Community Problem Report as Annotated Bibliography on the Latino Representation in the

Media
Cort, C. (1987). A Long Way to Go: Minorities and the Media. Center for Media Literacy, issue
#38. Retrieved from: http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/long-way-go-minorities-andmedia
This article focuses on how the media is at fault for the wrong perception of Latinos due
to its stereotypes. It narrates an incident that happened on a contest game in which they
associated a heavily Latino populated zone in Los Angeles with the word gangs,
because of the stereotype the media has about Latinos being criminals. Generally, the rest
of the article focuses on how the media is a great influence on how minorities are
perceived by the rest of society, and how some representatives from these minorities have
become known in these past years to be the voice for their minority. It also says that some
minorities have decided to create their own media outlet, so they can be well represented
and they can express their own views and topics freely without stereotypes being imposed
on them. It is partially a useful source because of the incident that happened on the
contest can be used as evidence for an argument in the research. Its also helpful because
you can compare representation of Latinos with other minorities. The information seems
to be reliable, it shows the authors credentials, although it seems to have a certain bias
because part of it is from the authors opinion regarding the topic. It can fit into the
research as to serve for proof of what damage stereotypes can cause and how it influences
into the image other Americans have of Latinos. It was helpful because it also lets the
reader see a perspective of how other minorities have the same problem of poor
representation.

Dixon, T. L. & Linz, D. (October 2000). Race and the Misrepresentation of Victimization on
Local Television News. Communication Research, vol. 27 no. 5, 547-573.
doi: 10.1177/009365000027005001
This academic journal provides information on a study based on a sample of news aired
in Los Angeles. Its purpose was to observe representations of races Whites, Blacks and
Latinos as crime victims. The study showed that Whites were often more represented as
the victims of crime in news, meanwhile Blacks and Latinos were represented as the ones
committing the crimes. The article also shows statistics on overrepresentation and
underrepresentation of these races in television news versus actual crime reports, and it
concludes with the statement that Whites are overrepresented, Latinos are
underrepresented and Blacks are neither one of those (Dixon & Linz, 2000). This source
is partially useful, because it does not solely focus on Latinos, but it helps by portraying
statistics and facts about how Latinos are underrepresented on news. The source is
reliable because its use of formal tone, as well as its references consist of previous
research from credible universities. The source is objective, it states the goal of the study,
which was to prove how races are misrepresented on the news, and then it focuses on
stating the results of said study. This source fits into the research by serving as an
example for the question of how Latinos are represented on the news. It will help by
letting readers become aware of how still to this day there is a large difference between
races, and who gets categorized as the victim and the criminal. This source helps to
further the argument of why representation needs to improve for the better to stop these
injustices from happening.

Goffman, A. (2015, February). Alice Goffman: How were priming some kids for college and
others for prison [Video file]. Retrieved from:
https://www.ted.com/talks/alice_goffman_college_or_prison_two_destinies_one_blatant_
injustice
This video source goes in depth to explain the consequences that prison has on AfricanAmerican and Latinos, and it emphasizes how stereotypes and racist judgement against
these two races are the cause of why most of these people are going to prison instead of
college. It explains how cops tend to arrest, chase down, and stop people in Latino and
African-American neighborhoods because they were acting suspicious, and that is mainly
based on how these races are portrayed in media. In the video, she specifies she
conducted an informal study by listing how many times she saw people from these
communities having trouble with the police. She argues that these races are being stripped
away from their right to have a proper education and good jobs because they dont have
the same opportunities as more privileged people. To conclude, she states that thankfully
there has been some progress over the course of years. This is a somewhat useful source,
because it shows a consequence of how racism and stereotypes affect Latinos progress in
their lives. The video goal was to focus more on daily issues these communities suffer,
which makes this source different from the others. The information seems to be reliable
since TED Talks is a trusted website, and the source doesnt seem to present any bias.
This source can be useful to serve as an example of how stereotypes affect Latinos, and to
show how there has been minimum progress in the issue, helping to argue why a change
needs to happen sooner so the life quality of Latinos can improve.

