Reinventing the Latino Television Viewer: Language, Ideology, and Practice

Reinventing the Latino Television Viewer: Language, Ideology, and Practice examines how the relationship between language, power, and industry practice is reshaping the very concept of Hispanic television. Chávez argues that as established mainstream networks enter the Hispanic television space, they are redefining the Latino audience in ways that more closely resemble the mainstream population, leading to auspicious forms of erasure that challenge the legitimacy of Spanish altogether. This book presents the integration of English into the Hispanic television space not as an entirely new phenomenon, but rather as an extension of two ongoing practices within the television industry—the exploitation of consumer markets and the suppression of Latino forms of speech.

Table of Contents:
Chapter One: Hispanic Television and the Changing Field of Latino Cultural Production Chapter Two: Audience Reconstruction and the Rise of “New Latino” Chapter Three: Mixing, Switching, and Policing Linguistic Boundaries Chapter Four: English-Language Television and Linguistic Erasures Chapter Five: The New Hispanic Television Landscape and the False Promise of Democracy

About the Author :
Christopher Chávez is assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon.

Review :
Chávez provides a provocative examination of a central element in the contemporary US culture industry: the audience. And he zeroes in on an increasingly influential social, cultural, and political demographic: Latinos. Through his incisive analysis, the author puts the spotlight on the current media landscape and the rapidly changing cultural landscape. Chávez musters evidence that points to an unsettling discovery: rapacious capitalist markets, represented by the modern television industry, include maximizing profits through expansion and maintaining mainstream America’s linguistic dominance through the reinvention of Hispanic television. This last outcome includes the 'erasure' of 'Latino forms of speech' by English-language television practices, such as using English subtitles in Spanish-language broadcasts and creating bilingual television networks (e.g., Fusion). Chávez’s investigation is troubling but is required reading for anyone interested in understanding the insidious nature of power maintenance, the role of social institutions such as the mass media in shaping ideology through language, and how people in positions of power rely on sophisticated mechanisms to keep that power at the expense of the less powerful. This book is a must read for anyone in communication, media studies, Latino/a studies, cultural studies, or sociology. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. Chávez’s unique position gained him access to a diverse range of interview subjects who provide insight into the production practices of the Hispanic media market. Ultimately, he is able to weave together the development of Spanish language media and the emergence of a bilingual media space while explaining the market forces that imagine a Latino audience that ultimately fits into the larger corporate logic of commercial media in the United States. The promise of new media platforms and distribution channels may provide an avenue where a range of stories that appeal to the diversity of the Latino experience can find a home and recapture the civic function of media meant to serve the community. Through his scrutiny of Latino television audiences, Chris Chávez masterfully integrates industrial, cultural, and ideological analyses to provide an intelligent and insightful look at a vitally important issue in the U.S. today. This book is fundamental reading not only for media, communications, and Chicano/Latin American studies, but also for all who want to more fully understand the current U.S. cultural landscape. In this highly innovative study, Christopher Chávez brings together a wide range of historical research, industry analysis, and textual decoding to explore the contemporary terrain of semiotic erasure of Latina/o television viewers. Chávez demonstrates that appropriation of Hispanic spaces and cultural forms does not serve Latino communities but does contribute to mainstream television industry profits. This book is essential reading for any scholar or student of contemporary media, television, audiences, and Latina/o Studies. This book contributes to the tradition of industrial-institutional analysis of media corporations. Chávez gives an inside look into the logics of the television industry which are deeply tied to the structured hierarchies of thought (habitus) expressed by media practitioners who assign specific value to the Latino culture and language based on the logic of the dominant English linguistic market. Ultimately, Chávez demonstrates how, within the context of global capitalism and media’s pursuit of profits, language and culture have become commodities Chávez provides an engaging, well-researched, and timely account of a major shift in the way major media players imagine, research, and recreate Latino consumers in the U.S. Moving from foreign, unacculturated, Spanish-language dependent laborers to hip, young, multicultural and selectively bilingual techno-consumer targets, this book blends historical scholarship, ethnographic interviews, and hands-on advertising experience. Highly recommended for research and classroom use in advertising, media and ethnic studies, and sociology of markets.