest in a Spanish-language podcast. So, a podcast or a newsletter, with the newsletter either being over email, Facebook or WhatsApp. I don't know if it would be daily or three times a week or so on. But as of right now, I feel like those are the two leading contenders.
We're not married to any idea. Maybe we'll do a podcast and it doesn't go well, and then we'll have to switch to a newsletter. Even if it does take a little trial and error, this is something that's totally new for my station. But I appreciate that I have a lot of support from upper management.
Is there interest from the organization to fund some capacity? Because asking you to manage an event and everything else is a lot of your time.
We are in this year's fiscal budget. We do have a budget to hire an events producer. So this person would plan events, like community conversations, which is something totally new for my station. I know that we have the budget for it. It's just a matter of actually hiring the person. So yes, the money has already been dedicated to it.
I will say that I have taken all of this upon myself because I feel like if I don't do this, who will? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe someone else would do this. But again, I feel that responsibility being one of the few Hispanic people at the station. I feel that responsibility to take this upon myself.
As for the station, the money is there and the dedication is there. It's just a matter of actually hiring the person. Once we get, for example, this producer on board then it'll be way easier. Maybe then more responsibility can then be on that person, and I can focus more on my reporting.
The question I always come to is, ‘does this come with resources, or does this just come with a go-ahead-and-add-this-to-your-job?’ Beyond that, what are the ways that your organization devotes support now for this work?
With the IDEA committee, we have our own committee budget. So we do have money that is specifically for hosting community conversations. Whoever comes to the conversation can get a gift card, which is a way to say thank you for your time. But also it's an incentive to get people to show up. So that's good.
I think you're correct that there's so much support and there's a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, this is great. Let's do this.’ It then becomes a matter of who is going to do this. It's the resource allocation, the people allocation. Every WUNC staff member has at least one DEI goal in their annual staff goals. So it’s required that everyone thinks about this.
It's incumbent on supervisors to make time for their employees to do DEI work. For example, using myself and my editor as an example, I will tell him, ‘I'm working on this feature and I'm reporting, but also I'm working on this Spanish-language community conversation. I'm doing both and both are equally important right now.’ My editor is respectful of that and it's like, ‘okay cool,’ and that's it.
Until we get more dedicated personnel, it's a matter of making sure our supervisors are understanding. If I don't turn a feature every week, they won’t get mad at me. They know that I'm also doing all these other things that benefit WUNC. I’m spearheading this effort to have this community conversation. I'm working.
It's a give and take, and it is necessary until we get more people or more hands on deck. It also requires a lot of patience and understanding.
What kinds of advice would you give others who are interested in this work in terms of what you've learned so far?
I guess for practical advice, you have to be really organized and have everything spelled out so that way, when people or supervisors ask you questions, you can have everything ready to go. For the most recent community conversation, I had a two-page document that explicitly spells out what we're doing, why we're doing it, how we're doing it, how we’re marketing it, where we're going to do it, and who is involved. It's a document that has every single detail, so if anyone has any questions, it has all the answers.
Be overly prepared and have everything at the ready. Think about every single question and have those answers ready. I'm blessed in that I don't have to convince people. But again, it's a matter of making sure that I have all my ducks in a row. If someone else is in a situation where they do have to convince people, having a document ready with all the information would be super helpful.
The more emotional advice is, for me, I think of my family and I think of my boyfriend's family – specifically like my boyfriend's mom. His mom only speaks Spanish and I think, ‘how can I help people like her who are now in this community.’ I know that there are the moms and dads who only speak Spanish and maybe it's the kids who have to translate everything. I'm doing it for people like my family and I guess that's what keeps me motivated.
The personal advice is it's a lot to take on this effort on top of your normal responsibilities. But I think it's a very worthy cause, and you really just have to believe in it. That's kind of journalism in general, right? You can't do this unless you love it. The same concept applies. I focus on how I'm doing this for people who are like my family. 🟢
La próxima ⌛
The next OIGO is in your inbox December 2. We are back from the Thanksgiving break and Giving Tuesday with a good one. 🦃 You’ve probably heard a lot of praise for La última copa/The Last Cup, the NPR/Futuro podcast hosted by Jasmine Garsd. It’s an English and Spanish podcast that uses soccer to tell a beautiful story. ⚽ Next OIGO, Jasmine Garsd will discuss the podcast and her own journey.
-- Ernesto
Cafecito: stories to discuss ☕
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GBH’s launch of Salud got a mention in the first-anniversary OIGO. 🥫 Current has since dug into the podcast’s story.
Followup to a past OIGO on the rise of Americans living in Mexico: UNESCO, Airbnb and Mexico City have signed an agreement to welcome more long-term remote workers living in the city. 📝
Loved this look at how The Latino Spirit’s Diego Maya spends his weekend.
El radar: try this 📡
Look into traffic stop data. The Daily Tar Heel found racial disparities in Chapel Hill and Carrboro traffic stops. 🚦 Hispanics were pulled over 20 percent more than whites, while Blacks were pulled over at a rate that was 23 percent more.
Grab this moment to highlight Alzheimer’s and Latinos. 👩⚕️ Latin superstar Luis Fonsi released public service announcements in English and Spanish Nov. 10. He revealed his grandmother was diagnosed with the disease, which is expected to widely impact Latinos in the next 40 years. What is happening locally?
Talk year-end to local Latine creatives. The New York Times is among many covering the explosion of Latin music this year. 🎶 Your local roundups are an opportunity to speak with area Latino/a/e/x musicians about how their years went.
Learn from youth media models. Empowering youth through media is a perennial conversation in public media. Brazil’s Children and Youth Journalism Collective is doing the work through training and other education. 🐱💻
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