CIIJ study exposes serious challenges facing ethnic media in America
The Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism in San Francisco, one of the few cities that seems to attract groups interested in the health and well-being of the ethnic American media, released a fascinating report on the challenges facing the ethnic American media.
The report has many important conclusions based on interviews with some 125 ethnic journalists, 90 percent American based and 20 percent from the "global" ethnic media which I don't think belongs in the study or category at all.
Some of the most common observations of the participants:
- Many of the ethnic media are "mon and pop" operatuibs with poorly trained news and business staffs
- Standards and practices vary and are influenced by cultural traditions
- advertising contracts and investment capital can be difficult to attract
- Government agencies and other important news sources can be indifferent to ethnic news journalists and their communities
-- the journalism "establishment" -- schools, professional association etc -- has yet to take the ethnic media journalists seriously.
The study was funded by the Tribune McCormick Foundation, a group created by one of the mainstream media most responsible for the problems faced by ethnic journalists, the Chicago Tribune, an empire built on the White elitism that believes in the old 19th Century view of minorities: "we need to help these poor inadequate people live at least decent lives. They won't be as good as us, but it is our God-given responsibility to civilize them." I call view it in the same way of the old days in Chicago politics where Whites dominated the onlyr eal minority that matter, Blacks, for many generations. We called it plantation politics. Involvement was based on co-opting, not collaboration. The White Democrat political Machine co-opted Blacks by selectively embracing those who collaborated and worked through them to oppress Black society. The Tribune Foundation, for all its good intentions, however, doesn't recognize the real need. Ethnic groups that do not have 501 c 3 operations can't get their support, a nice buffer to insure the alien hordes don't overrun the walls of the Ivory Tower in Journalism.
But, we should use "The Man" to break through and pretend we care about their superficial agendas in order to break out. This study is one insufficient step in recognizing the real presence in American media, the ethnic media.
I argue in my last post here that the economic troubles and industry collapse of the mainstream media is in part driven by this very topic. The mainstream emdia has failed to embrace the ethnic media or a true and fair and inclusive definition of "diversity." The mainstream media dsoesn't recognize diversity in its fullest sense because the Mainstream media is much like the armies of Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England and the White (non-minority) World in the 17th Century, who believed that they could civlize the uncivilized and place them in the servitude of the masters or "The Man." In truth, the failure of the mainstream media to address the reality of the ethnic press an dtreat them like equals instead of subjuigatable peoples contribute to the media's current economic collapse.
But if the mainstream media is collapsing, so to is it bringing pressure of the ethnic media.
One problem with the study is a reflection of the problem of mainstream America, too. For example, including the Global media as a part of the "ethnic" media is a major fault. Al-Jazeera Satellite television, for example, is not any part of the Ethnic American media. Although certainly most American Arabs blow off the mainstream media, which is filled with bias, lies, half-truths and incomplete journalism, and prefer to watch al-Jazeera where they can get a better, more complete look at issues that are important to them.
Americans don't think al-Jazeera is a terrorist network simply because they know anything. The image of a terrorist network comes fromt he anti-ethnic extremists who dominate the mainstream media who define and depict it as a terrorist network. And the mainstream American public is used to getting its news intravenously, like much of its education about the rest of the world, from the mainstream media's bias.
The study addresses the most often articulated concern about the ethnic media, that they are not professioal journalists because they embrace "activism" and are actually advocates for causes rather than pure bloods of the professional (Cromwell) journalism industry (The Man).
This is ridiculous, of course, The fact is that the mainstream media is often itself the worst violator of the principles of professional journalism and frequently turn into advocates of causes. It's just that they complain when the ethnic media advocates because the issues the ethnic media advocates are usually in contradicition to those adopted by the mainstream media.
The ethnic media is experiencing a growth int he face of the mainstream media's continued collapse. One reason is that the ethnic media does a better job of tapping the excluded minorities, their own communities, for support. It is challenging, of course. But the revenue is there. Minority communities rarely engage the mainstream media as fully as they might or at the same rate as the mainstream society. Ethnic businesses, like their ethnic communities, are ignored in mainstream media coverage, depicted only as tragedies and causes of tragedies rather than as members of society. But they are discovering the power of ethnic media and the ability to use it to connect their products and services more efficiently with the people most interested in buying from them, their own ethnic audience.
If the mainstream media would start to take the ethnic communities more seriously, they might discover an untapped (from their perspective) revenue stream that could helpt hem survive the economichardships we face today.
But taking their dollars without trying to understand their issues, the way the ethnic media understands, comprehends and conveys those concerns, is a waste of time. They've been trying to do that for years and it has not worked. When the mainstream media starts to respect ethnic communities, ethnic communities might open their wallets to the mainstream media. That recognition of the ethnic media by the mainstream media also will serve to strengthen the ethnic media. And strengthening the ethnic media doesn't mean the ethnic media will replace the mainstream media as a source, but rather will bring more ethnic communities into the acceptance o the mainstream media.
Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com