National Association of Hispanic Journalists
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the advancement of Hispanic journalists in the United States and Puerto Rico. It was established in 1984.
NAHJ has approximately 2,300 members, including working journalists, journalism students, other media-related professionals and journalism educators.
Its current president (2010–2012) is Michele Salcedo, an editor at the Washington bureau of the Associated Press.
Under the leadership of Juan González in 2002-2004, NAHJ created the Parity Project to assist news organizations in hiring and retaining Hispanic journalists and improving coverage of the Hispanic communities across the U.S. NAHJ is one of the few journalist associations to take a stand against media consolidation, largely due to the influence of Gonzalez and former presidents Verónica Villafañe (2004–2006) and Rafael Olmeda (2006–2008).
NAHJ is a partner organization of Unity Journalists of Color, Inc.
UNITY
UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. is an alliance of the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association. UNITY serves as the umbrella organization under which the four groups hold a joint convention. UNITY conventions have been held in 1994 (Atlanta), 1999 (Seattle) and 2004 (Washington, D.C.) – The UNITY ’08 convention was held at McCormick Place West in Chicago on July 23–27, 2008.
About UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc.
Mission
UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. is a strategic alliance advocating fair and accurate news coverage about people of color, and aggressively challenging the industry to staff its organizations at all levels to reflect the nation’s diversity.
Vision
The journalism industry has an obligation to deliver a complete, fair and representative picture of the communities and world in which we live. In order to achieve this, diversity in the newsroom and in coverage is fundamental.
We envision a nation in which newsrooms are inclusive and reflect the communities they cover, and where people of color hold positions of influence. To achieve this we will conduct research, convene people and advocate change by offering attainable solutions to the industry.
Goals: To raise awareness and participation of the media industry in understanding the diverse cultures represented by the UNITY alliance members, To increase representation of people of color at all levels in the nation’s newsrooms, To increase and broaden news coverage focusing on people of color, and to dispel racial and ethnic stereotypes and myths, To become recognized as the principal national alliance of journalism professionals advocating for diversity and multiculturalism in the news media, To create a self-sustaining organization with a diversified financial base that complements, and does not compete with alliance partners.
National Association of Hispanic Journalists
Mission
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is dedicated to the recognition and professional advancement of Hispanics in the news industry. Established in April 1984, NAHJ created a national voice and unified vision for all Hispanic journalists.
NAHJ is governed by an 18-member board of directors that consists of executive officers and regional directors who represent geographic areas of the United States and the Caribbean. The national office is located in the National Press Building in Washington, D.C.
NAHJ has approximately 2,300 members, including working journalists, journalism students, other media-related professionals and journalism educators.
Goals:
- To organize and provide mutual support for Hispanics involved in the gathering or dissemination of news.
- To encourage and support the study and practice of journalism and communications by Hispanics.
- To foster and promote a fair treatment of Hispanics by the media.
- To further the employment and career development of Hispanics in the media.
- To foster a greater understanding of Hispanic media professionals’ special cultural identity, interests, and concerns.
Programs include:
- Regional workshops and seminars
- National Convention and Career Expo
- Mid-career and professional development programs
- Online job bank
- Journalism awards
- Internship and fellowship listings
- Student journalism workshops
- Newsletter
- Scholarships
Roots
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) traces its roots to 1982, when the first National Hispanic Media Professionals Conference was held in San Diego, Calif, but NAHJ did not officially exist until 1984, when its articles of incorporation were signed, and didn’t have its own convention until 1990. But it was at that first national gathering that journalists caught a tantalizing glimpse of what could be.
Two months after the San Diego conference, the idea of a national organization dedicated to Hispanic journalists suddenly solidified over dinner at a conference sponsored by the California Chicano News Media Association (CCNMA) when Gerald Sass, senior vice president of what is now the Freedon Forum (formerly the Gannett Foundation) announced that there was an interest in forming a national Hispanic journalists’ organization and that Gannett would support a national effort. Henry Mendoza (a former CCNMA president) was nominated as the chairman of a committee to organize the NAHJ.
A memo to CCNMA members from Frank Newton, executive director of CCNMA who was working half time on the national effort, summarized the purpose of NAHJ.
“The major hope concerning NAHJ is that it will provide the visibility and voice at a national level that Hispanic journalists have sorely lacked until now. Clearly, Hispanics’ need for more educational and employment opportunities in journalism, for fair treatment and less discrimination on the job, and for a more accurate portrayal of Hispanics by the media, cannot be achieved without national visibility on these issues. NAHJ will also be concerned with the needs of Hispanic women in the news media and the Spanish-language news media in general.”
Despite the many challenges and more than a few obstacles, the group persevered and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists was born, with Gerald Garcia (then, publisher of the Tucson Citizen) serving as the first president of NAHJ from 1984-85. Six years after that first gathering in San Diego, NAHJ joined with the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP) and the Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences (HAMAS), an association of performing artists, to put on the annual National Hispanic Media Conference & Expo.
