The Findings

2004

This year proved to be one of transition for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times
and, in the later months, the Parity Project.

On Sept. 21, the NAHJ launched its Parity Project at the Corpus Christi Caller-
Times. “NAHJ launched the project with about 60 Caller-Times’ staff
members who participated in cultural awareness training sessions. The
sessions were led by Dr. Irasema Coronado, political science professor at the
University of Texas at El Paso, and Nancy Vera, English department chair at
Roy Miller High School in Corpus Christi and president of a local chapter of
the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a civil rights
organization with roots in Corpus Christi. Coronado and Vera discussed
trends and issues affecting Hispanics on both the national and local levels.
The launch culminated in a Town Hall meeting later that evening at the
Solomon P. Ortiz Center where more than 120 community members
attended to discuss the paper's coverage of the area's Hispanic community.
Caller-Times' Editor Libby Averyt moderated the event, which began with
brief addresses from Scripps Editorial Development Director Michael Phillips,
Caller-Times Publisher Patrick Birmingham, and NAHJ's Joseph Torres and
Kevin Olivas.”19 The Town Hall meeting also included Hispanic journalism
students from Del Mar College and Texas A&M University-Kingsville, several
of whom later became staffers or interns at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times
under the Parity Project.

With the Parity Project under negotiation and in effect in the latter months of
this year, the concept of parity and diversity was very much on the minds of

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the Caller-Times’ leadership and editorial staff during 2004. An effort to
increase coverage of Hispanic and report on stories of interest to the
Hispanic community was certainly going to front and center on the minds of
Caller-Times’ employees.

Chart 7 shows how the number of Hispanic-themed stories compared to the

overall number of stories in 2004. The number was greater in 2004 when
compared to 2003 and the percentage was also higher (See Table 5).

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Table 5 – Comparison of Hispanic Coverage on Page A1 during

2003 and 2004

Hispanic Stories % of total Stories

2003 466 21.3%

2004 536 24.4%

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First, the number of stories depicting Hispanics or Hispanic themes grew

from 21.3 percent to 24.4 percent. Total number of stories grew from 466 to
536, again showing a concerted effort by the Caller-Times’ editorial
leadership to cover the Hispanic community. The stories were also more
about the Hispanic community than just reporting crime stories that are
news.

For example, of the stories (Chart 8) that depicted Hispanics on page A1 of

the Caller-Times in 2004, only 50 (or 10%) were stories of Hispanics
“perpetrating” crimes. This compared to 158 (or 33.9%) in 2003.

The 2004 story list shows Hispanics in Corpus Christi more interested in
health and religion issues and more concerned about education than
immigration.

Chart 8 shows that stories reporting on issues involving Hispanics were much
different in 2004 from 2003. Health and medial issues topping the chart at
76 (14%) while religion coverage and issues had 65 stories (12%). Stories on
education increased with 45 (8.3%) and outpaced stories on immigration
(4%).

Much of the difference from 2003 data to 2004 data occurred in the second
half of the year while the Caller-Times was in negotiation with the National
Association of Hispanic Journalist to institute the Parity Project.

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While Chart 8 shows the varied amount of coverage that impacted Hispanics
on the front pages of the Caller-Times during 2004, Chart 9 shows a month-
by-month breakdown which reveals that 54 percent of the stories on
Hispanics happened in the second half of the year.

Again, NAHJ had the perfect model to test its Parity Project and, at first

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glance, the goals of NAHJ and perhaps those of the Corpus Christi Caller-
Times editorial leadership were working.

It was in the last quarter of 2004 that the efforts of the C-T to increase the
number of Hispanics in the editorial department became evident. More
Hispanic reporters were hired and interns from area colleges, one thorugh
the funding of NAHJ, were given opportunities to prove their mettle as full-
time staffers. Between 2003 and 2004, the number of non-white staffers in
the Caller-Times newsroom increased 13.9 percent from 20 percent in 2003
to 33.9 by the end of 2004 (Table 6).

Table 6 – Percentage of non-whites working in C-T newsroom

Year 2003 Year 2004

20.0% 33.9%

Source:Knight Foundation Report 2005

The Town Hall meeting held Sept. 21,

2004, had revealed an ugly side of the
community which did not feel their
hometown newspaper was
representative of Hispanics and their
issues. Politicans, civil rights leaders,
educators and just members of the
community had shown up to speak up
about the lack of coverage and a
historically perceived non-caring
attitude toward the Hispanic
community by the

“Many community members were

critical of the paper’s coverage of
Hisanics in the past, bringing up the 1997 protest against the paper
regarding its coverage of Hispanics and the under-representation of
Hispanics journalists in the newsroom,”20 reported NAHJ on its website, Sept.
24, 2003. The photo on the right shows former State Representative Arnold
Gonzales passionatley making a point at the Town Hall meeting coordinated
by NAHJ.

Shortly after that historic meeting, NAHJ assisted the Caller-Times’ staff in
forming an Advisory Committee made up of the paper’s editorial staff and
community members. The committee met quarterly to discuss issues
affecting Hispanics in Corpus Christi and how the newspaper could better
cover those issues.

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Among the significant gains in 2003 to 2004 were the number of photos
depicting Hispanics on the front page of the Caller-Times as well as the
number of local Hispanic bylines. Photos increased from 34 to 54 and
represented 7.4 percent of the photos on pi (page 1).

Bylines by Hispanic staffers on page 1 grew from 58 to 68. It was a small

mark of progress, but still a far cry from equitable staffing of the newsroom.
Hispanic bylines on page A1 now represented more than 20 percent of the
local bylines, a clearly visible statement to the reading public and the
community.

