Indiana residents will no longer have to rely on a satellite service to see Spanish-language programming at the touch of a button.
According to the WISH-TV Web site, the Indianapolis CBS affiliate will share its newsroom with employees of the newly created WIIH, Univision of Indiana.
Univision is the number one ranked Spanish-language network in the United States. All of the top-twenty programs in Spanish-speaking U.S. households are on its program list, according to WISH-TV.
Viewers have been able to watch Univision on Channel 17 since Feb. 3. Negotiations are currently being conducted with three cable stations to increase availability to viewers, according to WISH-TV.
On March 3, WIIH will launch a local newscast in Spanish that will air at 11:00 p.m., a first for the Indianapolis market.
The addition of the station coincides with the latest United States Census reports that the Hispanic population has now jumped ahead of the black population in numbers.
The U.S. Census Bureau states that the Hispanic population grew to 37 million people in July 2001, an increase of 15 percent from the previous year.
"I think it's wonderful. With the Hispanic population increasing, we need to be aware of the culture as well as daily Hispanic living," said junior Chole P. Hughes, Latino Student Union treasurer.
The U.S. Census Bureau lists the Hispanic population in Indiana at 214,536 or about 3.5 percent of the state's population in 2000. Currently, more than 85,000 Hispanics live in metro Indianapolis.
"I think it's an acknowledgement that commercial broadcasters can make some money, which is what they're in business to do, by serving the fast-growing Spanish-speaking market," said telecommunications instructor Philip Bremen.
In some very large markets now, some small television stations are dividing up their broadcast schedule into blocks, Bremen said. Each block is then programmed in a different language, a practice that radio stations with relatively weak signals have been doing for decades.
"It is not just about language. It's also about the types of programs and the degree to which they address the culture, needs and interests of their audience," Bremen said.
Although not marketed to any other audience, some experts believe that the station will last indefinitely.
"We've had Spanish radio and TV stations in the U.S. for years. This is nothing new. It's just a little slower in coming here because we have traditionally had a pretty homogeneous population. Now that it's becoming a little more diverse, we're catching up with parts of the country that have been doing this for decades," Dominic Caristi, associate professor of telecommunications said.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists seventh annual Network Brownout Report released Dec. 16, 2002, said Latinos did not receive fair coverage on the evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN in 2001.
The report found that out of approximately 16,000 stories that aired in 2001, 99 were about Latinos. In 2000, out of 16,000 stories, 84 were about Latinos.
"The networks' dismal record of covering the nation's fastest-growing minority group undermines the information needs of all U.S. residents and distorts the public discourse so necessary for any democratic society," said NAHJ President Juan Gonzalez, a columnist with the New York Daily News.
In the report, Latino-related stories accounted for 3.98 hours of the approximate 728 hours of news broadcasted by the networks.
According to the report, cities with large Latino populations continued to be under-represented as locations where Latino-related stories originated. The greatest number of stories, 22, originated in Washington, D.C.
"I hope that surrounding communities take this as a hint and use this as a stepping stone towards diversity. Maybe later on, more Latino radio stations, or other channels geared towards the Spanish-speaking population, will crop up to cater towards the largest minority in the country," junior Janet Arias said.
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