News Media Coverage

Our class discussion on the issue was about the representation of Black issues in news media. Apparently we are concerned that the stories covered on news outlets are only negative when concerning Blacks. “Today a Black male was arrested for killing five people and then screaming the word, ‘nigger’ over and over again.” Or, “..and on today’s show, we’ll talk about how Black people love fried chicken and AIDS…” According to the journalism students in class, it’s up to the media heads as to what stories get coverage (most of the time celebrities and non-political, non-social issue related stories). According to the group, we should have more representation in our news anchors, and CNN and FOXNews should incorporate more stories about missing black students and Jena Six and issues similar to them while not covering celebrity news so much. Personally though, I could care less. Statistics show that I’m not the only one. Most Black households don’t watch CNN and FOXNews and other big news media outlets. Also, the fact that these outlets don’t cover Black issues doesn’t really come as a surprise to me. Duh! When you own something then you can decide what material to include in the programs. For the giant news media stations they are only doing what’s best for their interests according to ratings and continuing their business. They are in business to get viewers, and they do. Most of the news media outlets have political ties as well so there are a lot of beauracracies associated with what we consider to be news. When Blacks start supporting and rallying behind an independent news media outlet for their issues, then that’s when social issues and Black news worthy issues will be covered. We complained and raved and ranted in the 50s to integrate into this society (our last step in total Europeanization). We got what we wanted. We can go to their schools, and work where they do, and take active participation in democracy as first class citizens. There is no taxation without representation in this country. It’s been like that. So if you want something you have to have support for it. Black people are so concerned with supporting others that we rarely consider supporting our own community and desegregating ourselves from the mix when it truly matters. Till we’re ready to do that, what news media decides to show should be completely up to them.