“There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth” my seventh grade English teacher once told me. The reality of this idea has become more visible in the critical eyes of journalism than ever before. According to Valerie Menard, “Journalists are trained to report the facts, not interpret them. They must investigate both sides of an issue and above all else, perform all these tasks objectively” (14). But the reality today is much different. The majority of United States news publications are written by, written for, and paid for by a select group of individuals: the small minority of the well educated, the upper class, and the white. Despite all efforts to convey an objective story, the story perspective, as well as the choice of stories that are told, come from this small group.
While we’re in an increasingly smaller world, international news is becoming more important. And in a country where according to the US census bureau Latinos make up 15% of the population, and where US business is ever growing in Latin America, Latin American news is imperative. But the United States perspectives given by these mainstream news organizations that represent the US as a global leader rarely represent all view points. The first amendment of the US constitution gives us the freedom to speech. However, US news outlets have the goals to take this freedom and provide objective and informative stories. Nevertheless, there are invisible groups in the news media and the other side of the story is often ignored. This other side, or the “Latino angle,” can be found with greater research, in the small community of Hispanic journalists and journals whose outreach is to US Latino citizens, as well as in the news coming directly from the international country. The differences between these two sets of outlets are outstanding. These differences are seen through the current Latin American events today. The idea of development of Third World countries and the US role in that development has reached the surface as Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez has initiated the founding of The Bank of the South. This important event is being covered by US news sources including, the New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, and The Economist, and the Worldpress.org and yet in a different light by sources geared toward the Latino audience including El Nuevo Herald, La Raza, and El Universal. Examinations of different representations of the Bank of the South show the division between US mainstream papers and US and international Latino papers.
The Bank of the South is a plan developed by Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela. The bank will be established to fund regional development projects throughout South America. Currently, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela have attended the founding meetings in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. Columbia has recently shown interest in the institution as well. Chile, however, has so far opted out of joining the Bank of the South, however its reasons are not clear. The Bank of the South is to start operating in 2008. These clear facts of the Bank of the South are consistent throughout all reports. The reasons for the Bank of the South, its goals, and the international response are reported much differently by each news outlet.
The bank of the south confronts the idea of modern development, which has been a mainstream topic for decades. The United States, as an economic and political world leader, has promoted and ‘aided in’ development throughout Latin America. Arturo Escobar discusses the history of development post World War II with the discovery of “mass poverty that led to an important restructuring of global culture and political economy” (21). The globalized US took the lead and led the war on poverty in what they called Third World counties. From this, the US reached out further, and the idea of development was created. This development focused on spreading the ideas and technology that the US processed across the world, to promote international trade and better conditions. The idea of development was presented as a salvation of the Third World countries (25). Development has since expanded its arms to reach more countries and more programs under more people. However Escobar states that one of the most nefarious results of development and the development discourse is that “Many in the Third World began to think of themselves as inferior, underdeveloped, and ignorant and to doubt the value of their own culture, deciding instead to pledge allegiance to the banners of reason and progress” (52). Today, most Third World countries have been seriously changed via development efforts., Some have indeed come to believe that due to their conditions of economic exploitation and many social problems, that Third World countries are inferior (54). With development through the years, has come a war against communism and at the end of the twentieth century neoliberal practices. This “Washington Consensus” included cutting public expenditures, deregulation, and privatization of organizations. These policies that have converted partly Socialist and Poulist Latin America to what they are today has left much of Latin America worse off in terms of human development. According to Edwardo Galeano, author or Upside Down, “According to a recent poll conducted in seventeen Latin American countries, three out of every four people say their situation is unchanged or getting worse” (320). The Bank of the South is one of the first international attempts to counter these neoliberal practices. Together, South America will promote their own development under their own terms. This new development practice is difficult for Washington to understand, while South America is optimistic, as seen in the press covering the Bank of the South.
The New York Times is the largest Sunday paper in the United States, and NYTimes.com is the number one newspaper site (The New York Times Company). Many of the paper print readers use the internet as an additional source to access more information. The NYTimes.com has 14.2 million unique users. Of these users, 52.2 percent of them are male, with a median age of 47.4 and median income of 72,779 dollars. Three out of four NYTimes.com readers are college graduates, and nearly half have post graduate education (NYTimes Company). The writers of the articles published by the New York Times are geared toward a wealthy, educated audience, which the New York Times prides itself on. “NYTimes.com readers are educated, affluent, and influential. [The Times] Reach a highly qualified audience that has a spiral of influence – they get and spread ideas” (The New York Times Company). And while according to the New York Times Company, their Core Purpose is "to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high quality news, information and entertainment,” their news is geared towards a certain audience. The perspective they put into the paper reflects the ideas and views of the upper, educated class, and generally a more liberal, progressive and democratic view. As a result, Latinos and other minorities are often ignored. The perspective of the news reported is from a US economic standpoint, as seen most recently with the news reports on the Bank of the South.
