Gilbert Bailon, editorial page editor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is 2007-08 ASNE president.

ASIDE FROM TRAVEL THAT TESTS one’s patience, from screaming infants to interminable airport security lines, sojourns as the ASNE president also help to draw a bead on trends across the country.

Listening and speaking in assorted venues over the last few months has vividly drawn a trend into sharp focus: Illegal immigration and an increasing Hispanic populace are fueling cultural volatility and creating divisions that seem to grow deeper each day.

It is ironic that, in a country with centuries of Hispanic interdependence, we’re amid an epoch in which Latinos are viewed as late interlopers or invaders into U.S. society. Latinos are more numerous and influential in the United States than ever, yet cultural and language disconnections fray potential cohesion and cross-cultural understanding.

The tones among many talk-radio hosts and the cable television chatterboxes are shrill, hostile and vengeful. They might not be news journalists, but they help to mold public opinion by creating fear, making them a problem for all society.

At the National Association of Hispanic Journalists awards dinner in Washington, television personality Geraldo Rivera passionately declared that immigration and the Latinization of the United States are the wedge issue of the 2008 election campaigns, similar to gay marriage in the past.

Dianne Solis, the NAHJ print journalist of the year and an immigration beat reporter for The Dallas Morning News, asked whether the U.S. Constitution applies equally to protect the rights of all in our country.

NAHJ winners tearfully accepted awards as they told how their parents immigrated years ago – some with papers and others without them.

Latino journalists are increasingly under the gun from the public. Hate e-mails, threats and nasty letters to the editor are commonplace. The hatemongers love to invoke the “Go back to Mexico” line even if the writer is a U.S. citizen with a Spanish surname and might not even speak Spanish. A Gomez is a Gomez is a Gomez to them.

The anger and vitriol spread on the broadcast airwaves seeps into the newsroom. But our roles are as news gatherers and informers. Edify not proselytize. Verify but take no sides.

I have been encouraged by the thoughtful approaches to the complex, thorny issue of immigration linked with the country’s changing demographics. At a recent Latino journalism summit at Arizona State University and a Cross Border Journalism conference at the University of Texas at El Paso, an array of voices detailed how bilingual/bicultural journalists in both countries can bridge the widening cultural gulf.

General market news media are most vital to bridge that chasm. Spanish-language media already provide a deeper, more comprehensive coverage that humanizes the topic and the people involved. But that multilayered coverage gets scant attention from most Americans. So the canyon deepens.

Immigration and its impact are right under our noses, but it still seems mysterious as we write about people “living in the shadows,” etc. They are in plain sight waiting on your tables, building your skyscrapers, installing roofs and caring for your children.

How to improve coverage of immigration and the burgeoning Latino population?

• Devote the resources to make the contacts, delve into the communities and follow the issues more broadly. Like any key subject, you need to develop expertise. How many newspapers had full-time technology writers 10 years ago?
• Hire or promote bilingual and bicultural reporters who can build sources throughout the whole community and consume media across languages.
• Humanize. Immigration at the core is about people and their lives. Too much coverage possesses a detached third-person posture about “them” or “illegals.” Humanize means let the players on all sides speak for themselves. It doesn’t mean tilt the scale sympathetically.
• Avoid the trap that immigration and Hispanic population growth is purely local. While locality will mean a lot to your readers, the roots and linkages extend far beyond your home county. Go find them and elucidate your readers. That’s the essence of quality journalism. *