To reach future audience, ONA and minority journalists must unite
By Bobbi Bowman
The overwhelmingly white attendees at the Online News Association convention in San Francisco this month reveled in using the latest technology, but they didn’t look like their future audience.
The overwhelmingly Asian, black, Latino and Native American journalists attending their respective summer conventions look like their future audience, but they are largely clueless about the latest technology.
Can we talk? Obviously, the very white ONA needs to unite with the minority journalists organizations if they want to reach a mass audience. The minority journalists need to unite with ONA to understand the new technologies to reach this emerging audience.
Why this emphasis on audience? Because it’s dramatically changing. By the fall of 2018 — just nine years away — our nation’s public high schools will have a majority of minority students, says the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, a highly regarded research group headquartered in Boulder, Colo.
"The share of white non-Hispanic students is expected to fall below 50 percent for the first time," says a report the commission published last year.
In 2008-09, white, non-Hispanic students were 55 percent of the nation’s pre-K to 12th graders, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Latinos comprised 20 percent of the students, blacks 16 percent, and Asians and Native Americans, 9 percent apiece. School officials are still compiling figures for the current academic year.
Some states already have a majority of minority students: California, 70 percent; Texas, more than 60 percent; Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, 53 percent in each.
Other states stand on the brink of the majority-minority change: Illinois, New York and North Carolina.
These racial-ethnic changes in the classroom foreshadow the findings of the coming 2010 Census — that the United States will change from majority white to majority brown in our lifetimes.
The tots, five years and younger, are even browner — minority kids make up 47 percent of pre-schoolers.
The millennial generation will be the first that, as a majority-minority generation, can independently and inexpensively cover and distribute news important to them.
They are already doing it on Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and My Blog. Anyone who has a laptop can create a website and share their opinions or take a stab at covering news.
Will blacks, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans trust predominantly white media online to cover their communities?
We don’t think so. That’s what ONA members need to understand or they will repeat the huge mistake that mainstream media made — thinking that white male editors can decide what is news for minorities and women.
Minority journalists need to understand that today’s children cut their teeth on the Internet, know how to use their cell phones to post videos to YouTube, and taught their elders how to text.
Let the conversation begin.
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Come join Sally Lehrman, a professor and journalist who writes regularly on race, gender and identity issues and Maynard Institute President Dori J. Maynard as we talk about the best and worst of media coverage and diversity. Add comments and give us your thoughts.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
The Maynard Institute gears up for its coming celebration of Black History Month
Based on the late Robert C. Maynard's belief that the five fault lines of race, class, gender, generation and geography are the most enduring forces shaping lives, experiences and social tensions in this country, the Maynard Institute's Fault Lines framework helps journalists build a more diverse source list, have more voices in stories and determine which fault lines are at work in complex issues.
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| Black History Project Stories of the African American journalists who broke into media during the '60s and '70s. |
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Ed Bradley View video from his interview as part of the Black Journalists Movement Project |
Black History Month and Beyond documents and preserves the stories of those courageous African American journalists who broke into general circulation media during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. [more...]
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| Martin Reynolds View an interview with Martin Reynolds, Managing Editor at the Oakland Tribune. |
Media Academy View video from the Maynard Media Academy at Harvard University |
Chauncey Bailey View video and more from the Chauncey Bailey Project |
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| History Project Stories of the African American journalists who broke into media during the '60s and '70s. |
Caldwell Journals An account of the pioneers who broke the color barrier in America's newspapers |
Ed Bradley View video from his interview as part of the Black Journalists Movement Project |
Online technology and news
In August, I left a 14-year career in journalism to start my own company. My last position was Web Editor for a small newspaper in Southern Oregon owned by the Dow Jones Local Media Group. I led the online experiments for the Dow Jones Local Media Group prior to my amicable departure. Success was achieved. Awards were bestowed. Then I resigned.
The problem I saw then, which still persists today, is that much of the media industry is divided on the future. Many decision-makers see value in online content and are determined to create a wall around it and charge admission. Other, more motivated and creative leaders, are recognizing that the most valued commodity isn't content, but rather community. And they are seeking innovative ways of bringing people together online. Those platforms are the foundation upon which content will be built and distributed to the masses.