By 1989, however, there was growing restlessness among many journalists who wanted their own convention. After intense debate, the board decided to separate. The first NAHJ convention was in San Francisco in 1990.
NAHJ continues to pursue its mission with zeal, striving to bring more Hispanics into newsrooms across the country and to aid those already in the field, professionally and culturally. Advocating for the fair treatment of Hispanics and of journalists, the board regularly interacts with industry and national leaders.
In October of 2002, NAHJ called on the news industry to increase dramatically the employment of Latino journalists during the next five years by announcing the creation of the Parity Project. Through the Parity Project, NAHJ identifies cities where Latinos are underrepresented in the newsrooms but make up a significant portion of the population, and works jointly with existing print and broadcast outlets, area journalism schools, foundations and Latino community leaders to develop comprehensive model programs that will increase Latino newsroom presence and influence. NAHJ’s first partner on the project was the E.W. Scripps Company.
As NAHJ looks toward the future, there will be new goals to achieve and rewards to garner, new challenges to face and obstacles to overcome.
We’re ready. Together, we will get it done.
Why NAHJ Exists
It has been almost four decades since social unrest resulted in riots by blacks and Hispanics in cities across the country in the summer of 1967. The Kerner commission, appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the root causes of the violence, criticized the media’s coverage of the riots and found that our nation’s all-white newsrooms contributed to the “white-black schism” in the country.
It was a wake-up call for the news media. The commission called for increased representation of minority journalists in our nation’s newsrooms. In the 1970s, the print and broadcast industries began measuring the movement toward diversifying newsrooms. But progress, which had been slow to begin with, was basically reversed in the past two years amidst the dramatic economic and technological changes that are forcing the country to rethink and reshape journalism for years to come.
Latinos and people of color remain underrepresented in newsrooms by alarming margins. Daily newspapers, for example, lost 5,900 newsroom jobs in 2008 and virtually wiped out the increases of journalists of color made over 10 years in the process. While one in three people in the United States is a person of color —African American, Asian American, Hispanic, Native American, or some combination thereof—journalists of color make up just 13.41 percent of all newsroom employees in daily newspapers, and 22 percent of those working at local English-language television stations.
The Kerner commission warned that the lack of minority voices in newsrooms and in news coverage would have serious and negative consequences for our society. The words of caution are still relevant today, as our nation’s population becomes more diverse, with Latinos now the largest ethnic minority. By 2050, most Americans will be people of color mecca browser. And by early next century, half of all U.S. residents will be of Hispanic descent.
The warning becomes ever more urgent today as journalists, media activists, the private sector, foundations and the government struggle to find the new ways to financially support journalism crucial to our society’s well being. We are at a political, economic and technological crossroads that forces the U.S. to shape new media policies that will ensure broader and more equal access, promote minority ownership of media, and redefine and reestablish the goal of producing media in the public interest.
Latino journalists and our community need to be part of that conversation and we stand ready to do so. This is why NAHJ’s mission remains critical to the future of our nation. Founded in 1984, NAHJ seeks to increase representation of Latinos in newsrooms and to improve coverage of the Latino community. Not content with the status quo, NAHJ has created bold new initiatives toward ensuring that the news media accurately inform the public about the country and the world we live in.
We get more young Latinos into the business by offering more scholarships every year. We place more Latinos in newsrooms with the innovative Parity Project and with job placement and referral services. We raise our collective voice against distorted or unfair coverage to educate all about who Latinos are and the roles we play as friends, neighbors, competitors and leaders. We gather the resources to provide the multimedia journalism training and other kinds of training needed for Latino journalists to remain in journalism in a newsroom or on their own and to compete in a more uncertain marketplace.
We get Latino community members in cities across the country to think critically about the media, realize its influence on their lives, and organize and inspire them to take the lead in advocating for fair coverage and media literacy. In essence, we position more Latinos to tell and fight for our stories and we educate more non-Latinos to include us in their words and images as an integral part of the multicultural and multilayered fabric of U.S. society.
Only then can the news media cease to be a contributing factor to the racial, ethnic and social unrest that continues today, and that fails to educate those ill-informed people who commit violence against Muslims raising families according to their faith, against Mexicans waiting alongside the road for work, or against gay men who simply go out for a drink. Only then can the discrimination reinforced by distorted and unbalanced news reports be diminished, allowing all people to reach their potential and claim their rightful place in American society.
NAHJ’s work is clearly needed as our multicultural society becomes ever more complex. Our children must learn to coexist and to foster the mutual respect essential to a peaceful democracy. With information, with images, we can—and often do—shape minds and change lives. With NAHJ’s work, we do so together.
