Ethnic Media 101

Zita Arocha is a co-creator of the Ruben Salizar Spanish Language Media program at the University of Texas-El Paso. Spanish language media is offered as a major in the communications department and prepares young people to work in bilingual Spanish media . Read on to learn about this exciting, cutting edge program in journalism education.

KD: What are the issues you cover in the coures? I imagine it's not just about reporting in Spanish, but also covering different cultures within the Latino communities.
ZA: Because we're on the [U.S./Mexico] border and our student body is over 7o percent Latino, we also get students from our sister school in Juarez, Mexico who come as in-state students, so many of our students are bilingual to some extent. Cultural dynamics have not been an issue yet. If we started getting more students who were not from a Latino background, we would add something to that effect, but the focus right now is on the practical aspect of writing in English and Spanish as a journalist, media ethics, communications law and specialized courses like translation for media Spanish media, which will be taught by someone from the linguistics department.

KD: What conditions or changes indicated it was time to create not just a course, but an entire major that focused on Spanish language media?
ZA: It was a combination of two things: With the explosive growth of Spanish media throughout the country in print, broadcast, radio, television, we saw that our students were going to have many more job opportunities if we trained them in Spanish/English media. The second aspect was our unique location right on the border and the composition of our own student body being more over 70 percent Latino.

KD: Does the coursework include a practical aspect?
ZA: We require that the students do a one-semester internship at a Spanish language media in the U.S. Our first group of interns will be ready this summer, so many people are waiting; they're excited to have the interns come in and work. Also, UTEP has a bilingual magazine. It's not required, but students will be writing for it, and it's a place where they will be able to get published. All of our classes are focused on publishing.

KD: Traditionally speaking, it's virtually unheard of for journalism professors to encourage students to work for ethnic media--they're usually encouraged to go after the big internships so they get noticed--and a job. Have you found that this program has changed that notion for your students?
ZA: Yes. Especially the ones whose first language is Spanish--and the majority of our student population is Spanish dominant--because major media companies like Knight-Ridder and the Tribune Company have begun Spanish-languge publications. So students are thinking about it in terms of major media companies they would be working for; it's not like they would be going to work for the local 5,000 circulation weekly Spanish newspaper in their neighborhood. We're talking about getting into these large U.S. media companies that have moved into this area of Spanish media.

KD: How many students are enrolled in the program?
ZA: The first class was 10 and now we've got 20 going through the program. It's beginning to build credibility.

KD: This program sounds very innovative. In the same way that students go out of their way to attend Columbia or Missouri journalism schools, it seems that this is a program that could generate a nice out-of-state enrollment for UTEP.
ZA: Because we've just been getting it off the ground, we haven't done any recruiting for the program, but this is definitely a program that would not just attract students from the U.S., but from across the rest of the Spanish-speaking world.