The ONA is recognizing this divide and addressing it. Meanwhile, the organizations representing journalists of color appear to be lagging or seeking direction when it comes to new media. For sure, none are leading the movement. Few non-whites are the inventors and tech-savvy entrepreneurs.
The realization that technology in today's media industry is a vital and valuable tool has somehow morphed into a discussion over how best to use the tools. The reality is that the toolmakers are consistently seeking new ways of refining the tools and technology to reach more masses, while we discuss which masses are most important to target.
When I started my own company, I moved directly into the technology arena with a brand new idea that is now in the patent pending stage. The idea addresses a problem that the giants, like Google and Microsoft, are working on in various degrees but have yet to resolve.
As we talk to interested investors, a pattern has emerged. Whites are interested. Blacks are not.
My company isn't creating news content. It is creating a new platform upon which consumers and businesses will come together daily. Upon that platform, news will seek an opportunity to build a method of access and distribution. And we will facilitate that access and distribution ... for a fee.
The focus on new technology by the news media is an important focus — equal to the focus on content. If NABJ wants to get ahead of the curve, it needs to think ahead. It needs to invest in new emerging technologies and own the platforms upon which the masses will connect. Because that's when news distributors will come to NABJ with their content seeking to reach the audiences who have adopted the platform NABJ built with its investments.
New technology isn't a mandatory segregated environment. It is strictly voluntary. And the longer we stay out of the arena of innovative ideas, the more we risk mortgaging our future in the tech world. And that's the engine that carries the content.
Whitewash? ONA, new media and race
Bobbi Bowman: I am glad you raised this issue, but I think the overwhelmingly white attendance at ONA was more a reflection of the workforce in online news than the actions – or inactions – of the minority journalism organizations (although the silence from the organizations is telling). Take a look at new media-related entities from USC to University of Maryland to AOL or WSJ or Yahoo to small foundation-funded projects around the country and you will find a peculiar lack of people of color.
Look at the people running the organizations funding “innovative journalism” projects and then look at the people who have been receiving grants and you will again find that same peculiar lack of people of color. And even at supporting organizations from IRE to Poynter, the story is unfortunately the same.
When NABJ President Kathy Times asked NPR's Vivian Schiller about the lack of diversity in NPR’s management ranks, the answer – and what followed – was just more of the same.
So, Schiller wrote NABJ a letter in which she said: "I couldn't agree more that NPR must increase the diversity of its staff -- particularly in management and editorial. I am on the record with the media and our employees, stations and board in acknowledging that NPR must take a leadership position in diversity, just as we do in high-quality journalism and digital innovation."
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it is just a standard NPR flack statement. To get a sense of reality, just look at the senior managers hired since Schiller took over. Yup, they all look peculiarly similar.
And then there’s this post by conservative columnist (I guess you need the ‘conservative columnist’ tag so you can be blatantly racist, not just overtly racist) where Rod Dreher helpfully translated for Schiller. Replace a few words and it would make John Yoo very proud.
“We will not discriminate in hiring or firing on the basis of race, but we do not have the luxury now, in this time of intense difficulty for journalism, to set aside jobs for journalists on the basis of race. We're all struggling to keep our heads above water these days, and professional competence, not demographic desirability, must be by far the most important factor in hiring and retaining personnel.”
In short: In the good times, we indulged people of color by hiring them, even though they weren’t really qualified, etc. Now, we don’t have to care because [insert favorite John Yoo-like reasoning here] and we must do the right thing by hiring the best.
Of course, its just coincidence that the modern-day messiahs happen to be overwhelmingly white.
And, some are the same leaders who were at the helm when the industry was driven into the ground. They just move from job to job. Not unlike the NFL head coach carousel of not so long ago, the media too just happens not to find “qualified” people of color for teaching jobs, for leadership positions, for fellowships, for “innovative news projects.”
To be fair, not all of these folks are pretenders. Some are great at what they do, but it’s hard to believe that people of color can fill only a handful of these positions.
It would be great if someone published the names of all the top managers at all journalism-related entities – from universities to fellowships to foundations to companies big and small – so we could all see that the state of the media is indeed very, very white.
And that, Bobbi, is the unfortunate state of the media. Makes me wonder if all the parity projects got lip service because 10-15 percent of the bonus depended on it…
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