A Pew Hispanic Center report on news media consumption suggests that Latinos are gravitating more toward English and bilingual news, and that they are also gradually embracing online news. Latinos are not entirely jumping ship to American news, though, and still seem to feel that Spanish-language news organizations are slightly more on point with their accuracy.
The report, published at the end of July, examines Latino news consumption, preferred media platforms, and the perception of both English and Spanish news in terms of accuracy.
The big trend here is that Latinos seem to be using English news outlets more nowadays than in the past. Strictly Spanish media consumption has dropped from 78% of Latinos to 68% from 2006 to 2012. However, English alone has not gone up very much. The data suggests that Latinos seem to be using both English and Spanish – not yet pulling away from Spanish networks and outlets such as Univision and Telemundo.
The report suggests that this is due to a few major factors. The population of Latinos who speak English proficiently has risen to 59%, and immigration has also declined – with the average Latino now having lived in the U.S. for a longer period of time. Lastly, they cite that the population of U.S. born Latino adults is on the rise — and this group tends to be much more English proficient than immigrants.
As for keeping up with news, a vast majority of Latinos (8 out of 10) say they keep up with the news “a lot.” About half of the Latino population that says that they keep up with the news “a lot” gets their news through English media; this figure is only 35% for Latinos who obtain news from Spanish sources. The percentages of Latinos who keep up with the news also decline based upon level of education, with only one third of those who have a high school diploma or less reporting that they keep up with the news “a lot.”
Sources of news information seem to be more varied among Latinos who consume both English and Spanish media; 58% of these Latinos report using three or four news media platforms (television, print newspaper, radio, and the Internet). The number is slightly lower among Latinos who consume strictly English news (51%), but only 23% of Spanish consuming Latinos have a varied source of media.
When it comes to source of news, 86% of Latinos get their news from television — a slight decline from 2006. Latinos are evenly split when it comes to Internet and radio use (56% for both). Only 42% of Latinos use print newspaper.
Lastly, when it comes to accuracy and perception, 60% of Latinos say Spanish news gets the facts straight, compared to 59% who say English news does the same, with foreign born Latinos leaning toward Spanish news. The same trend repeats with perception as to who covers news relevant to Latinos better – with Spanish-only consumers reported that the Spanish news is more accurate. However, only half of the Latino population that gets its news in English feels the same enthusiasm toward the Spanish news and its relevance.
The report can be read in full here
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Elaine Rita Mendus is a undergraduate student working on graduating college (someday soon). Her career interests include geopolitics, the Hispanic community, and urban planning. She really wouldn't mind ending up a scriptwriter though...
