Latinos are underrepresented in the media industry and more likely to perform service roles, according to the Government Accountability Office’s latest report on Latino representation in television, film and publishing entities.
The new report, released on Wednesday, detailed that the population of Latinos in the media industry increased by only 1% from 2010 to 2019, compared to a 3% rise in representation across all other underrepresented sectors.
These findings are a part of the second installment of the GAO report, as the first, which analyzed Latino represenation by media industry and occupation, was released last year. Wednesday’s report revealed that though Latinos make up 18% of the U.S. workforce, they make up just 12% of the media workforce and 4% of industry management.
“Last year’s GAO report on Latino underrepresentation in American media put a national spotlight on the industry’s failure to recruit and retain talented Latinos,” said Congressman Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, who has led Congress’ efforts to investigate diversity in the media industry, in a statement.
“From entry-level to the C-Suite, Latino voices are missing from the main image-defining and narrative-creating institutions in American society,” he continued. “This invisibility means that Americans don’t know who Latinos are or how we have contributed to the success of our nation. This year’s report will be a call-to-action to achieve greater Latino representation in media and enable the Latino narrative to finally be part of the larger American narrative.”
The 2022 GAO report will include a detailed analysis of Latino representation in the American media industry, complete with breakdowns by subindustry, gender and education levels; takeaways from interviews with stakeholders about contributing factors to the underrepresentation of Latinos; a review of the steps take by larger media companies to increase diversity in the workforce; and reccomended solutions on how federal agencies can better promote diversity in the media industry and enforce equal opportunity requirements.
