The campus broadcast news station is expanding its audience with a new broadcast in Spanish called EagleBreak Español.
This is the first broadcast in this area that does a Spanish broadcast according to Matt Bowen, senior Bible and theology major. John Brown University could be setting the bar for other universities in the area by producing a Spanish newscast, said Bowen.
Carlos Chicas, the new supervisor for EagleBreak, came up with the idea. He also works at Telemundo, which is a U.S-based Spanish broadcasting station.
EagleBreak Español was born on a regular production night. After filming the English broadcast, Chicas suggested that they re-shoot it, but this time in Spanish.
Even though EagleBreak has had all of the resources to make a Spanish broadcast, it was an idea that they never thought of before, said Isaac Weaver, junior communication major and EagleBreak producer.
Weaver thinks that being able to provide a Spanish broadcast is beneficial because there is now a broadcast that is in the first language of many of the international students on campus.
“This is something we should have been doing the whole time but I am so happy we are doing it now,” said Weaver.
By adding the Spanish version, EagleBreak is able to “tap into an audience that we have not reached before,” said Weaver. It allows them to appeal more to the Hispanic community on campus.
Maria Velazquez, senior communication major and anchor for EagleBreak Español, said that even though the community of Spanish speakers is small and it requires a lot of time for students to edit the new production, it is worth it to let Spanish speakers know that EagleBreak cares about them.
Rachel Musiime, junior communication major, is an anchor and is in charge of the social media for Eaglebreak. Musiime agrees that having EagleBreak Español is a good way to show recognition of the Hispanic community on campus. Musiime also said that it is a way for the Spanish speakers on campus to have a news source that is more understandable to them.
It is a lot of work to produce EagleBreak Español because so far EagleBreak does not conduct interviews in Spanish, which leads to a lot of work for Weaver and co-producer, Kaidyn Holbrook, in making Spanish subtitles, said Velazquez. Musiime agreed.
Even with the challenge of writing the subtitles, Musiime believes that EagleBreak Español is making a difference for the Hispanic community on campus.
The reason that translating the new packages is hard is because there are many phrases in English that do not translate well into Spanish, which requires creative problem solving, said Bowen.
It is not just the Hispanic community on campus that they are reaching but also their families, said Bowen.
“My aunts in Ecuador can finally watch the show and understand what I’m saying,” said Bowen. “It’s like we are going international.”
Velazquez said she believes that EagleBreak Español is not just for Spanish speaking people, but also for the international community as a whole. She said that when EagleBreak begins interviewing people for EagleBreak Español, they should interview people in a variety of languages.