NACLA Launches “Media Accuracy on Latin America” Project

Media Accuracy on Latin America (MALA) is a project of the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), an independent nonprofit organization and publisher of the NACLA Report on the Americas.

NACLA believes that the news media are critical to informing and educating the public to ensure that the decisions we make are based on sound information. Unfortunately, mainstream news outlets in the United States repeatedly fail to provide reliable, in-depth analytic coverage of events and U.S. policy in Latin America and what coverage outlets do provide is often sensationalist, superficial, and permeated by long-standing suspicions that characterize the North-South divide.

March 13, 2008

Media Accuracy on Latin America (MALA) is a project of the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), an independent nonprofit organization and publisher of the NACLA Report on the Americas.

NACLA believes that the news media are critical to informing and educating the public to ensure that the decisions we make are based on sound information. Unfortunately, mainstream news outlets in the United States repeatedly fail to provide reliable, in-depth analytic coverage of events and U.S. policy in Latin America and what coverage outlets do provide is often sensationalist, superficial, and permeated by long-standing suspicions that characterize the North-South divide.

MALA’s objective is to foster public discourse by offering more pluralistic views on events unfolding throughout the hemisphere. Our network of scholars, journalists, and activists generate constructive media criticism of news coverage, highlighting reports in which news outlets have simplified, overlooked or distorted critical facts as well as reports in which the media fails to connect relevant U.S. policy to developments in Latin America. MALA also offers background information on economic, political, and societal issues, as well as other resources for journalists, students, and the public at large to better understand the complexity of events in the region.


Contact:

To contact MALA staff, click here.


MALA Guidelines:

To download MALA's guidelines for analyzing media coverage, click here.


MALA Analysts:

Leonard Baynes
Professor of Law
Director, Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic Development
St. John’s University

Dan Beeton
International Communications Coordinator
Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Michael Cohen
Professor of International Affairs
Director, Graduate Program in International Affairs
The New School

Kate Doyle
Senior Analyst
National Security Archive

Marcial Godoy-Anativia
Associate Director
Hemispheric Institute, New York University

Angelo Falcón
President and Founder
National Institute for Latino Policy

Juan Flores
Professor of Latino Studies, Dept of Social and Cultural Analysis
New York University

Judith Friedlander
Professor of Anthropology
Hunter College

Greg Grandin
Professor of History
New York University

Pierre LaRamée
Director of Development and Public Affairs
International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region

Vicki Mayer
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Communication
Tulane University

Toby Miller
Chair
Department of Media & Cultural Studies
University of California, Riverside

Mario A. Murillo
Associate Professor
School of Communication, Hofstra University

Suzanne Oboler
Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York
Editor, Latino Studies

Carlos A. Orellana
Consultant
Somos La Llave del Futuro, President
NACLA, Editorial Advisory Board
Migris Project, Board Member
Worker's Rights Law Center, Board Member

Gerardo Otero
Professor of Sociology and Latin American Studies
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Simon Fraser University

Clara E. Rodriguez
Professor of Sociology, Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology
Fordham University

Fred Rosen
Senior Analyst
North American Congress on Latin America

Otto Santa Ana
Associate Professor
César Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies
University of California, Los Angeles

Danny Schechter
Media Maker and Critic
Editor of Mediachannel.org

Pamela Smorkaloff
Associate Professor, Dept. of Spanish and Italian
Montclair State University

Sinclair Thomson
Associate Professor of History
New York University

Steven Volk
Professor of History
Chair of Latin American Studies,
Oberlin College

If you're interested in participating, contact us.

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