ABSTRACT
This chapter employs a Media Studies approach informed by Cultural Studies in order to explore the connections among Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking communities in the United States and the commercial media that strive to reach them. Since its inception in the late 1960s, Cultural Studies has inspired research into media representation and audience reception; yet few scholarly inquiries have examined the relationships among culturally and linguistically proximate industries and the audiences they seek. The U.S. Latinx population had grown steadily for decades, increasing its political, economic and cultural influences. Portuguese speakers, many fewer in number, are often lumped into the Latinx category despite significant differences and notable intragroup distinctions, especially among people of Iberian and Brazilian origin. The chapter features profiles of U.S. Latinx and Lusophone populations, discussion of how Cultural Studies, Media Studies and Latinx Studies interrelate, and of Cultural Studies’ substantial influence over media scholars’ approaches to understanding ethnic-oriented media and non-mainstream audiences. This background provides the foundation for advocating a more nuanced approach to theorizing media-relevant relations among culturally and linguistically proximate audiences in relation to the profit-driven industries that pursue their attention and spending.
