 |
|
OPENING DOORS FOR LATINOS IN MEDIA
|
The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) is a non-profit, civil rights media advocacy organization created to advance American Latino employment and programming equity throughout the entertainment industry and to advocate for telecommunications policies that benefit the American Latino community. Established in Los Angeles in 1986 and currently headquartered in Pasadena, California, the NHMC serves as a national organization comprised of statewide chapters that have a strong presence in the following states: California, New York, Arizona, and Michigan, and a virtual office in Washington, D.C.
The efforts of the NHMC are critical to the American Latino community because the NHMC is one of the most sought-after and credible Latino media organizations at the national level advocating to end media bias against Latinos. This is important because unless the media bias against Latinos is stopped, the present generation of American Latino youth will grow up viewing largely negative images of themselves which only serve to promote low self-esteem. Media bias goes beyond negative stereotypes to the lack of Latino presence in the mainstream media. Although American Latinos comprise 15% of the U.S. population and are resolutely the largest minority group in the country, this important community is still largely invisible in primetime media. NHMC believes that in order for the media to present a fair and sufficient portrayal of the American Latino community, Latinos must be employed at all levels of the media with special emphasis on programming and policy making positions.
Our Mission
Major Accomplishments
Ten years ago, the NHMC – along with representatives of the African American, Native American and Asian Pacific American communities – brokered deals with the four major television networks to improve their efforts to diversify their workforce in front and in back of camera. The networks each signed a Memorandum of Understanding, requiring them to disclose annual employment and diversity statistics. For the past ten years the networks have provided their statistics, and the NHMC has issued annual report cards, grading their progress. The NHMC has seen incremental improvement since the inception of the memoranda.
In addition, the NHMC has filed over fifty petitions with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny radio and television station licenses nationwide, either on the basis that American Latinos were inadequately represented in the employment ranks, or for instances of pornography on prime time Spanish-language broadcasting that squarely violated FCC indecency rules, or because of the absence of FCC-mandated children’s programs. Many of these petitions have resulted in fines or reprimands.
The NHMC also bridges the gap between qualified Latino talent and those in the entertainment industry that are seeking such talent. For instance, the NHMC administers the National Latino Media Council Latino Television Writer’s Program. This program trains ten outstanding Latino writers per year, and introduces them to industry executives who are searching for Latino talent to add to their teams of writers. Program alumni who have gone on to successful careers in film and television include Norberto Barba, Davah Feliz Avena and Rafael Garcia, among many others.
In Washington, D.C., NHMC’s President & CEO is often called to testify in Congress on various media and telecommunications policies that impact the American Latino community, including minority media ownership issues. The NHMC’s Vice President of Policy and Legal Affairs has testified before the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Online Safety and Technology Working Group on the growing presence and negative effects of hate speech over the Internet, and before the FCC on the connection between media ownership limits and minority ownership of broadcast stations. Since hiring an in-house attorney, the NHMC now also submits public comments to the FCC record on a variety of policies that impact the Latino community.
For our printer friendly version please click here.
The National Hispanic Media Coalition is a member of the following organizations: o The National Latino Media Council – Secretariat o Media & Democracy Coalition – Executive Board of Directors o Minority Media & Telecommunications Council – Board of Directors o National Hispanic Leadership Agenda – Member o Wireless Innovation Alliance – Member o Angelenos for Equitable Access to Technology – Member o Smart Television Alliance (STA) - www.smarttelevisionalliance.org
|