The National Hispanic Media Coalition announced this week it had created a new coalition with a few major Latino media businesses and organizations in an effort to boost Latino diversity in media and technology.

The Latino media advocacy group kicked off its new partnership at an event in Los Angeles on Wednesday, where NHMC was joined by Univision and Televisa, along with representatives from local L.A. city government. The coalition consists of the professional organization, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), along with Univision Communications Inc. and Grupo Televisa S.A.B.

Together with NHMC, the alliance announced new educational programs and fellowships available to aspiring Latinos who wish to become writers, public policy experts, or find their way into other media positions where their presence can help change the status quo.

The three new programs kicked off Wednesday include a television writers graduate program, a writers' database, and a public policy fellowship in Washington D.C. guided by NHMC.

The NHMC "Television Writers Graduate Program" is a continuation of NHMC's earlier program for aspiring TV writers, which proudly boasts alums that are now working on top rated shows on major broadcast, cable, and digital networks.

One such alumnus, Joseph Vargas, was at the event on Wednesday. "I am so grateful to the NHMC for its writing program. The NHMC writers' program brought me out to Los Angeles, validated my dream to write for television and gave me the tools and access to build a career," said Vargas. He's now a writer for the first season of the Full House reboot, Fuller House, coming soon to Netflix. "What else could a budding writer ask for?

The second program that NHMC is launching provides more tools for budding writers and helps keep track of the careers of the Latino writers who graduate, as well as providing networking support.

Called the "NHMC Writers Database," the program uses the organization's partnership with Televisa and Univision to help new and veteran Latino entertainment writers find jobs and make contact with film executives, talent agents, and managers. So far NHMC has over 130 writers that have completed its original TV writing program in the database. 

Finally, the "Policy Fellowship Program" provides a semester of education on media and telecommunications policy, from the perspective of civil rights and diversity experts. It includes a week of real-world training in Washington D.C. or Miami, where English language production for Univision is headquartered.

"The television industry must adapt the diversity of their programming to meet the diversity of America today, and it starts by hiring the immense talent in our communities," said NHMC's president and CEO Alex Nogales in a statement released to Latin Post. "We're proud to join with Univision and Televisa to bring Latino writers and students in public policy to the attention of those who want to re-shape the media landscape into one that is more inclusive of Latino voices."

Despite the Latino demographic in the U.S. rising in population and economic influence, there's still a lack of Latino visibility in the media landscape overall.

For example, take a 2014 study on Latinos and media representation through the years performed by a coalition led by Columbia University, which Latin Post previously reported. One thing the study found was that -- relative to the size of the overall Hispanic population in the U.S. -- Latinos were actually more represented in the 1950's Hollywood than they are now.

NHMC and its Latino media partners hope to change that by cultivating up-and-coming Latino talent.

"At a time when the lack of diversity in media and technology is front and center, we could not be prouder of Univision's nearly 60-year legacy of providing opportunities, skills, and careers for Latinos in these industries," said Univision executive VP Roberto Llamas on the coalition. "I want to thank NHMC and Televisa for their partnership and their commitment to expanding the pipeline of talented Latinos into an industry that sorely needs their contributions."

Latina city councilmember in L.A. Gil Cedillo, also at the event, praised the programs for strengthening Latino cultural representation and the local community.

"Programs such as these are very important to our community," said Cedillo. "These young, energetic and creative writers are the voices that will tell our stories, the joys and sorrows of our very rich culture."