When I commenced my studies in the Bilingual Journalism program here at the University of Arizona, one of the classes I was required to take was BJP513: Covering Latinx Affairs II: Bilingual Multimedia Reporting and Video Production. The class was taught by Prof. Liliana Soto, an award-winning journalist with 10 years of experience in broadcast news in English and Spanish with a specialization in bilingual investigative journalism. In the class, we have to create video news stories both in English and Spanish. Admittedly the class was a little hard for me because I don’t come from a journalistic background, but I knew I had to keep pushing myself harder.
One day during class, she told us that when she was doing broadcast news in English, she received criticism for her accent, which resulted in her receiving accent reduction training lessons without her knowing (due to her employers telling her she was just going to go through dialect and communication lessons). Liliana Soto faced criticism for her accent in both English and Spanish language news. I know she might have said this in passing, but this really stuck with me throughout all of semesters. I admit that I never even really thought about what journalists go through in terms of talking. I figured that yes, broadcast journalists must polish up their intonation and how clearly they say things, but I never thought they would be asked to erase their identity. How can you change the way you’ve spoken your entire life? Having to change your accent, your pronunciation, slang words, and if you don’t do it… you can’t be on air?
On a similar note, Vanessa Ruiz faced similar struggles in 2015. After just settling in Phoenix 2015, Vanessa Ruiz, from Colombian descent, was giving her newscast on 12 News completely in English. However, she received immense backlash from the public for pronouncing “Mesa”, “México”, and “Casa Grande” with the Spanish pronunciation instead of the English pronunciation. Viewers questioned “why did she roll her Rs”. Ruiz responded on the following newscast with the following:
Some of you have noticed that I pronounce a couple of things maybe a little bit differently than what you are used to, and I get that, and maybe even tonight you saw a little bit of it. I was lucky enough to grow up speaking two languages, and I have lived in other cities, in the U.S., South America, and Europe. So yes, I do like to pronounce certain things the way they are meant to be pronounced. And I know that change can be difficult, but it’s normal and over time I know that everything falls into place (Hauser and Santos, 2015).
However, Vanessa Ruiz also received compliments from the public, praising her for her pronunciations in Spanish, stating that this made them feel represented as a fellow Latinx individual. Once again, I know that these incidents were mentioned to me in passing, but I couldn’t let it go. Therefore, I decided that I wanted to tackle the matter of being a Hispanic journalist in the U.S. and their relationship with their heritage/native (Spanish) language.
This manuscript website contains a literature review providing background information on bilingualism, Spanish as a heritage language, accent reduction, standard language ideologies, and Hispanic journalists in the U.S. I utilized scholarly articles, interviews, websites, videos, and my own interviews to supplement my research.
Based on the review of my primary and secondary sources, I guided my research with research questions that entailed the disclosure of the journalist's pronunciation of words in their native language along with seeking the importance of heritage and native languages. Their input about how their journalism profession can improve diversity and inclusion was also relevant for my investigation.
As for methodology, it will be explained detailedly further on, but it mainly consisted of research of literary sources along with my own interviews and surveys. The interviews were conducted via phone call, Zoom, or in person, while the survey consisted of my approaching several people around campus with the promise of anonymity. All interviews were conducted in both Spanish and English.
To foster inclusivity and access, the goal is to edit this website further so it contains both the Spanish and English translation of my research. Finally, the wesbite will also include a conclusion and a reflection of my project, along with the explanation of limitations I encountered during this project, which prompts my desires for future research.