The NYTimes published an article on October 22, 2007 titled “Chávez’s Plan for Development Moves Ahead.” After stating a few simple facts about the Bank of the South, the NYTimes questions the need for this bank, stating, “Doubts persist about the need for such a bank.” They attribute the doubts to “many economists and analysts,” however fail to tell us exactly who. The Times continue to say that the bank is perhaps a simple political move by Chávez to “try to spread his influence and carry out his crusade against Washington-based multilateral institutions…” In the first few paragraphs of the article, the Times perspective has shown the Bank of the South as a political move against the US. However, after reading further when the Times does use quotes, they seem to contradict this perspective. The Times gives the perspective of Chávez and a quote from Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the Inter-American Development Bank. Both these individuals show the perspective that the Bank of the South is an alternative to the institutions that are already in place rather than a replacement or a political attack against them. The New York Times calls out the possible faults in the bank and the questions that have yet to be answered, and then focus on the affect the bank will have on US involved institutions. The times claims “The new bank could struggle to be competitive with the I.D.B.” because of the participation of the United States and other developed nations. With this view, the Times is putting the United States on a pedestal, stating its influence in an institution puts it above other institutions, especially those of the Third World. While the NYTimes.com gives the object facts about the Bank of the South, they also present the view point of Washington economists and the consequences the bank will have on the United States, without touching on the benefits of the bank at all.
This perspective of the foundation of the Bank of the South that was published in the NYTimes.com, was also found in the International Herald Tribune. Like the NYTimes.com, IHT.com is also owned by the New York Times Company. It prides itself in its affluent audience whose average household income is 144,000 dollars. IHT.com has 4.6million Unique Users and has 28.6 million page views per month. However, different from the NYTimes.com, the International Herald Tribune prides itself in “providing a concise report with a unique international perspective (The New York Time Company). However, this unique international perspective is not presented in the case of the Bank of the South, as the same article that was published in the NYTimes.com, appears in IHT.com under the title “Bank of the South, Championed by Venezuela, Begins to Take Form.” While the International Herald Tribune claims to have a unique international perspective, they provide the same Washington centered perspective given by the NYTimes.com.
The Economist.com, published in London by the Economist Group, is yet another news outlet that prides itself with an audience that “consists of senior decision-makers in business, finance and government. They are wealthy, well educated, and international” (The Economist). The majority of their readers in North America are males. 88 percent of the readers have a university degree, and 44 percent have a postgraduate degree. Their average household income is 160,800 dollars. Much like the NYTimes.com, the Economist prints articles that are geared towards the perspectives of these highly educated, business individuals.
The Economist.com published an article about the establishment of the Bank of the South titled “Hugo Chávez Moves into Banking.” The article was published in May after the first talks of the Bank of the South. The Economist.com claims it is “the premier online source for the analysis of world business and current affairs, providing authoritative insight into and opinion on international news, world politics. . .” (The Economist). This authoritative perspective analyzes the Bank of the South and claims that Latin American countries “see them [multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund] as dominated by the United States, and as having imposed the ‘Washington consensus’ of macroeconomic stability at the expense of other priorities.” The Economist clearly states that the Bank of the South is indeed a “part of a wider anti-American political project and as an alternative to the IMF and the World Bank.” While this is clearly the Economist’s interpretation of the institution, with no quotes or facts to back themselves up, they present this information as though it were pure fact. The article continues to discuss the conflict between Venezuela and Brazil over the details and decision to become a member; however these details have since been cleared with Brazil’s decision to join the institution. The Economist finishes off by presenting their doubts of the bank, and says that when there is a financial crisis, Latin American countries will not turn to the Bank of the South, but will return to the IMF. The Economist fails to report on the possible advantages the Bank of the South could have on the Latin American countries, but focuses instead on the Bank of the South as an attack against Washington rather than something to help promote prosperity in Latin America.
Finally, Worldpress.org’s “mission is to foster the international exchange of perspectives and information. It is an online organization providing “news and views from around the world” (Worldpress.org). Worldpress.org receives 2.3 million page views a month and has over 850,000 unique visitors. 72 percent of its readers have a university degree, and 41 percent have completed a post graduate education program. While according to Worldpress.org they publish both reprinted articles from outside the United States, as well as originally written material, their demographics still include the same group of well educated males that we saw with the New York Times Corporation and the Economist.
