Notice anything here?

This was the list today, this afternoon, for the "top stories" of the day.  Notice anything different or unusual?

• Blake Lively Vs. Leighton Meester
• Reliance disappoints at shareholder meet, shares fall
• Hitting 80, Cuba's Raul Castro boasts of good health
• Cámara baja EEUU aprueba financiación para seguridad nacional
• Konica Minolta Receives Multiple Editor’s Choice Awards from Better Buys for Business
• Zuckerberg: Contract for Facebook ownership 'fake'
• S.Africa's first free AIDS clinic celebrates 10 years
• Service sector growth picks up in May: ISM
• Comienza campeonato mundial del café en Colombia
• Five dead in Arizona shootings: reports
• 
  

I keep noticing these little, gradual changes in our country and culture.

And believe me, I'm not panicking.  I'm not freaking out.  I'm not scared about or afraid of it.  I'm just noticing  the gradual shift in how we are and what we do, as a country.  It's interesting.

Have a great weekend, y'all.

It has begun. Let us all now learn Spanish

As I said, it has now begun.

I clicked on a news article this morning--just now--on Yahoo! News and sure, an advertisement came up first.  Not a complete surprise.

But what happened next did surprise me.

It was an advertisement in Spanish.

Completely, utterly and totally in Spanish.

Here, in the former "heartland."

And don't get me wrong here, I'm not against this or against Spanish or learning it or learning a language--you can't call Spanish a "foreign" language any longer, that's for sure.

It just surprised me.  I thought we were still a couple years away from advertising immediately being in Spanish and not what was, seemingly, the only and native tongue.  That is, English, of course.

I'm not sounding alarms or being paranoid or saying we should this or that---nothing.

I'm just noting it has begun.  This change, here marked by advertising, has begun.

See if the same happens to you.  Here's the link where it occurred:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20110413/pl_yblog_newsroom/the-fast-fix-dealing-with-the-debt

¿usted habla español?

Update on the Univision station in the US and our television media

Remember my post yesterday about the Spanish television station trumping all the networks Monday evening except ABC and CBS?  Remember that?  (Both of you?)

Well, a follow-up story is out today:

Univision set to become top U.S. broadcast network

NEW YORK (Adweek) – With double-digit ratings growth this season, Spanish-language broadcaster Univision is off to a better start than any of the major English-language networks, and the future is promising as well.

The new census is expected to show a nearly 45% increase in the number of Hispanic Americans since 2000, to a total of 50 million. This couples with continuing audience erosion at the major networks and Univision's recent deal with Mexican programer Grupo Televisa, which locks up the source of much the network's popular programing for at least another decade.

Just a few years ago, the notion of Univision catching and surpassing them would have had mainstream network executives rolling with laughter. They're not laughing now.

This is pretty fascinating stuff.  A great deal of people will be giving this a tremendous amount of attention in the very near future, too, and I don’t just mean television and advertising people, either.  I can hear Fox “News” and the reactionary Conservatives and Right Wing screaming bloody murder about this, since it gives such direct, further and immediate proof of how we—the US—are changing so very much.


Check this out:

Ad buyers also believe that Univision has a good shot at topping the Anglo networks on its stated schedule.

"It's totally conceivable that in three to five years they would be, regardless of language, the No. 1 broadcast network," said Steven Wolfe Pereira, senior vp and managing director at MV42, a unit of Publicis Groupe's media agency MediaVest.

And then the "capper", so to speak:

But when the census is released next year showing the huge jump in the Hispanic population, "corporate boards will pay attention," Wolfe Pereira said. "It will be a real wake-up call."

I just hope Glenn Beck doesn’t use this as another excuse to break down crying.

As they used to say in television, stay tuned, folks. 

Link to original post:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101026/tv_nm/us_univision

Spanish Television: More of the shape of things to come

If you'll check the link below, ladies and gentelmen, you'll see that the Spanish and Spanish language television network Univision beat out both NBC and Fox in the 18-34 and 18-49 demographics for yesterday's viewing habits.  In fact, Univision beat out all other networks shown except CBS and ABC.

Just sayin'.

The future is here, folks.

Now, don't flip out about it.

Link:  http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/10/26/tv-ratings-monday-dancing-rises-chuck-steady-event-chase-hawaii-lie-to-me-more-fall/69489?utm_campaign=WP%3ETwitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter

Hat tip to Skippy the Bush Kangaroo for the notice, too.