Corpus Christi Caller-Times salutes Parity Project and thanks local Hispanic community leaders

Shane Fitzgerald, the vice-president of news at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in Texas, says the Parity Project and the community leaders who serve on his paper’s Hispanic Community Advisory Committee, have helped the Caller to better serve its audience.

In a Sept. 19, 2010 editorial in the Caller-Times, Fitzgerald writes of the Hispanic Community Advisory Committee that was formed as a result of the Parity Project’s launch there six years earlier:

“They remind us every meeting that it’s a mistake to lump all Hispanics together, as if there were such a thing as a single Hispanic perspective. Hispanics are a broad, diverse group and the advisory council helped us understand some of the complexity inherent there.”

The paper’s Hispanic Community Advisory Comittee is made up of a mix of educators, business leaders and others who care about accurate and complete news coverage of Latinos.

Both the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the American G.I. Forum, a support group for Hispanic U.S. military veterans, were founded in Corpus Christi. According to the Census Bureau, the city of Corpus Christi is 58% Hispanic.

Fitzgerald points to a content audit conducted by researchers at Texas A & M University, Kingsville, led by Communications Dept. Chair Dr. Manuel Flores, as proof that some improvement in coverage of Hispanics has been made.

Flores is quoted in Fitzgerald’s column as saying, “The Parity Project changed the culture of the news reporters,” Flores said. “No longer did you have to say, ‘Do this story on Hispanic issues.’ It became just part of covering the news. It’s part of covering the community.”

Results of the Texas A & M, Kingsville research can by viewed at: http://parityproject.org/2010/07/texas-a-m-univ-kingsville-content-audit-of-parity-project-corpus-christi-caller-times.

Nancy Vera, an educator who has been a member of the Caller-Times’ Hispanic Community Advisory Committee since the Parity Project launch there, writes in a guest column for the paper: “The Parity Project in Corpus Christi is still in its infancy. We have a long way to go before we declare complete victory with the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

We are experiencing growing pains because of a transition in personnel at the Caller-Times. Additionally, the failing economy makes it difficult to hire Latino news reporters — or any other reporters for that matter — in our area because they are offered higher salaries in other markets.

I am most appreciative to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Parity Project, and Kevin Olivas. NAHJ has given us the tools and the support to help our community heal. The Parity Project is an example of how constructive dialogue can spur positive change for everyone in the community.”

Check out a video Nancy has made for the Parity Project with her thoughts on the progress the Caller-Times has made in trying to cover the Latino community:

http://parityproject.org/2010/09/corpus-christi-community-leader-nancy-vera-on-parity-project-at-the-caller-times.

And view a print version of Vera’s thoughts from the Caller-Times’ website at: http://www.caller.com/news/2010/sep/19/newspapers-learning-process-difficult-rewarding-co.

Fitzgerald adds that there is room for improvement: “All that said, this quest has no end. And the committee will live on with its monthly or almost-monthly meetings, not just because of the progress we have seen and the change we have been able to demonstrate — but because we have made friends who care enough to tell us when we fail as well as when we succeed.”

View Fitzgerald’s column in its entirety at:

http://www.caller.com/news/2010/sep/19/thanks-our-community-teaching-us-reflect-it.