First Week of Race, Gender and Media:

I start off every morning by watching the Today show at 7 am to get the top stories of the day. I also get online to read the popular wire stories on yahoo.com followed by reading the main stories of the Dallas Morning News. It sounds like a lot, but it takes me awhile to wake up. When I get to school, I usually read the Quick and the NT Daily. The only time I intentionally seek out the news is when I wake up so that I'm connected to the world and know what's going on. The other times are when I have time between classes in order to not be bored.

I agree with the articles we have read and the movie that we watched in that the stories are skewed with race and gender. I went to an event last year sponsored by the Spanish Media and RTVF. The guest speaker (I'm currently blanking on his name) discussed his research of Latinos in the media that I found extremely interesting. His found that only one out of 100 new stories on national news channels were about Latinos. Of those stories, almost all were either about immigration, violence or gangs. The stories rarely put the Latino community in a good light or talked about their success. On the PRSA e-newsletter there are frequently stories about how advertisers and other people in the field are trying to put Latinos in their target audience. I want to know why they are only starting now and haven't done enough in the past. Here in Texas, we are the majority, but you couldn't tell by the news unless we committed a crime or tried to cross the border without permission.