Alternative voices in the USA have been found in ethnic media outlets that provide information in languages other than English and focus on issues often ignored by the mainstream news. One such example is the Spanish-language media, which have had a long history in the USA. A content analysis was performed to analyze broadcast news in San Diego County to assess the similarities and differences between an ethnic news channel, KBNT (Univisión affiliate), and a mainstream station, KGTV (ABC affiliate). The data from the content analysis show some diversity in the stories covered, but the overall frequency of story type was fairly consistent among the stations. The corporate structure of Spanish-language media is looking more like its English-language counterparts and this oligopoly structure may make it more likely to follow trends such as displacing public discourse with entertainment and reducing the availability of diverse voices.

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The television landscape has expanded to include an ever-increasing crop of culturally themed programs aimed at the Latina=o audience. Assumptions about the audience have shaped this trend, resulting in questions about the effectiveness of niche programming to satisfy viewer taste. This project investigates LatiNation with specific focus on the differences in the reception process based on participants' connection to their ethnic identity. In-depth interviews were conducted with self-identified Latina=o students who were also given a survey with scaled items to measure their connection to their ethnic identity. In general, the findings indicate that audience members produce varied readings of the text showing the participants actively negotiate identity by using LatiNation as an opportunity to both embrace and critique Latinidad.

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New distribution models have transformed television over the past decade, and Netflix’s One Day at a Time (2017–) stands out not only because it is a remake of a classic Norman Lear sitcom, but because it also foregrounds a Cuban American family. Using a radical contextual and relational approach, this study analyzes One Day at a Time from a cultural studies perspective using theoretical tools that arrive from critical Latina/o communication studies. We analyze the first season’s 13 episodes to demonstrate how storytelling is modified in the context of digital streaming. In this case, we argue that One Day at a Time offers an alternative to the flattening of difference far too common in Latina/o media. Instead, the show highlights the cultural specificity of this Cuban American family as a form of broad audience appeal as it negotiates sexual identity and immigration discourses within a contemporary social framework.