Krings, M. (2015, September 9). Study shows media stereotypes shape how Latinos experience
college. PHYS. ORG. Retrieved from http://phys.org/news/2015-09-media-stereotypeslatinos-college.html
This article provides results of a study conducted by Joseph Erba in which he interviewed
Latino students born in the U.S. who were attending a public college. He focused on the
media as the issue because there are several similar studies that focus on a socioeconomic
point of view as well as other similar issues, but he wanted to know if the media affected
in any way the education of Latinos. The point of this article was to illustrate the
importance of representation of Latinos in the media, and the results of the study show
that Latinos are less likely to graduate than their peers because stereotypes and poor
representation in the media affects them, especially those who connect strongly with their
heritage. This is a useful source because it helps to answer the question of how
representation affects Latinos lives by serving as an example of one of the consequences
that bad representation can cause on Latinos. The source does not show any bias, and it is
credible because the website is an organization that focuses on research and studies. The
article will be useful for the research, and it will help to argue in favor of why we need
good representation of Latinos in the media. It will also help the readers understand the
importance of this issue, as well as to add credibility to the research because of the use of
a trustworthy source. In a way, this source helped me see this issue from a different point
of view, because I was focusing more on how it affects Latinos emotionally rather than
how it affects them on other activities.
Picker, M. & Sun, C. (Producers & Directors). (2013). Latinos Beyond Reel: Challenging a
Media Stereotype [Motion picture]. United States: Open Lens Media Production.

This documentary portrays the stereotypes given to Latinos in all kinds of media and the
influence it has on life. It shows examples of how in cartoons, Latino characters tend to
be represented as drunken people, criminals, bandits, and how in films and shows
characters since years ago have been stripped off their dignity by being portrayed with
racist and gross stereotypes, making them appear as a threat to Americans. It also gives an
emphasis on how this kind of fiction affects Latinos in current events, because people
automatically label them as criminals and other derogatory terms, and it increases racism
towards this community, showing the example of Latinos getting called illegal aliens
by kids who heard the term in a cartoon to violently address Latinos. It is a very useful
source because it connects the issue at hand with all kinds of media and how it affects
Latinos daily lives. It is by far the most powerful source because the goal of this
documentary was to show the influence that the media has over people and the way they
see Latinos. The information is reliable because it shows examples of several different
sources, such as news coverage from CNN as well as other trustworthy news outlets, and
it also uses interviews from Latinos showing their point of view, using them as a primary
source to relate how this issue affects them. It uses pathos strongly which makes it appear
as biased, but it was needed because of the kind of genre the source is. This source fits
into the research by serving as an example to answer the four questions in the community
report problem, and it gives a first-hand insight into how problematic this issue is.
Portales, M. (2000). Crowding Out Latinos. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
This book generally provides an insight on how Latinos, specifically MexicanAmericans, have been fighting for years against stereotypes to improve their image on
American societies, and how despite their best efforts they are still categorized as drug

addicts, criminals and perceived as poor immigrants. It also states that approximately
most Latinos receive an unsatisfactory education, and that leads to them getting jobs
where they are getting paid only enough to survive. Chapter four deals specifically with
Latinos and the media, and it narrates how Latinos were neglected throughout the years
because there barely was any news about them throughout the twentieth century, and
when they finally started to make appearances in news coverages it was only to be
represented as criminals. The author says that this only makes other Americans feel
anxious and it damages Latinos emotionally to be portrayed this way. It is a useful source
because it gives insight into historical background on this issue. This information is
reliable because it is filled with historical facts, the tone is formal, and it has an extensive
use of primary sources as works cited. The source appears to be objective, since its goal
was to narrate the changes throughout history about how Latinos are perceived in the US
in general. This source is helpful, and it can be used as the principal source to answer the
question of how has representation of Latinos in the media changed throughout the years.
This source has helped me gain new knowledge about how it has developed, and how
there has been somewhat progress compared to previous years.
Rodrguez, Clara E. (1997). Latin looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. Media. [N.p]:
Westview Press.
This book provides a perspective into the lack of representation of Latinos in the media
and the news, and the misrepresentation of their cultures as well as their events. Its
divided into four chapters the first three deal with the issues on the absence of
representation, the harm that stereotypes shown on the media can cause, and how Latinos
represent themselves in films and television, respectively. The last chapter proposes a

solution to this problem from the point of view of the author, so readers can become more
aware of the damages that these issues are causing on the Latino community, and it
encourages them to become more critical on what they read. It is a very useful source
because it is one that deals the closes with the semesters topic issue. The information
seems to be reliable because of the credentials of the author, who is a professor of
sociology, as well as the references she used, which are academic articles and research.
However, judging by the tone she used, it seems like she addresses the issue from a
biased point of view, it has a strong use of pathos in its narrative, but it could be
interpreted because the authors goal was to raise awareness in its readers. It could fit into
the research to answer the questions of how Latinos are represented on the news and what
stereotypes are commonly used to represent them, it could be useful to cite some
examples, but not to use it as the principal source of the research. This source has similar
ideas to my perspective on this topic, so it helps to support the main argument of why this
issue is important.