The year 2004 was definitely a transition year for the Caller-Times in its
coverage of the Hispanic community. The paper’s front page seemed to
reflect the community better, albeit far from perfect and far from showing
the dominance of the Hispanic community in the area. But, B1 remained a
staple of coverage for Hispanics. Hispanics are definitely “local” in South
Texas (almost 60 percent according to the census) and B1 is supposed to
cover “local” news. Hispanics than are B1 material if not A1.

_______________________________________

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 Table 7 – Local B1 Hispanic Stories – 2004

Year Hispanic Stories Total Stories % Stories

2004 564 2,184 25.8%
2003 510 2,184 23.3%
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During 2004, the coverage on local section B1 front was also more
responsive to Hispanic-themed stories and issues. Hispanic stories on B1
during 2004 represented more than 25 percent of stories on that page
(Table 7). During 2004, in Section B1, human interest stories were top
ranked (96), followed by education (82), general interest (70), heritage
(62) and health/medical (60), as shown on Table 8. Looking at the data, a
question as to what happened to crime stories in 2004 should certainly
pop into people’s minds. The answer is simple, some crime stories of
minimal impact were moved to the inside pages. This, too, reflected a
change in news judgment and philosophy on the part of the Caller-Times
editorial staff.

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Table 8 – Local B1 Hispanic Stories – 2004

Story Type Number

General 70
Discrimination 14
Religion 28
Human Interest 96
Health/Medical 60
Immigration 24
Heritage 62
Politics 48
Education 82
C-Victims 12
C-Preps 4
Disasters 8
Art and Culture 56

TOTAL 564

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A review of front pages and local fronts during 2004 will further clarify the
findings for this year. Again, like in the latter part of 2003, the coverage of

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Hispanics and Hispanic issues was particularly evident, as the data show, on
the local B1 front.

Sept. 20, 2004, Local Front, B1 Sept. 20, 2004 A1

Reviewing the Local Front B1 issue of Sept. 20, 2004, reveals how covering
Hispanics is more than just reporting on traditional holidays like Cinco de
Mayo or 16 de Septiembre. Reporting on stories important to the community,
profiling its citizens and showing that Hispanics have a stake in their city is
what is more important. The Sept. 20 local front (B1) certainly achieved that.
The volunteer award is just a story on an ordinary citizen who has done extra
ordinary things, but who just happens to be Hispanic. The story on the
monument to Mexican War veterans is one that, in the past, would not have
been noticed by staffers or editors of the Caller-Times. The irony of the
situation is that Hispanic veterans are honoring veterans from a long ago war
fought against Mexico. It is done with class and dignity. The coverage is done

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without bias or commentary and it shows that the face of Corpus Christi is
also Hispanic and that the Hispanic shares in the history of the region and
city.

But, hard news is hard news and that is why there is a front page, A1. On the
same day, A1’s only local story is about the status of the local water supply.
Other stories are about the Iraq, relief effort for Florida’s hurricane victims
and the 2004 presidential election. A1 was reserved for “real” international,
national and local news of importance. Hispanics news, however, was
starting to make inroads and now Both A1 and B1 fronts had a similar
percentage of coverage, 24.4 percent for A1 and 25.8 percent on B1. The
editorial department of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times truly made an effort
to include more Hispanics in its coverage during 2004. It was an effort that
gained momentum with the partnership with the National Association of
Hispanic Journalists to initiate the Parity Project that year.

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 Sept. 22, 2004 Local Front B1 Sept. 22, 2004 A1

Typical of the “attitude” toward news impacting the community is the

coverage of the NAHJ Town Hall meeting on Sept. 21, 2004.

The Sept. 22, 2004, edition of the Caller-Times was one rich in irony. While
there was not any coverage of a Hispanic issues on A1, the local section (B1)
front has one “Hispanic” story. It is the story of the NAHJ’s first Town Hall
meeting to explain to the community how the Parity Project will work. This
was probably the No. 1 news story for much of the community, but yet it was
placed in the bottom strip of B1. Perhaps this story belonged in the bottom
strip of A1, instead of a human interest story about a Corpus Christi couple
being 2nd in “The Amazing Race.”

In the story at the bottom of page B1, one of the Hispanic activists (Rolando
Garza) proclaims, “We’ve (Hispanics) have been victimized (by the Caller-
Times). We’ve been victims of bad reporting for decades and decades.”
Garza also said, “The Hispanic community has to turn to itself for respect
because the newspaper historically has not given it proper credit.”21

In the article, Caller-Times editor Libby Averyt said, “This was the Hispanic
community’s opportunity to tell us how they feel about us, and to give us
suggestions on how to improve coverage.” The, she admitted, “We haven’t
given them (Hispanics) a forum often enough to tell us what they have to
say.”22

The picture that

accompanies the story of
the Town Hall meeting
features former Corpus
Christi ISD school board
member Rene Vela making
a point during the meeting.
CCISD’s student population
at the time was more than
65 percent Hispanic. It was
about time someone
listened to that group, he
said, because the future for
the city was Hispanic.
Sadly, the most poignant
point Vela made came after
the meeting and was a
simple two-pronged
question: “Isn’t a newspaper duty to cover (report on) the community? Aren’t

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we (Hispanics) part of the community?”23 He was making the comment to a
reporter from the Del Mar College newspaper, The Foghorn. The quote was
reported as news in the local community college weekly newspaper.

Still, progress was been made.

Hiring of Hispanic reporters was at a high during the latter part of 2004. This
resulted in an increase of Hispanic bylines by local reporters on Pages A1
and B1. During 2004, the number of bylined articles by Caller-Times
Hispanic reporters grew from 58 the previous year to 68 on page A1.
Progress? Yes. The number of photos depicting Hispanics in every day
situations also increased during that time and in the years to come, as the
data would show, that would be one of the key toward more and better
coverage of the Hispanic community.

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