Latine Media Studies: From Near Omission to Radical Intersectionality

Latine media studies is a growing field with maturing scholarship that represents the fruit borne by the promise of cumulative knowledge from at least four stages of scholarship and enriches communication and media studies, both historically and contemporarily. As with any recent field of study, scholarship arises from previously existing cognate disciplines and interdisciplines, following paradigm shifts and questions that cannot be answered by previous theories. This chapter provides a brief review of the stages of inclusion of Latine in mainstream media and then presents a historical overview of the field of Latine media studies via a four-stage assessment, exploring both the institutionalization of the field and the stages of scholarship. The stages are not mutually exclusive. Whereas in the first two stages of research, much of the scholarship drew on cognate fields, by the third and fourth stages the field had a robust quantity and quality of scholarship and scholars who work within communication and media studies. The four stages follow a familiar path of near omission; peripheral inclusion; steps toward institutionalization and maturation of scholars; and a present that is rich in hybrid, intersectional, and transnational scholarship. Latine media studies is no longer a promise but, rather, a full-blown reality. Thus, as a growing area of study, it contributes to social justice via diversified production, increased and progressive representations, and creating spaces for audience identification and sometimes activism.