Media 2070: An Invitation to Dream Up Media Reparations - Article / Essay - Page 57
rolled into these massive, publicly traded companies. And
so, that character of independently owned and city-bycity, individual voice and character was eliminated.”11
1. “2017 ASNE Diversity Survey — Methodology and Detailed Tables,” American Society of News Editors,
Oct. 16, 2017, pp. 4–5: https://www.asne.org//Files/census/2017%20ASNE%20diversity%20survey%20
tables.pdf
2. Kristen Hare, “Here Are The Newsroom Layoffs, Furloughs and Closures Caused by the Coronavirus,”
Poynter, Sept. 17, 2020: https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2020/here-are-the-newsroom-layoffsfurloughs-and-closures-caused-by-the-coronavirus/
These factors — made worse by the lack of generational
wealth in the Black community due to historic economic
injustice and discrimination — have made it harder to
increase Black ownership.12
3. “Digital-Only Platforms Drive Race and Gender Inclusion Among Newsrooms in 2019 ASNE Newsroom
Diversity Survey,” American Society of News Editors, Sept. 10, 2019: https://www.newsleaders.org/2019diversity-survey-results; “ASNE’s 2018 Diversity Survey Results Reflect Low Participation but Encouraging
Shifts,” American Society of News Editors, Nov. 15, 2018: https://members.newsleaders.org/diversitysurvey-2018; “News Leaders Association Calls for Structural Changes on Newsroom Diversity,” News
Leaders Association, June 12, 2020: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/NLA-NEWS--Update-on-theNewsroom-Diversity-Survey.html?soid=1110653940249&aid=UXjjEbpUfjM. “History,” Associated Press
And these forces have made it difficult for existing
Black owners to compete against larger conglomerates.
According to recent data, Black people own and control
less than 1 percent of our nation’s full-power TV stations
— just 12 stations in our entire country.13 This is a
troubling figure considering that it took until 1973 for the
FCC to approve a broadcast license for the first Blackowned TV station on the U.S. mainland: WGPR-TV in
Detroit.14
Media Editors, accessed on Aug. 31, 2020: https://www.apme.com/page/apmeHistory. The American
Society of News Editors merged in 2019 with the Associated Press Media Editors to form a new group
— the News Leaders Association.
4. Bob Papper, “2019 Research: Local Newsroom Diversity,” RTDNA / Lawrence Herbert School
of Communication / Hofstra University Newsroom Survey, June 19, 2019: https://www.rtdna.org/
article/2019_research_local_newsroom_diversity;
5. Dr. Travis L. Dixon, A Dangerous Distortion of Our Families: Representations of Families, by Race, in News
and Opinion Media, Color Of Change and Family Story, December 2017: https://colorofchange.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/05/COC-FS-Families-Representation-Report_Full_121217.pdf
6. Ibid, p. 22
7. “Endowments-Funded Study Finds Local-News Coverage of African Americans Focuses on Crime and
Sports,” The Heinz Endowments, April 2, 2020: https://www.heinz.org/news-and-media/in-the-news/
news-detail?id=1223; “Portrayal and Perception II: Content Analysis of Pittsburgh Media Coverage of
African Americans,” The Heinz Endowments, March 2020: https://www.heinz.org/UserFiles/Library/
So while media companies have boasted over the past
half century about their support for “diversity,” racial
disparities and inequities have persisted both inside our
nation’s newsrooms and in the boardrooms that control
them.
Portrayal_Perception_II.pdf
8. Ibid Endowments-Funded Study
9. S. Derek Turner, How Big Is the Reporting Gap? Free Press, June 2020: https://www.freepress.net/sites/
default/files/2020-06/free_press_reporting_gap_analysis_report.pdf, pp. 1, 4, 6
10. Kristen Hare, “Here Are the Newsroom Layoffs, Furloughs and Closures Caused by the Coronavirus,”
Poynter, Sept. 17, 2020: https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2020/here-are-the-newsroom-layoffsfurloughs-and-closures-caused-by-the-coronavirus/
11. “‘Speak and Be Heard’: Why Black Media Matters,” BBC, June 23, 2020: https://www.bbc.com/news/
av/world-us-canada-53142308/speak-and-be-heard-why-black-media-matters
Meanwhile, media conglomerates such as AT&T, Comcast,
Disney and Fox Corporation are now dominant players
on multiple media platforms. Each of these companies
owns some or all of the following: local-TV stations, cable
networks, news networks, cable-news networks, cable
systems, broadband networks and movie studios.
12. Calvin Schermerhorn, “Why the Racial Wealth Gap Persists, More Than 150 Years After
Emancipation,” The Washington Post, June 19, 2019: https://www.washingtonpost.com/
outlook/2019/06/19/why-racial-wealth-gap-persists-more-than-years-after-emancipation/
13. Office of FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, “Commissioner Starks Statement on Fourth Broadcast
Station Ownership Report,” Feb. 14, 2020: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-362497A1.
pdf; Fourth Report on Ownership of Broadcast Stations, Federal Communications Commission, February
2020: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-20-161A1.pdf, p. 32. The latest information on Black
TV ownership is from 2017. Since then, Byron Allen, chairman and CEO of the Byron Media Group,
has purchased 12 full-power stations. In August 2020, Allen announced his company had signed an
agreement to purchase TV stations in Hawaii. Diane Haithman, “Byron Allen Acquires Honolulu TV
The slow pace of progress when it comes to serving
the Black community’s news-and-information needs
demonstrates how diversity efforts will never be enough
to achieve the kind of equity Black people need in our
media system.
•••
Station,” Los Angeles Business Journal, Aug. 18, 2020: https://labusinessjournal.com/news/2020/aug/18/
byron-allen-acquires-honolulu-tv-station/
14. Antoinette Cook Bush and Marc S. Martin, “The FCC’s Minority Ownership Policies from Broadcasting
to PCS,” Federal Communications Law Journal, Volume 48, Issue 3, 1996, p. 439: https://www.repository.
law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1107&context=fclj; William K. Stevens, “Black TV Station
Opens in Detroit,” The New York Times, Sept. 30, 1975: https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/30/archives/
black-tv-station-opens-in-detroit-wgpr-believed-to-be-first.html. The article notes that there were two
Black-owned stations in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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