I don't think black people can ignore the problem and wait until mainstream newsrooms begin to look like America. We need to renew our commitment to ourselves and to our own forms of communication. We have no choice, if we want our communities to be more than just fodder for crime, sports, and entertainment coverage.
If there were a strong African American press, it could inspire young black journalists by giving them the option of pursuing careers in black media. It could give black people a better sense of their neighborhoods and the issues that matter. And it could inform them of important developments in the community before they're recognized in the mainstream. With a reinvigorated black media on the scene, the daily allegations of police brutality would not be ignored; black news organizations would make the issue a priority and not limit their coverage to outrageous events.
Eventually, mainstream news organizations would have to pay attention to stories about the black experience. Such has been the case with other ethnic media. Like the black press, other ethnic news outlets have had a long and proud history of service in the United States. And like the black press, they have suffered a long period of decline: in the early part of the century, assimilation and restrictions on immigration weakened the market for such news. But recently there has been a "renaissance of the ethnic media," scholars say, because of the Asian and Hispanic immigration of the past few decades. Now that these ethnic newspapers, radio stations, and television newscasts are competing for a share of the market, mainstream news organizations around the country are desperately trying to improve their coverage of issues important to these communities, and build the same kind of loyal audience following.
Although Black Entertainment Television (BET) is no longer a black-owned cable station, it built a reputation of solid news coverage relevant to African Americans for two decades. It's an example of what can be done. Today, there are even more favorable conditions for the resurgence of a powerful, hard-hitting black press. African Americans are wealthier and more numerous than they've ever been in this country, and advances in technology have made it easier to put a newspaper out or start a broadcast station.
Still, it can't happen without commitment and vision. It can't happen unless we African Americans invest money in ourselves, and obtain the funds to get high-quality newspapers, Web sites, and radio and TV stations off the ground.
But it must happen. If we fail to invest in our own media, the status quo will continue. And African Americans will remain misunderstood.
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Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media
By Pamela Newkirk
New York University Press, 2000
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White News: Why Local News Programs Don't Cover People of Color
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