The Latinos and Media Project (LAMP)

The Latinos and Media Project (LAMP) is a web-centered organization seeking to serve as a hub of information and resources pertaining to Latinos and the media in the United States, Latin America, and other parts of the world. The site features a modest database of annotated bibliographies of reports, magazine and academic articles, theses and dissertations, and other items. Under Resources you can find a list of links to other related sites and organizations, also links to other academics working in this area. It's a nice looking site but it looks like it could use more input, and in fact asks: "bring to our attention materials that could be added, including other web sites that should be linked, to some section of the LAMP web site."

Another website along these lines to check out is the Center for Spanish Language Media Website at the University of North Texas. It's actually a little more robust with resources and boasts the Journal of Spanish Language Media (in its third year) and State of Spanish Language Media 2009 Annual Report (a 39-page pdf).

Two articles from Journal of the Medical Library Association

Two articles of interest in the April 2009 issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association:

A bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature on Internet, video games, and cell phone addiction, by Xavier Carbonell, Elena Guardiola, Marta Beranuy, and Ana Bellés.

Web usability testing with a Hispanic medically underserved population, by Mary Moore, Randolph G. Bias, Katherine Prentice, Robin Fletcher, and Terry Vaughn.

Communication in the Field, Baseball, that is...

So naturally I'm thinking about baseball today here in Philadelphia, so I thought I'd look for some communication scholarship on the subject. I crossed search several social science databases including Communication Abstracts and found a fair amount to choose from. This 2002 article from the Journal of Sport and Social Issues (Volume 26, Number 4) jumped out at me. I've selected to feature it in honor of two Phillie Latino heroes, Carlos Ruiz and Pedro Feliz, both instrumental in securing the World Championship for Philly. It's called Who's the Man? Sammy Sosa, Latinos, and Televisual Redefinitions of the "American" Pastime, by Jane Juffer.

Abstract
Latino and Latin American baseball players have expanded the boundaries of the "American pastime," asserting their ethnic and national identities even while being accepted as representatives of the sport most closely aligned with a white United States identity.
This redefinition is achieved in part via cable and satellite technologies that carry images of Latinos to homes throughout the United States at a time when the Latino population is growing and becoming more dispersed raising the possibility that baseball will lessen racism and xenophobia. However media coverage is at times nostalgic for a more bounded sense of home and nation and often emphasizes players' individual mobility, erasing the economic and political conditions that have brought Latin American players to the United States. The author shows how these tensions play out in Chicago superstation WGN's coverage of Cubs star Sammy Sosa, who has emerged as a national hero in both the U.S. and the Dominican Republic.

The article is available from Sage's Full Text Collection, from the Penn Libraries homepage.