Professor to join Hispanic journalists' hall of fame

Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, an associate professor in the School of Journalism, has spent her career promoting Latino community coverage in the media.

Because of her efforts, Rivas-Rodriguez, who helped found the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in 1982, will be inducted into the association's hall of fame in July.

In her 17-year career in news media, Rivas-Rodriguez has worked for such publications as The Boston Globe and The Dallas Morning News.

"The NAHJ is certainly one of the dams against things going awry," Rivas-Rodriguez said. "It provides pressure for journalists to present opposing viewpoints in the newsroom."

Iván Román, executive director of the association, said that as a founder, Rivas-Rodriguez successfully advocated for fair coverage and greater Latino representation in the news industry.

"She succeeded in pioneering a student training program that has helped Latinos enter the newsroom and teaches students a way to think about inclusion no matter what ethnicity you are," Román said.

Rivas-Rodriguez started a nationwide student-writing contest and a newspaper that students begin working on at one of the organization's conventions, which affords Latino students the opportunity to work in the newsroom. Her initiatives have been two of the association's most successful student projects, Román said.

"I am a strong believer in preparation," Rivas-Rodriguez said. "At the convention newspaper, students are held to professional standards. It is important for young people to carry principles and ideas of inclusion not just for their own group, but not to forget about every group that needs to be represented."

She said the state of the waning news industry poses fresh problems for the struggle for fair representation.

"Our work is not over. So much still needs to be done," Rivas-Rodriguez said. "Because news media is so concerned with survival, the idea of inclusion gets pushed away from the forefront."

Rivas-Rodriguez cited the Ken Burns PBS documentary "War," which included 14 hours of World War II coverage as one mainstream media project that failed to include any representation of the Latino community. Rivas-Rodriguez, who spoke out publicly against the documentary, said it marginalized voices, which are stifled when authority figures buy into certain representations of a historical event.

Román said that because of her fight against the documentary's limited representation, she sparked a nationwide outcry that led to the inclusion of a Latino perspective in the documentary.

"The coverage of the documentary and the people protesting it cuts to the heart of why we have NAHJ," Rivas-Rodriguez said. "We are tired of people fighting the same battles. It's why we need more people to reflect the population. We have a long way to go."

Rivas-Rodriguez created an oral history project that spotlights more than 650 stories from the American Latino experience during World War II, qualifying her to speak out against PBS' documentary.

"As journalists, we are in a privileged position to reflect society," Rivas-Rodriguez said. "We adequately need to commit ourselves to learning about other communities. If we keep learning to reflect society, not just UT, or Austin, then all the world becomes our society."

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