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Do the Media Represent You? Chances are they don't.

Do the media represent you?  Chances are they don't.  When over 90% of all media outlets are owned by white men, it's no wonder that so many perspectives on TV, the radio, and the newspaper are blatantly homogenous.  Media justice is not only about strengthening our democracy through diversity, but media justice is also a cornerstone civil rights issue.

If you're interested in this topic, please be sure to check out an upcoming event about minority and female media ownership.  It will be a town hall format in both Washington DC and Denver, with both cities interacting live via satellite.  If you're out of the geographic reach of either of those areas, then you can attend by watching the whole event in real-time on the internet.

Join author, commentator, and talk show host Tavis Smiley, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, and other distinguished speakers for a one-of-a-kind event on the importance of media diversity.  Mark your calendars on June 29th starting at 10AM/Noon (MST/EST) and learn how you can work for a more diverse media!


Tags: media and democracy, media reform, ownership, FCC, media diversity (all tags)


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white men?

I've been meaning to join Common Cause for a while now. Like years. That's why I came to the site today, and I was about to join when I spotted this post, complaining about white male ownership of media outlets. Can someone tell me how central this sort of thing is to the Common Cause agenda? I'm a Democrat myself but I was really hoping to join a non-partisan group. The idea of breaking Murdoch-style media monopolies is something liberals and conservatives can both get behind. The idea of somehow promoting minority and/or female ownership of media outlets is a contentious, unworkable idea from the Far Left.

It isn't just for my personal comfort that I want a non-partisan group. Congress is currently run by Democrats. Any group that's secretly pro-Dem is probably not a good vehicle for my reformist zeal just at the moment.

Can someone give me the lay of the land?

Bruno

by gelcap on Fri Jun 22, 2007 at 10:15:28 AM EST


non partisan

Common Cause is not a partisan group.  The issue of a diverse media--both a wide range of sources and a diverse array of owners--is an issue of public interest, not one party's interest.  I'm not sure what makes the notion of minority ownership of media outlets "unworkable"--to me it seems like a worthwhile goal, and one that would encourage that array of voices that's so important to a flourishing media and a responsive democracy.

If you've read the other posts or looked at the issues we work on, you'll see that we're working to get both Democrats and Republicans (and any other parties) to help change our system of government for the better, and calling them out when they fail, as we've done for many years.

by Josh Zaharoff on Fri Jun 22, 2007 at 11:37:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]


unconvinced

if you mean "diverse" as in many different people then i agree with you. that's a benefit to the public interest that people of all political stripes, or no stripe at all, could agree on.

but if you mean diverse as in "racially diverse"--and that certainly seemed to be how the original poster was using it--well, that's a benefit to the public interest that only people of a particular political persuasion are concerned about: the moderate- to far-left. this surprised me, given what i thought i knew about common cause. assuming a finite number of media outlets to potentially be owned, an increase in one sort of diversity necessarily means a decrease in another. and i assumed a group like common cause would be more concerned with a diversity of political viewpoints among media-owners than with diversity based on arbitrary genetic markers.

as for "unworkable," i merely meant that i couldn't see how it could be done. it's not like there's a law banning women or minorities from owning radio stations that you could campaign to overturn. media outlets are commodities. anyone can buy them. anyone can sell them. i suppose you could "encourage" women and minorities to pool their money and buy themselves a newspaper, but again, to what end? a wider array of skin-hues and genitalia at the expense of a wider intellectual or political spectrum? that the former is preferable to the latter is a purely leftist idea. and i was surprised to see it promoted on the website of a non-partisan group.

but you're right. i should poke around more before casting aspersions, or more likely just continuing my lonely quest. i'll go do that now. i sincerely wasn't trying to argue.

b

by gelcap on Fri Jun 22, 2007 at 12:26:54 PM EST


actually...

Hey Bruno -- thanks for your feedback.  Our concern about the lack of female and minority ownership isn't politically motivated.  We believe in more diverse speech, more choice for viewers and owners who are more responsive to their local communities.  Study after study has shown that increasing diversity among owners leads to better and more diverse programming for consumers.  Free Press recently found that "Having a minority-owned station in a market was significantly correlated with a market airing both conservative and progressive programming."

You're right that there isn't a law that prevents women and minorities from owning broadcast stations.  But there are systematic, structural problems that could be addressed by the FCC or even by Congress, if need be.  For example, we could allow more low-power FM radio stations that are owned by groups who don't often have a voice on the airwaves (check out Prometheus Radio Project for more on the LPFM issue).  We could also change the media ownership limits so that a single company can't own 1200 radio stations or 50+ television stations -- so that there are more opportunities for all types of people and businesses to have a station.  The Minority Media & Telecommunications Council came up with 21 proposals aimed at promoting minority media ownership.  (The MMTC paper is quite technical, just a warning.)

Thanks again for helping keep us honest.

by Dawn Holian Iype on Fri Jun 22, 2007 at 02:58:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]


Does the media represent?

I don't believe the media represents me or my life. They don't know how it feels to be a 17-year-old African-American female and they never will. What really bothers me more than anything is how some African-Americans portray themselves. From hip-hop artists and videos, the African-American woman is displayed in a derogatory manner. So automatically that is how all African-American women are viewed. That is not how I conduct myself or how I plan to ever conduct myself. One African-American should not speak for the whole race.

by BriNicole21 on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 09:47:29 AM EST


a good resource

Thanks, BriNicole. I hope you'll tune in for the Media Diversity webcast on Friday. Also -- have you heard of the group called Industry Ears? They work on the very issues that you are concerned about. Here's a link to their website if you want to get more info: www.industryears.org.

by Dawn Holian Iype on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 12:34:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]


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