“One Race, One Language, One Culture”

An important part of one’s cultural identity is his national culture. In a multicultural country like the US, with multiple diasporic groups, what does it mean to be American today? “Intense migration movements have undermined national movements and national visions of “one race, one language, one culture” that shaped modern identities. The global multiplication of “portable nationalities” and continuous flows of diasporic media have undermined nation-states’ projects that aimed to achieve a perfect alignment of politics and culture(Silvio Waisbord, “Media and the Reinvention of the Nation” SAGE Handbook of Media Studies, p.388) What it means to be American is changing, and national culture is shifting along with it, as well.

This week’s readings focused on the way media lends itself to supporting the national culture and how Diasporas are impacting the media. I would like to focus on the burgeoning Hispanic population in the US and Univision, the largest Spanish-network in the US. Last week in Miami, Univision showed us how the media can contribute to nation building and actually question national culture by reshaping political discourse.

Univision’s media kit available on its website states that it is “the home for Hispanic families living the American dream”, and “the place where Latinos connect with their culture”.  Univision (and other organizations such as The National Association of Black and Hispanic Journalists and the NAACP) had made it very clear that they disapproved of the Presidential Debate Commission’s not having moderators representing minority groups during the presidential debates. John Sinclair states that “nation-states are much less culturally homogenous than they once were…This situation has led to the concept of national culture falling into disrepute, as national culture now is criticized as the preferred culture of the dominant strata, not the nation as a whole.”(“Globalization, Supranational Institutions, and Media” SAGE Handbook of Media Studies, p.72)Univision argued that the issues most important to minorities would not be addressed.

After reaching out to both presidential candidates, Univision hosted the first Spanish-language forum with President Obama and GOP candidate Romney on two separate nights last week at the University of Miami.  The fact that both presidential candidates agreed to participate speaks volumes about the nature and significance of the rapidly growing Latino community. Two Hispanic anchors mediated the political forum and questions were taken from audience members as well as Facebook participants since the event was streamed live on the Univision Facebook page. Both presidential candidates were pressed on their immigration and education policies, among other topics. The success of this event could mean that the Univision may add more public affairs content to its programming, or that the Presidential Debate Commission will consider a moderator that is more representative of America’s diversity. In regards to the study of international communication, Karim H. Karim says that we “cannot disregard the growing strength of diasporic information flows and their impact of the system of nation-states. “ Perhaps we should focus less on the America that was, and more on the America that is: multiple races, multiple languages, multiple cultures.