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Abstract:
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This dissertation investigates the dynamics of production surrounding United States Spanish -language television by analyzing the strategies followed by newcomer Azteca America in it attempts to become an attractive television option for Latinos . Given the scarcity of research on the production approach of U .S . Latino media , this study interrogates the site of production of Spanish -language Television - -that is , the site in which professional routines and presumably legitimate knowledge about audiences are the basis for the reproduction of particular representations of Latinos in the United States . The incursion of Azteca America into this realm allows me to reflect on the structural and complex relationship between the U .S . Latino and Mexican television industries . Azteca America's process of creating a network identity , along with strategies of production , representations , and distribution reveal longstanding assumptions about television's formulas of success , which are the result of the way in which U .S . Latinos are imagined by the corporation . My analysis is informed by the cultural economy perspective that evaluates corporate practices as relevant cultural objects with economic value ; it is also informed by Pierre Bourdieu's theory of logic of practice , which allows me to situate the corporation as a social space as I evaluate its corporate routines as a site of the expression of larger social dynamics . A global approach gives me the theoretical tools to think about the transnational character of the U .S . Latino industry , its audiences , and the crossborder nature of Azteca America's venture . The presence of Azteca America in U .S . broadcasting television reaffirms , on some level , the ways in which Latin Americans claim "authentic" knowledge regarding the programming and representations delivered to Latino audiences . This process is possible because of the fluid identity with attendant flexible meanings that accompanies the hybrid and multilayered identities of the Latina /o population in the U .S . |