With the 2024 presidential election less than a month away, the stakes are at an all-time high. The state of Arizona, which is a highly contested battleground state, features a diverse voter makeup. Included in that diverse voter makeup is the Hispanic vote.

631,419 registered Hispanic voters reside in the Phoenix Valley and 48% are considered to be swing voters; compared to 42% of the 3,037,240 non-Hispanic voters in the valley. The message from this data: the Hispanic vote is crucial in determining the trajectory of Arizona’s 11 electoral votes.

Assistant Dean Brett Kurland led the discussion. Alongside him sat members of the Hispanic media here based in Phoenix: Noe Gonzalez, the Vice President of Telemundo Arizona; Ariana Garcilazo, a Multimedia Journalist at Telemundo Arizona; Christian Villegas, the Senior Producer at Telemundo Arizona; and Katherine Munoz, a Senior at the Cronkite School and the Assignment Director for Telemundo Arizona.

Kurland started by asking the panel about the goals and purpose of Telemundo Arizona. The sweeping consensus was Telemundo exists to tell the stories of the Valley Hispanic community and to leave no voice unheard.

 “Our purpose is to serve our community and our viewers,”  Telemundo Vice President Noe Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez also stated Telemundo tends to “underestimate the viewers” and needs to cover what “matters to our voters”. Additionally, Telemundo Arizona leads the market in viewership for its four p.m., five p.m. and 10 pm newscasts. To maintain this top-of-the-market show status, Telemundo must “place content where the eyes are,” said Gonzalez.

Another key topic discussed was the importance and role of Spanish media in the 2024 election. he goal is to be fact-driven and informative.

In this day and age, misinformation and disinformation plague the internet, especially for Hispanic voters.

“Social media is not that reliable and we [Telemundo] need to be there for them [the Hispanic community].” Noe Gonzalez said. .

Many Hispanic voters find it difficult to consume reliable news on the upcoming election due to the language barrier. Political candidates and campaigns do have translated web pages here with limited information compared to the English-language websites of those same candidates. For the younger generations, the problem of disinformation and limited resources is less prominent , as the youth tends to be bilingual and more tech-savvy. On the other hand, the elderly generally are less technology-dependent and prone to misinformation.

The final major discussion focused on the idea of being bilingual. 74% of Phoenix area Hispanics are reported to be bilingual.

Dean Kurland posed the question, “Has being bilingual helped you as a journalist?”

All four panelists replied with a resounding yes.

According to Ariana Garcilazo, being bilingual provides a “double perspective”. This could be translating a live newscast from English to Spanish or vice-versa. For example, Telemundo will use clips from their local NBC affiliate and send its clips back to NBC. Telemundo anchors will also transition from English to Spanish while on-air depending on the topic and relevance.

The overall sense around tonight's conversation was the importance of representing a community that will play a huge role in the upcoming election. As the 7th largest Hispanic market, Arizona represents a large portion of the Hispanic vote in the United States. The Hispanic community has many stories to tell, and the Spanish-language media exists to cover those stories.