El Show de Cristina: Representing Hispanics in Spanish language television

Informed by cultural studies and based on a structuralist semiotic methodology, this dissertation analyzes the work of representations of El Show de Cristina, one of the most important Spanish language talk shows broadcast in the U.S. This study contributes to a new trend of analysis regarding Spanish language media, a trend concerned with the study of the media role in the creation of an imagined Hispanic community in the U.S.;Using Douglas Kellner's approach to media culture and Stuart Hall's theory of representation, this work assumes media culture as a site of ideological and meaning struggle, and this specific public forum as a cultural text where social discourses shape meanings and cultural representations of Hispanics, the fastest growing U.S. ethnic minority.;The syntagmatic and paradigmatic analyses of 162 hours of El Show broadcast between 1997 and 2000 demonstrate that the verbal exchange in this forum is far from a democratic dialogue where the social problems of a highly discriminated population are exposed in search of solutions. Rather, the conversation becomes an educational process where some voices---Cristina's and her expert guests'---establish hierarchies and set value frames. In doing so, El Show contributes to creating a sense of community based on a hybrid identity forged from a mix of what is presumed to be the positive values of the American culture and the so-called Hispanic culture. Thus, Hispanics are represented as a group that is a victim of cultural shortcomings and lack of willingness to succeed. Their involvement with the U.S. cultural environment is explained on an individual basis; references to social structures and actors and historical factors affecting their lives and integration processes are omitted.;The structure of voices on El Show and the discursive strategies framing issues such as violence, discrimination and sexuality are the primary focuses of this dissertation.