METHODOLOGY
The definition of a Latino news media outlet for the purposes of this report is a U.S.-based media outlet that serves a Latino community or population offering information and/or commentary about U.S. current events or nonfiction storytelling.
We understand “news” to be, in the broadest sense, information that helps people make sense of the world around them. Our only stipulation in identifying a Latino news media is that the outlet provide news and current affairs content – the latter in the form of either original reporting or presented as commentary or nonfiction storytelling.
So for example, a small, local, weekly newspaper produced by one individual would qualify as a news media outlet. But a large, big-city Spanish-language radio station whose programming is mainly music and entertainment, would not.
We did not include platforms within larger media outlets that only translate English content into Spanish. An example would be ProPublica en Español. We also did not include outlets like The New York Times en Español, produced mainly outside of the U.S.
How we identified news outlets and collected data
The first stage of our research was carried out by a group of bilingual journalists in the 2017 class of the Spanish Language Journalism Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
The students first identified Latino news media outlets for their assigned states – places where, we knew, some outlets existed. They used general news media directories and databases, some accessed through The New York Public Library system: Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media, 154th ed (Online), SRDS database, Advertising Red Books Online, and Editor & Publisher. The students also used aggregator news and business databases they were familiar with and had access to through CUNY: ReferenceUSA, Access World News, Factiva and LexisNexis.
Next, our students carried out extensive online searches for aggregated lists of Latino news media outlets. They gathered information from states’ open data portals, Facebook groups, Twitter lists, Latino journalists and media associations, Latino community organizations, Latino nonprofit and advocacy groups, universities, local journalists, other local media outlets and chambers of commerce – organizations and people familiar with media outlets at a state and local level.
Following that first phase of research we put together a list of what we considered to be our “slim” states — those with fewer than 10 Latino media outlets. Two research assistants did additional outreach and online research to identify outlets we might have missed in those states. They also collected data for all outlets identified: address, media type, language of publication/broadcast, content type, website details, year founded, type of ownership or name of owner, audience/circulation, sources of income, number of employees, frequency of publication, social media accounts. Data collected in this phase came primarily from information available on the outlets’ websites.
Our third phase of research involved a complete review of outlets. This involved additional online search and outreach, including multiple phone calls and emails to the outlets; data collection through a survey emailed to all identified outlets; and a final verification process of all information collected.
Our survey functioned as a way to introduce and explain the project to those outlets we identified and to collect missing data for each of them. We sent the survey to all 624 of the outlets we identified; 157 replied. The outlets that did not respond remain in our directory as long as we can verify that they are currently producing and distributing content.
NOTE: We use Latino as an adjective (when we refer to outlets or organizations, for example) and Latinx as a noun (when we refer to people) throughout the report. Latinx is a controversial term. Spanish is a more heavily gendered language than English, and many people feel “x” is foreign to it. But we support its goal of advocating for gender neutrality as a way of creating a more equitable world.
We prefer Latino to Hispanic, although both words are used to describe the same population. We use this generic term for the sake of clarity, but we are aware that most people identified with either of these labels don’t feel represented by them and that they prefer more specific labels (such as their family’s country of origin) or see themselves as part of a broader identity, such as American.