Missing among the many reasons given for the enormous and unchanging racial divide regarding the fairness of the American judicial system is the legacy of the long history of media segregation. During America’s Jim Crow years not only did African Americans maintain lives apart from white America but so did their media. “To most white Americans the black press was a voice unheard, its existence unknown or ignored,” explained Enoch P. Waters, an editor at the Chicago Defender.
It’s only the little caption on the upper right-hand corner that indicates that what we are seeing is not what is actually happening. Recorded earlier it says almost unobtrusively. What is likely going on? We just don’t know, says the CNN anchor. A security expert Michael Roach replies “The police want to manage the situation and not have it be controlled by the media.” 24x7 television has led us to believe we can get a ringside view into any crisis happening around the world.
Freelancers who find themselves in trouble depend on the kindness of the organizations that buy their work. In Foley’s case, GlobalPost claimed it spent millions in an attempt to rescue him, including hiring a security firm and investigating his whereabouts.But in general, a freelancer is more vulnerable, often traveling without bodyguards and contingency plans. There’s a viral photo of Foley carrying his camera and sound recorder and other equipment that reminds viewers of how freelancers need to take advantage of the full multimedia spectrum – reporting, photojournalism, sound recording – in order to make a living.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Filipino American journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who is arguably the most visible undocumented immigrant in America right now, has joined 10 other fellow undocumented immigrants in applying for temporary relief from deportation proceedings under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The 11 people applied for DACA as part of the “1 of 11 Million” campaign launched on Wednesday, August 20, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
There wouldn’t be an advertising industry if people weren’t susceptible to messages. POM Wonderful wouldn’t rent billboards promising (falsely) to prevent prostate cancer, the fossil fuel industry wouldn’t spend millions on spots claiming (falsely) to produce clean energy, candidates wouldn’t fork over billions of dollars to local TV stations for (pants-on-fire) political ads if all their money could buy were some wispy correlation.
They’re folding like cheap card tables. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve seen the demise of NBCLatino.com, an English-language website for Latinos, as well as CNN Latino, Time Warner’s year-long effort to create programming for the U.S. Hispanic market. Now come rumors that Poder, Televisa’s magazine providing “Intelligence for the Business Elite,” may cease publication. Hold on, amigo. Isn’t the Latino market growing in demographic leaps and bounds? Don’t we have a zillion dollars in purchasing power? Didn’t we decide the election? One would think that Latino media should be thriving.
Diversity has always been—and for a number of reasons still is—the china-crashing elephant in the room that few really want to talk about or address. Lack of black people in the mainstream newsroom is an ongoing phenomenon that most—if not all—outlets seem unwilling to fix. Even worse is the lack of black leadership in the newsroom. But the fact remains that most demographic segments, regardless of background, still rush to bigged-up brand-name institutions as their most reliable sources for news. That won’t and shouldn’t change if you’re a rapacious consumer of information. As a result, people of color should hold these vaunted publications’ collective feet to the fire.
This sprawling city east of San Francisco is home to Chevron’s oil refinery, which has made it a battleground between the company’s business interests and environmental activists who are calling for checks on air quality and safety. Now, as part of the company’s latest effort to rehabilitate its image in the city, Chevron is launching its own community news site. Chevron spokesperson Melissa Ritchie said that Chevron wanted to start the site because, “We want to make sure there’s a way to have a conversation with Richmond.”
Media reporters and experts cover, weigh and analyze each day’s events, and that’s appropriate. But many of them use the day’s events to issue pronouncements about the future, picking winners and losers in an off-year election 11 months away or deciding who’s ahead in a presidential race three years from now. It’s like a movie critic reviewing an entire two-hour film after looking at one frame. Some of this is intrinsic to modern journalism. News is what’s happening right now, or just happened, or is about to happen.
While many mainstream media outlets are trying to reach the sought-after, online-savvy 20-40-year-old Latino market, Huffingon Post Voces Editorial Director Gabriel Lerner believes he has found the key with his new site. Huffington Post Voces provides a service that doesn’t exist anywhere else, according to Lerner: a collection of information from diverse international and national sources, and a commitment to provide truth to readers in their native language.
The strict enforcement of the law, with its harsh measures, like scooping young people up off the street and forcing them into the army, not only worsens the refugee crisis in Thailand but also backfires on the junta. Instead of obeying, young individuals are choosing to risk their lives by leaving the country or joining the resistance.
We know that the choice of language and framing in reporting on these scandals reveal underlying societal prejudices. And, importantly, the media's portrayal of sex scandals not only reflects societal attitudes but also actively shapes them. Public discourse around these incidents is heavily influenced by the media narrative.