Craig Allen, an associate professor at the Walter Cronkite School, discussed the social effects of the explosion of Spanish television in America Thursday night.
The lecture, titled “The Influence of Spanish Language Media in Arizona,” was delivered to a crowd of about 35 people in the Nursing and Health Innovation II building as part of the Downtown campus’ ongoing Humanities Lecture Series. Allen’s talk drew on four years of research into the history of Spanish-language television and its dramatic increase in popularity.
“Hopefully (students) will realize the importance of Spanish television not just to Spanish America but as a primary fixture of modern American mass media,” Allen said.
The lecture was not specific to Arizona and its Spanish-speaking culture. Allen, a self-proclaimed broadcast historian, has been traveling to Miami, Los Angeles and San Antonio to gather sources and meet people.
“It is really in those places, especially Miami, that the story of Spanish television comes alive,” Allen said.
Allen explained that it isn’t vital for journalists in Arizona to know Spanish but would only be necessary for a journalist who worked for Univision or Telemundo to be fluent. Language isn’t the only thing involved in the Spanish news media.
“Spanish news has completely different role models, functions, priorities and traditions,” Allen said. “It’s more than language.”
Marya Lozaro, a social work student and fluent Spanish speaker, attended the lecture because she thought it would be beneficial to her future career to learn about Spanish culture in more depth.
The lecture provided information about the media world such as Spanish television being the biggest phenomenon going on in media today. Allen suggests that the culture of Spanish America was bound together by television.
Scholars have overlooked the Spanish television network, Univision, which is seen in all 200 television markets and celebrating their 50th anniversary this year with no indication of slowing down, Allen said.
Univision has competed with English-language stations like ABC and NBC, at times breaking into the top four broadcast stations in recent weeks, according to TV by the Numbers.
Carmen King, a Spanish lecturer at the Downtown campus, said Univision does a better job of national coverage than any other media outlet.
“If Americans don’t begin to understand at least something about Spanish television, they will be cut off from what could be the greatest social revolution of the 21st century,” Allen said.
Contact the reporter at kendra.yost@asu.edu
