The digital divide between Latinos and whites is shrinking, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Since 2009, according to Pew, Latinos who say they use the Internet has grown by 20 percentage points, from 64% to 84%, while for whites the increase was from 80% to 89%, or fewer than 10 percentage points.

The biggest increase has come from Spanish-dominant Hispanics--almost doubled from 36% to 74%--and Hispanic immigrants, whose use has jumped from 51% to 78% since 2009.

There is no divide over what is the dominant Internet access tool: a mobile device.

The survey found that 80% of Latino adults access the 'net from a mobile device. That figure is 77% for blacks and 76% for whites.

The study was based on phone interviews with a representative sample of 1,500 Latino respondents 18-plus Oct. 21 - Nov. 30, 2015. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.3 points.

Telemundo has partnered with Excelencia in Education and the Smithsonian Latino Center to support its Apprender es Triunfar (Learning Is Succeeding) initiative aimed at Latino students.

The year-long campaign, promoted via two websites (telemundoteinspira.com/aprender-es-triunfar in Spanish and telemundoteinspira.com/learning-is-succeeding in English), is designed to get Latino youths and their parents more involved in STEAM education, which includes Science, Technology, Engineering Arts and Mathematics.

Excelencia in Education will work with Telemundo to create co-branded content, such as a “Latinas in STEAM” white paper that will tie into Women’s History Month, in March, and a fact book that will include research and statistics on the current state of Latinos in education. The Smithsonian Latino Center will focus on reaching out to Latino youth and families via its “¡Descubra! Meet the Science Expert” series, which will showcase STEAM education and career paths. That program will extend through this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month, scheduled for Sept. 15-Oct. 15,

“We are dedicated to providing Hispanics with the best information about education in the science, technology, engineering, arts and math fields as we work towards increasing Hispanic representation in those career fields,” Raquel Egusquiza, NBCUniversal’s vice president of community affairs, Hispanic enterprises and content, said.  

Excelencia in Education and the Smithsonian Latino Center join existing partners the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), ¡Adelante! U.S. Education Leadership Fund and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). So far the program has distributed backpacks to students in key Hispanic markets, hosted an education town hall meeting and released a documentary film, Underwater Dreams, in Los Angeles and New York. 

In another move to support the campaign, Telemundo will begin airing monthly news segments on Noticiero Telemundo  profiling prominent Latinos who have succeeded in a STEAM field. Additionally, the network will create public service announcements, aimed at parents and featuring news anchor Jose Diaz-Balart and reporter Vanessa Hauc, to promote awareness of career opportunities in the various STEAM fields.

Latinos are one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the country and watch more television than most groups, yet they are vastly underrepresented on television shows, according to a new report from the Columbia University Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.

Despite Latinos representing 17% of the overall population last year, no Latino actors had lead roles among the top 10 scripted network television shows and less than 10% of supporting roles, according the recently released “Latino Media Gap” report. Given that Hispanic purchasing power is expected to reach $1.6 trillion dollars by 2015 and that Latino adults watched an average of 123 hours of television each during fourth-quarter 2013, according to Nielsen — second behind only African- American viewers — Latino representation on the small screen is disproportionally low.

Roles for Latino actors and actresses are largely stereotypical characters. While Latinas represent 69% of all maids on television, Latinas in real life only represent 44.3% of maids. Nearly 25% of Latino and Latina characters on TV shows are blue collar criminals, yet only 19% of Latinos commit such crimes. Latinos are portrayed as artists less than 1% of the time, yet Latinos constitute nearly 9% of creative professionals, according to the survey .

Behind the camera, Latinos fare even worse. From 2010 to 2013, Latinos accounted for 2.1% or less of pilot show producers, although in 2013 the number increased to 2.8% — encouraging, but still disproportionally low. At the current rate of change, the report said, it will take more than 100 years for Latinos to reach just 17% of lead roles in the top 10 scripted TV shows. By then, the Latino population is expected to at least double.

Signs are emerging, though, that may signal a move in the right direction for Latinos on the small screen, particularly on cable and in new media.

Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez’s startup El Rey Network is offering original content targeted to Hispanic audiences, including its soccer-driven original scripted series, Matador, debuting later this summer.

OTT service Hulu later this month will debut the second season of East Los High, the first scripted series with an all Latino cast.

As with all minority groups, the lack of Latino decision makers has a definitive effect on the images and messages that we see on the television screen. The casting and the roles that we see are often representative of the experiences of the writers and producers. More minority representation among TV network decision makers will lead to more accurate representations of multicultural images on-screen.