MRC Latino’s most recent study shows the extent to which the nation’s most widely-viewed Spanish-language newscasts neglected covering the Hispanic jobs boom, while giving more than ample time to the historic jobs collapse due to the coronavirus pandemic, as reflected in the April 2020 unemployment report.
When Hispanic unemployment was around 3 percent, with a booming economy and record numbers of Hispanics entering the workforce, Univision and Telemundo couldn’t be bothered to cover it. Once coronavirus-related job losses pushed that number to 18.9 percent for April, Hispanic unemployment numbers were deemed important enough to cover and got a combined 6 minutes and 46 seconds on May 8th.
The methodology of this study is quite simple. MRC Latino calculated the average time given to the prior 16 monthly unemployment reports on the 6:30 P.M. newscasts for both Univision and Telemundo, and then compared that average to the coverage given to the April 2020 jobs report. To put it bluntly: The number on the left reflects that Telemundo and Univision, on average, devoted no more than 23 seconds each to reports of record-low Hispanic unemployment over the 16 months preceding, but had a combined 6 minutes and 46 seconds for the historically bad April 2020 jobs report which was published on May 8th.
Univision and Telemundo couldn’t be bothered to cover Hispanic unemployment around 3 percent, with a booming economy and record numbers of Hispanics entering the workforce. Once coronavirus-related job losses pushed that number to 18.9 percent for April, Hispanic unemployment numbers were deemed important enough to cover and got a combined 6 minutes and 46 seconds on May 8th.
Again, the 47 seconds are a rolling average over the 16 months preceding the April 2020 jobs report. As we’ve previously documented, some monthly reports of record Hispanic unemployment went completely unreported on Univision and Telemundo.
Spanish-speaking audiences dependent on Univision and Telemundo for their news deserve far better than being kept in the dark about the economic miracle within the Hispanic community, only to be pumped full of doom when the jobs disappeared in the midst of a global pandemic.
Feel free to join the conversation, at the tweet below:
STUDY: @UniNoticias, @TelemundoNews covered historically bad April jobs report 8X more than previous months of record-low Hispanic unemployment https://t.co/mGEih20tNn pic.twitter.com/OU65eKleE6
— MRC Latino (@MRCLatino) May 19, 2020
