A conference organized by the Association for Latino Media, Markets and Communication Research (ALMMACR). Manuel Chavez, a professor in the MSU School of Journalism, College of Communication Arts and Sciences, and the current president of ALMMACR, and Miguel Cabañas, an associate professor in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies, will be coordinating the event.

The Association for Latino Media, Marketing and Communication Research is organizing its 8th conference for April 19-20, 2024, at Michigan State University in East Lansing. The conference will be hosted by the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, the School of Journalism, and other academic units of MSU. The Julian Samora Research Institute is one of the MSU institutional sponsors of this important event. The conference follows active and strong online conferences that ALMMACR organized in the two years during the pandemic and seven previous international conferences hosted over the past 15 years. This biennial conference is organized and supported by a group of scholars and institutions that include: Texas Tech University, Florida State University, University of California at Riverside, Texas State University, University of Texas at Arlington, California State University at San Diego, and Florida International University among others. ALMMACR, which is celebrating its 15-year anniversary, is an organization dedicated to emboldening the Latino community through media and communication research and professional initiatives.

Despite the richness and complexity of the Latino media, based on culture, language, and national origin, media scholars consider issues in the context of a wide spectrum of print, electronic, and digital dissemination of content to inform, communicate, and entertain. Similarly, researchers pay attention to the nature of the political economy of media industries and the market dynamics of consumption, advertising, and marketing. Within this wide framework is the study of news production in newspapers, TV and radio broadcasting, and documentaries that inform the public about salient issues impacting the entire country. Media and social science scholars also conduct studies about how government agencies, political actors, and corporations communicate with the Latino community. At stake are topics that range from health, politics and policies, education, housing, poverty, crime, culture, language, music, environment, science, migration, to law—and of course, how Latino communities are included or excluded from critical processes.

As media formats have evolved, the production, representation, and reception have also shifted. First, the presence of Latinos in the ownership and production of media technologies and content is scarce and limited, certainly not in proportion to the large size of Latino communities. Secondly, representation is also limited and continues, in many cases, to be stereotyped and biased—no matter the medium used. And thirdly, Latino audiences have moved in social media, as most of the population, from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram to TikTok to learn about information and news. On the last point, behind the anonymity in social media there has been a continuing flow of misinformation and disinformation that have impacted how rational, factual, and truthful information has been shared, including issues of health and political participation.

This will be our first face-to-face conference since 2019 and comes after two successful online conferences during the COVID pandemic. The pandemic not only led to significant political and economic transformations that disproportionately impacted the Latino community, but also accelerated communication technology growth to fragment the mediascape of the 2020s. While originally the conference was scheduled for 2023, the tragic violent incident of February 13 on the MSU campus caused the ALMMACR board to postpone the conference to 2024.

The 8th ALMMACR Hispanic/Latino Media, Communication & Marketing International Conference, titled: Competing and Contesting: Addressing the New Realities of Fragmentation of Latino Media and Markets, will bring together scholars, industry professionals, community leaders, and students to assess these issues and formulate solutions. In other words, the conference is not only to share academic research findings but to move those to the level of application to enable a prosperous and thriving Latino community.

Four distinctive characteristics of this conference include: participation by professionals working in Latino media organizations or working for large media corporations serving the Latino community; scholarly research contributions from U.S.-based and international researchers; graduate and undergraduate student involvement; and the input from the community leaders. These legacies will be sustained in the 2024 conference with panels and keynote addresses featuring industry professionals, participation by diverse researchers, special panels, workshops, and even career advising sessions for student attendees.

Very importantly, the study of Latino media permeates multiple academic disciplines such as political science, communication, journalism, advertising, marketing, the arts and humanities, sociology, economics, health, law, and education among others. The conference is then interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary and will examine six distinctive but interrelated areas of communication:

1. Communications that investigate the processes of sharing information to Latino communities that impact the communities and its members either directly or indirectly. This relates to specific issues associated with Latino-oriented communication and media, health, strategic, political, and scientific communication. Also, this area studies how risk and crisis are presented to our communities as in the recent pandemic.

2. Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations: how media companies operationalize costs associated with Latino markets based on location, age, education, gender, and language usage. Representation in media advertising based in print, broadcasting, or digital platforms. Latino branding and marketing decisions and the business and economics of media companies. Latino presence and participation in public relations strategies, in both the public and private sectors.

3. Journalism Studies examining the production and impacts of news across different platforms including print, broadcasting, and digital. The study of news dissemination by Spanish-language and bilingual media, and the study of how those news media articles frame issues such as immigration, education, health, culture, and political representation and participation. Journalism also concentrates on environmental information and news production during crises.

4. Social and political issues that focus on how these important topics are presented (or not) in main media organizations by looking at sources, narratives, and framing. This area examines more closely how other media formats as documentaries and cinema portray issues such as immigration, education, political participation, and representation.

5. Media Studies examining the rapid change of media companies due to technological advances, economics, and regulation, and how those impact content. This area of communication seeks to understand informatics, interaction between users and applications; legacy and emergent media historical patterns; popular culture; and critical/cultural studies.

6. Latino representation in the academy and professional fields related to communication and markets looks into issues related to recruitment and retention in higher education, the hiring practices and glass ceilings across industries of Latino talent, and the strategies to gain more space and influence.

This conference aims to offer an assessment of the new conditions, identifying opportunities to bridge gaps for the benefit of Latino media audiences and communities. We hope you join us for this dynamic event amplifying the myriad of perspectives for and from the Latino community! For more information, please contact Prof. Manuel (Manny) Chavez at chavezm1@msu.edu or Prof. Miguel Cabañas at mcabanas@msu.edu