The article published in the Worldpress.org was written by Raúl Zibechi of the Americas Program of the Center for International Policy. This article gives a perspective from outside the United States quoting Josepgh Stiglitz, a Nobel Laureate in Economics and former vice president of the World Bank and leading critic of the “Washington Consensus”, who spoke to the Argentine business association in Buenos Aires. The Worldpress.com says, “He [Stiglitz] noted that the new Bank of the South would allow South American nations to assist each others’ economies, adding that a major obstacle for emerging markets is a lack of long-term financing, and development banks have been successful in the past at filling this void.” The Worldpress.org article contrasts the Bank of the South to the International Monetary Fund, stating that the Bank of the South will assign a single vote to each member. Unlike the IMF, each country will be equal under the Bank of the south, no matter the size of their financial contribution. The article states the initial problems confronting the bank, including the decision of allotted votes and a concern for environmental protection. Often the problems seemed to stem off the idea that the bank was too similar to the IMF and other multilateral institutions. The South American countries want something different. According to the Worldpress.com, the initial founding documents stated the purpose of the bank is “to break the vicious circle of financing in the region, where our reserves are placed in northern banks at interest rates below what we are charged when they lend to us.” The countries that have accepted membership of the bank have a combined 164 billion dollars deposited in northern, first world countries. The bank would allow them to escape these financial controls. The article presents a desire of the South American countries to distance themselves from the neoliberal economic policies that have characterized the region. Argentina and Brazil have already started this process before the idea of the bank by paying off their IMF loans ahead of schedule. However, beyond escaping the neoliberal economic policies faced by their countries, the Worldpress.com says the bank needs to go a step above and beyond the multilateral institutions and attack all facets of society that have been affected by neoliberalism, saying the bank should “question the core definition of the term ‘development’ as understood by these organizations.” One such example is to “confront the process of converting the planet into an object of international finance.” Instead of looking at infrastructure as a way to link regional countries with the markets of the first world, look at infrastructure as an internal development. One of the first tasks of the Bank of the South as reported by the Worldpress.org will be to finance the South American Gas Pipeline, which will link Argentina to Venezuela. The article states, “This will be a real regional integration project.” This project will benefit South America regionally as opposed to exporting to developed countries. The Worldpress.org presents the Bank of the South in an optimistic perspective, and rather than looking at it as simply an attack against Washington, reported the other side: the benefits for the countries involved.
The United States news outlets, the New York Times Company, the Economist, and Worldpress.org publish stories directed to the same North American, upper class, well educated demographic. The NYTimes.com and the Economist.com focused their articles with a US perspective. De Uriarte, a professor journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, said, “the mainstream media advocates, predominantly, the white male political agenda. It is primarily made up of a certain sector of the population, and it looks through the eyes of that population and sets the agenda for that population” (qtd. in Menard 14). This was clearly seen in the articles about the Bank of the South with the exception of the Worldpress. The news outlets stated the issues that are still unresolved and doubted the necessity and the ability of the bank. According to Escobar, “Development has relied exclusively on one knowledge system, the modern Western one” (13), and the foundation of the Bank of the South puts development in the hands of a different knowledge system. This creates a doubt in Washington as well as a large threat to their power. In addition, both articles focused on the bank as an attack on the multilateral institutions the US controls, and on Washington directly. Worldpress.org, however, stated that the Bank of the South could be an alternative to these multilateral institutions, however stated the problems that the Latin American countries have faced because of these institutions. The Worldpress.org was optimistic and truly focused on the beneficial perspective of the Bank of the South. While the Worldpress.org receives 2.3 million page views per month, their outreach can’t compare to the IHT.com outreach of 28.6 million page views per month or the NYT.com 14.2 million unique users in comparison to Worldpress.org’s 850,000 unique users. The Worldpress.org was the only news outlet that seemed to truly follow their ideals, offering “News and views from around the world,” not just about the world. As they state in their mission, “Worldpress.org provides an understanding of the information that shapes opinions and views in other societies.” And while they target the same affluent, educated group, the Worldpress.org doesn’t have the advertising benefits or financial success of the New York Times Company or the Economist Group. As a result, while the Worldpress.org provided the most well rounded article, most people will never see it, and only here the perspective of Washington coming from the New York Times, the most read paper, or the Economist.
