I’m attending the National Conference on Media Reform here in Minneapolis this weekend.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the groundbreaking Kerner Commission report that found the mainstream media contributed to racial divisions that tore apart our nation in the late 1960s. Four decades later, how and why do people of color continue to be marginalized by mainstream media coverage? What trends have we seen in the media industry and in media policy that help or hinder diversity in staffing and ownership of media — as well as in media content that matters to our communities? Panelists will discuss the current state and future of diversity in the media and its impact on society.
Speakers: George Curry, Joseph Torres, Keith Kamisugi, Kristal Brent Zook, Laura Waterman Wittstock, Rosa A. Clemente
The session started with a clip from Bill Moyers Journal in which he states that it’s hard to find candidates’ stand on urban issues. “To talk about cities, we have to think about the touchy subject of race.” Talks about Kerner Report; LBJ appointed a commission spurred by race riots in late ’60s (Newark, Detroit). The report found that the mainstream media (MSM) contributed to racial divisions.
JT: The Kerner report found that MSM’s failure to routinely and normally depict minorities reinforces in the majority’s mind that they’re existence is not routine and normal.
KBZ: People of color (33% of population) own 3.6% of all commercial broadcast tv stations, 8% of radio. Frequent response to that fact is “maybe they don’t want to or aren’t good at it”! *eyeroll* African-Americans own < 1% of tv stations. Women of all races (50% of pop.) own 5% of tv stations. Ownership by minority women hasn’t even been calculated. The Free Press has the only accurate #s, continues to do it because the government won’t anymore. We should care because: Minority and local broadcast owners do a better job of serving their communities, reporting more local news, more news representative of the locality. In 1976 the U.S. court of appeals told the FCC that it’s wrong to not consider race in granting ownership; FCC should include race as one factor (localness, experience being others). FCC’s whole purpose is to ensure that the public trust is served and it’s clearly not doing that. Why ownership matters: Black women were the single population segment most adamantly opposed to Iraq war; only 33% of black women supported Bush’s decision to go to war (vs 57% of black men, 70% of Americans).
GC: We’re seeing differences in the kind of coverage we’re seeing. The reality is that media is bottom-line-driven. As the minority population increases, diversity in newsrooms, etc., is decreasing.
RC: There are lots of issues that only the hip hop community is really having, e.g., “black does not default to African-American,” lack of Puerto Rican citizenship, Cuban embargo, impending war with Venezuela/Hugo Chavez. Also, hip hop is the voice of young people everywhere, no matter what country you go to.
KBZ: Some actually helpful policies were discontinued at the FCC and ought to be returned, like the Minority Ownership Policy and Minority Tax Certificate Program (pdf).
GC: Support ethnic media. Don’t underestimate web tv.
JT: Technology is disruptive. It changes the media landscape every time (e.g., radio, then television, now the internet), and every time there’s a promise it’s going to democratize society, but then the government steps in a takes it away. The internet has the best chance because access is so much easier, but with telecom is trying to monetize the internet we’re in danger of it happening again.
Audience Q: Suggest policy strategies for increasing women’s representation in ownership and production? RC: Activist thing to do is self-publish, don’t wait for someone to give you your chance. KBX: Cathy Hughes (1st woman radio station owner, also POC) turned down by 30-something financial institutions, finally got a loan because a young Latina gave it to her. Cathy Hughes got her station because of FCC’s distressed media policy (if a station’s in trouble, sell it to a minority).
Audience Q: How does the media perpetuate the black/brown divide? RC: They divide and conquer. Just because you’re POC doesn’t mean we’re all brothers and sisters. Hip hop is about uniting around conditions (like Farrakhan says, operational unity), which we need to do more of and not let ourselves be divided based on black vs brown.
