HispanicBusiness

Negative media portrayals are fueling stereotypes. The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) released a national poll showing that media portrayals of Latinos and immigrants are fueling rampant negative stereotypes among the general population that are diminishing perceptions of these two groups.

NHMC has filed letters with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), sharing this new poll data and renewing a request for the agencies to study the impacts of hate speech in media.

At a news conference in Washington, D.C., Alex Nogales, president and CEO of NHMC, presented the poll findings.

"Today we stand together with our allies from the African American community against hate speech in media, and to advocate for more positive portrayals of people of color in media," Nogales said.

NHMC, through a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, commissioned the polling firm, Latino Decisions, to conduct the research. The two-part poll included a national phone survey with a sample size of 900 non-Latino respondents and an interactive online experiment of 3,000 non-Latino respondents.

During the phone survey, respondents were asked a series of more than 90 questions about their news and entertainment habits and their opinions about Latinos and immigrants. For the online portion, respondents were exposed to positive and negative short video clips, print articles, and audio clips. After, they were asked their opinions about Latinos and immigrants.