There is no escaping election coverage at this stage. Flip channels and you see the McCain/Obama analysis on all networks, cable, even SNL. But what about Hispanic media? At the start of the race, immigration was a critical point of attention. Now, the economy is center stage based on the unique and extraordinary developments of the last few weeks (in development for much longer, but memory is short). Regardless, the contest is still a focus for Hispanic media. Even though we don’t have as many opinion and analysis programs in Spanish, Spanish dominant viewers can turn to Univision and Telemundo or their Spanish-language newspaper of choice for the latest news.
Candidates are amping up campaigns and media are too. Obama took a full page in Sunday’s edition of El Nuevo Herald– with Florida being a key state and all. Ads aside, some media also have elected to show their endorsements very prominently. Such is the case of El Diario La Prensa (part of Impremedia) which devoted their first page on October 17 to Obama, the same day the LA Times backed him. Univision continues with its heavy online coverage.
Jorge Ramos, the Hispanic media’s Tom Brokaw who looks a lot like Anderson Cooper, has stated that these are ’life or death elections.’ He developed a column posted yesterday on Univision.com with some notes for voters to consider before making their decision on the 4th. La Opinion, one of the leading Hispanic newspapers, has long-time political reporter Maribel Hastings on the campaign trail. This just to cite some examples.
Nobody can argue the fact that this year’s vote is historic for many reasons: the capitalist system has been dealing with the worst blows to its foundation, and regardless of who wins, either an African American or a woman AND the oldest presidential candidate will take the White House.
Voter registration is an at all time high. Of the record number of registered voters, this year 9 million will be Hispanic. And all will be affected by the decisions of whoever wins– immigration included or not.
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