This event has been postponed to FA '21.
Over the last several years, streaming giants like Netflix and HBO Max have taken an active interest in diversifying their programming. For Latinx and Latin American audiences, the attempts have generated mixed reviews and questions on what authentic storytelling entails.
Moderated by Juan Piñon, Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU Steinhardt, the panel will discuss the business of streaming Latinx and Latin American stories.
Panelists
Alejandro J. Rojas serves as Director of Applied Analytics at Parrot Analytics based in New York . In his current role, he oversees initiatives that transform data into insights at every step of the content lifecycle. Alejandro is a former McKinsey consultant who went on to become an executive producer on multiple TV series in his native Venezuela. He's earned advanced degrees from MIT and UC Berkeley and is a current member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Jessica Vargas is director, Multicultural Marketing, at Warner Media, working across the HBO Max portfolio, responsible for the strategic and creative oversight of targeted marketing efforts and business initiatives to the network’s Latino audiences. This includes HBO, HBO Latino, and all of HBO’s digital platforms. She was named to this position in October 2015.
Among her most recent accomplishments at HBO, Jessica led the successful launch of HBO Max’s new audience initiative, Pa’lante! an always-on social platform to engage the Latinx audience with the purpose of representing, celebrating, and empowering the community and ultimately driving retention, loyalty, and viewership growth. In the past 3 years, she has also launched a Latino Stand-Up competition, a Latinx Short-Film competition, and an inner-city school program bringing the arts to students of color.
Jessica has also led the development of award-winning marketing campaigns for Habla y Vota (Mosaic Media Image Award for Advocacy & New York Festival Award Certificate), El Hipnotizador (Festival Iberoamericano de Promociones y Eventos (Grand Prix Crystal)), Alejandro Sanz + Carlos Santana (National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) Excellence in Multicultural Marketing Award (EMMA)), and Yandel (New York Festival Award, Bronze World Medal).
Ariana Case is the program administrator at the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. She received her B.A. in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC. Since her days as an undergraduate, Case has conducted research with the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative on diversity and inclusion across the entertainment industry. As a senior researcher on Dr. Stacy L. Smith’s team, Case has been at the forefront of championing authentic storytelling, including for the Latinx and Latin American community in the 2019 Report — Latinos in Film: Erasure On Screen and Behind the Camera Across 1,200 Popular Movies. Case is a co-author on this in-depth examination of the prevalence and portrayal of Latinos in popular films and is currently leading the research in a follow-up analysis.
Most recently, Case co-authored Inclusion in Netflix Series & Films: 2018-2019, a report commissioned by the streaming company to examine inclusion on-screen and behind the camera in scripted content. In addition to her ongoing efforts promoting diversity in media, Case has also acquired experience working in cable television and in the nonprofit sector, has an avid interest in the interaction of American pop culture with society at large, and is a lifelong Southern Californian.
Juan Piñon is an Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU Steinhardt. He's particularly interested in the intersection of Latin American transnational media corporate dynamics with the established mode of production of U.S. Latino media and the effects on Latinos' representations. His research interests are globalization, political economy, television studies and social and cultural practices. Currently, he is the U.S. coordinator of the Ibero-American Television Fiction Observatory (OBITEL) an international research project on television fiction. He has also contributed to an ongoing project about new technologies and media appropriation within disempowered communities in Austin, Texas project in which his particular interests lie in the immigrant Hispanic community's life trajectories and strategies of social mobility. Pinon's work experience dates back to the early eighties, when he first worked as a television producer in Mexico City, to become later on the Manager of Programming and Production at a regional television channel in Chihuahua, Mexico. His experience in academic institutions includes working as the Director of the Media Center at the Instituto Tecnolo y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, in Mexico City, where he was also Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication from 1994 to 2002. He holds a Ph. D. in Media Studies from the Department of Radio, Television and Film from the University of Texas at Austin, and a master degree in Communication Sciences from the Universidad Iberoamericana at Mexico, City.