It is clear in the demographics of each of these US papers, that there is a large group of US citizens that is being ignored: Latinos. The median income of a Hispanic household is well below the income of the news sources’ demographics at 35,967 dollars. Only 12 percent of the Latino population has a university degree, compared to over three quarters of the readers of these US sources. Yet another issue, 78 percent of Hispanics speak a language other than English at home and only about half speak English very well. It’s no wonder Latino’s aren’t reading these papers. Not only are they presenting a one sided story, the papers are written for a completely different demographic, leaving Latinos out. Luis Rossi, author of “Hispanic Publications Fill the Void,” said, “It comes as no surprise to most Latinos that mainstream publications continue to ignore the concerns of Hispanics in the United States … The language barrier isn’t the only obstacle that stops the mainstream press from having a comprehensive dialogue with Hispanics; there are cultural and social differences as well” (66). It’s obvious that there is a drawback to these mainstream publications, as their outreach is ignoring Latino citizens.
Valerie Menard reports, however, that there is another angle, the “Latino angle.” Published in many community weeklies, Hispanic journalists are covering the stories and presenting the angle that is often ignored in these large US news outlets. Menard said, “We presented it [the news] in the most objective and professional way, but we were touching on one angle inside of an issue that no one cared to look at” (14). Rossi also points out that Latinos are interested in the news from their home countries. Latinos “value their culture, traditions, and family ties, and also maintain a close watch on the prevailing political and economic situation in their homeland” (66). However, this desire for international news comes with an additional desire for the “Latino angle” as well. Latino’s don’t want to read the perspective of the “white man political agenda” as stated by de Uriarte (qtd. in Menard 14). As a result, according to Kim Campbell, author of Hispanic Media Placement, Hispanic media is growing, and in the last decade they have increased fifty-five percent. Campbell explains Hispanic media saying, “Spanish language media often take a different approach from mainstream outlets – focusing on issues of importance to their audience. Some outlets might adopt a more opinionated tone, as is taken by media in immigrants’ home countries, or cover international news from those countries.” No matter which tone they adopt, these Latino angled publications are making their way into our society.
El Nuevo Herald was originally a supplement to the Miami Hearld to reach more readers, however in 1987, El Nuevo Herald became independent (Porter 6). According to Porter, El Nuevo Herald now has an average daily circulation of 90,300. El Nuevo Herald prides itself in being separate from the Miami Herald and really focusing in on the readers and what they want. In 2001, it was awarded the international Ortega y Gasset journalism award for the world’s bes Spanish-language daily (Porter 8). El Nuevo Herald represents a spin off of a mainstream news outlet into a Spanish news source for Latinos in the United States.
El Nuevo Herald published an article on October 23 2007 covering the Bank of the South titled “Banco del Sur muestra de integración, dice ministro venezolano.” El Nuevo Herald reports that the bank is an act that demonstrates that times have changed, from the past “todos contra todos” policies in Latin America, to a friendly environment among neighbors. The Bank of the South is one of the pillars of the development of the integration of the South American countries. The article presents the doubts of Robert Zoellick, who says in order to succeed, the bank will have to combine good government practices with respect to the laws and strong practices against corruption, something that has been an issue throughout Latin America. However, the article also shows the response of the leaders of the bank saying they’re not worried and that the Bank of the South has its own distinct rules and regulations that will be followed. The article points out optimistically that founding of the bank for development purposes is only the first step. It ends with a quote from Rodrigo Cabezas, the finance minister of Venezuela, “El Banco del Sur no es una retórica latinoamericana. Va a ser uno de los perineos elementos de concreción de la integración y desarrollo de Latinoamérica.” El Nuevo Herald put an emphasis in their article about the bank as being the first collaboration among neighbors with many more to come.
Like El Nuevo Herald, La Raza is the oldest Spanish language news source originally for Chicago’s Latino neighborhoods. In Chicago, according to the 2000 Census, Latinos make up 26 percent of the city population. La Raza is owned and published by Luis Rossi, a Uruguayan immigrant. The paper is beating other Chicago Spanish newspapers with a circulation of 150,000 (Conde 18). La Raza reaches out to Latinos both in and around Chicago with its local and international news directed towards a different demographic group that the mainstream media.
La Raza published an article about the Bank of the South after its first meetings and discussion titled, “Seis países suramericanos esperan fundar el Banco del Sur en junio próximo.” This article presents the idea of the bank as “muy positiva.” It will be something that facilitates financial autonomy of their countries and will also play an important role in the integration of the countries. The article reports The Bank of the South will act as an alternative financial institution and will represent a new opportunity for the people of South America. La Raza also presents the future possibilities that the bank could lead to. Not only will they gain more financial independence, they have begun to think about a regional monetary system. La Raza presents the founding of the Bank of the South with a focus on it being a positive institution in South America, without concerning itself with the idea that it could be an attack against Washington and the multilateral institutions associated with Washington.
