Go behind the scenes at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism where the top bilingual students produce a Spanish-language version of Cronkite NewsWatch. The student production, which features stories about events and issues on campus and around the region, is broadcast on Univision’s TeleFutura network.
José Cárdenas
>>> The A.S.U student produced news program Cronkite Newswatch is now being produced and broadcast in Spanish. Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez goes behind the scenes to show you how it all comes together. [Speaking in Spanish]
Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez
>> a new Spanish news show just launched in Arizona and at a glance it may seem as though you could be watching Univision or Telemundo, but the fact is this is a newscast produced by Arizona state university students. [Speaking in Spanish]
Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez
>> This is Newswatch in espanol, a news, weather, and sports program out of the A.S.U Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The students are the producers, reporters and anchors of the 30-minute news program.
Mark Lodato
>> We are excited. We kind of woke up one day and frankly realized that, hey, we not only have the journalism experience in the building but we have got some tremendously talented bilingual students and we can do this.
Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez
>> The unique idea came from the students themselves. And because they are Spanish speaking students faculty and staff decided to give the idea a try.
Mark Lodato
>> This doesn't being done anywhere else. There is a need for more Spanish language news in the phoenix area and in Arizona. [Speaking in Spanish]
Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez
>> As you hear the news program you may think if they can speak Spanish they must be Latino but not all the reporters are Hispanic. The students work closely with local Spanish speaking journalists and public relations people to assure their work is of professional quality. So what goes on the air is proof read and under quality control.
Clara Colmenero
>> It's pretty much the basics right same. It's just the language difference. And me being a native speaker it gives me an opportunity to exercise my language.
Rafael Carranza
>> I'm planning on pursuing a career in English language but I think the fact we are able to do Spanish language is a great resource.
Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez
>> News watch airs on Univision's cable sister cable station. Students are exposed to a large television audience through commercial television before they have even graduated college.
Mark Lodato
>> It's taken us in a neat new direction and it's allowed us to really tackle what is a tremendous growing marketplace here in phoenix and here in Arizona. Anyone who knows this business knows that the Spanish language television is by far the biggest audience out there. It is the number one audience in metro phoenix. There's no reason we shouldn't be tapping that for our students and for the viewers who are out there, exposing them to the rich content that we can provide.
Mark Lodato:CronkiteNewswatch;