As Rossi stated, Latinos are interested in the news from their home countries, and when possible, seek out sources directly from their home country. This gives them not only a Spanish language and Latino angled perspective, but a perspective that comes straight from their home, with the same values and ideals that they come from. El Universal is a daily newspaper published in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela and the future location of the headquarters of the Bank of the South. The mission of El Universal is “contribuir al mejoramiento de la sociedad mediante la creación, acopio y distribución de noticias, cultura, y entretenimiento de alta calidad” (El Universal). They take pride in using the news to promote professional development and social responsibility. Like the media in the United States, El Universal is privately owned and funded through advertising, subscriptions and sale of their publication.
Since the first talks of the Bank of the South to its current state, El Universal has published countless articles about the bank in each of its stages. Most recently, in an article titled “Firmará en Caracas acta del Banco del Sur,” El Universal presents a quote from the Bolivian government saying “Este Banco resolverá los problemas sociales en la región de Suramérica y sobre todo beneficiará a los países llamados subdesarrollados.” The article sheds the positive outlook on the bank and its ability to improve not only financial problems but social problems throughout South America. El Universal also published an article titled “Banco Mundial ofrece apoyo al Banco del Sur.” In this article, El Universal discusses the World Bank, and rather than presenting the Bank of the South as an attack on the World Bank, it shows that the World Bank is willing to support the Bank of the South. It quotes Paemla Cox, vice president of the World Bank for Latin America saying, “El Banco del Sur es un complemento y no un competidor. Los países necesitan tener opciones.” Unlike the US mainstream news sources, El Universal presents the Bank of the South as a positive institution and goes further to explain that contrary to other articles, it is not an attack against Washington, yet just another option to help promote development.
The news sources presented with the Latino angle, written for the Latino reader, have a clearly different perspective than the mainstream US papers. It is clear that the US based news outlets have a weary perspective of the Bank of the South. The question of whether the bank is part of a political agenda as an attack against Washington is a prevalent suspicion. The Latino papers focus on the Bank of the South as a great opportunity. All the outlets were positive and optimistic. They look at the bank as an opportunity for South American countries to become financially independent and even presented future ideas. They focused on the idea that the bank will unite the countries, a significant factor to each country, yet something that was ignored by the US mainstream papers. While they were optimistic about the bank, they seemed to ignore the skepticism in the US. While El Nuevo Herald addressed the fears of the president of the World Bank, and El Universal quoted the vice president for Latin America of the World Bank offering support, they ignored the idea that the bank is an attack against Washington, and simply a political agenda for Chávez. While all news sources try to be objective, it is clear that the US mainstream papers ignored the positive views of the Latin Countries, while the Latin papers ignored the skepticism in Washington.
Overall, Worldpress.org was the most balanced article. A company that is struggling for funding and is by no means part of the US mainstream press, yet still has a demographic profile that parallels those papers. Perhaps their balanced opinion needs to be geared towards a wider audience, including both the educated upper class, and Latinos. And while their articles are published in English, unlike the other Latino sources, Luis Rossi said, the language barrier isn’t the only problem (66). Worldpress.org presented an article that could appeal to all demographics, presenting the optimism seen in the Latin American countries including possible future endeavors, while at the same time presented the difficulties it faced and its relation with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In addition, the Worldpress.org presented the background of development politics and neoliberal policies that led Latin America to where they are today.
The outcomes of the Bank of the South are in the future. We cannot know for certain if the bank will counteract the controversial neoliberal policies that have been put into place in Latin America. Perhaps the bank will create a new form of development that will lead to a better economic and social position throughout South America. We will have to wait and see. However, positive or negative, the news articles published about the Bank of the South show a clear division between US mainstream papers and Hispanic journals and Latin perspectives. We each have the human right to our own opinion, and the freedom of press offers each news outlet the freedom to report their stories. However, studies have shown that Latinos have been misrepresented in the media for generations. According to Clara Rodriguez, author of Latin Looks, “Hispanics were underrepresented in all categories of news coverage when compared with Whites of similar socioeconomic status” (25). However, the problems reach further, and are much greater. Not only are Latinos misrepresented, Latin events are reported with US perspective, often overlooking the benefits and viewpoints of the Latin American country. The coverage of the Bank of the South by both mainstream news sources and Latin sources shows that division between the two perspectives. These mainstream papers have the economic ability to produce their papers in mass numbers, and reach out to mass populations, but their stories ignore other large populations. As said by de Uriarte, “News Coverage plays a major role in defining, interpreting and disseminating the meaning of events.” With the demographics of the US changing, it is ever so important that the US mainstream media use their freedom to reach out to Latino readers and present a truly objective opinion of all events with coverage on both sides of the story.
Works Cited
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