Ethnic Media is Growing, Expands Audience by 8 Million in 4 Years

Ethnic media outlets now reach more than 57 million people in the United States, according to a new poll by New America Media (NAM). The survey results were released at the New American Media Ethnic Media Expo held in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this month.

Ethnic media readers and viewers have increased by 8 million people in the last four years. The poll, conducted by Bendixen & Associates, surveyed 1,329 African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American adults in the United States.

The uptick in readership signals the deep penetration of ethnic media into the communities. Ethnic media outlets now reach 82% of African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American adults. NAM’s executive director, Sandy Close, attributes this to a thirst for information in communities that are not typically covered by mainstream media outlets.

One notable finding was that Asian-Americans turn to ethnic media outlets such as VATV (Vietnamese) in Washington, D.C. and KCNS-TV (Chinese) in San Francisco for news coverage from their home country.

The Hispanic population has also embraced television as a media outlet, with Spanish-language stations such as Telemundo and Univision continuing to increase their viewership and now reaching 86% of the Hispanic population.

Sergio Bendixen, president of Bendixen & Associates, notes that through the economic downturn, ethnic media consumption has remained stable. He attributes part of the recent increase to Barack Obama’s candidacy and presidency, with many minorities finding a newfound interest in political news coverage.

Please tell us what your organization is doing to reach the ethnic community and develop your audience.

--Compiled by Jenn Bollenbacher, Citizenship Program Intern

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December is Ethnic Media Month

The Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University has posted its MF-funded study “The Health of Ethnic Media: Needs and Opportunities.” The report, directed by Cristina Azocar and Jon Funabiki, offers a snapshot of the health and resiliency of the nation’s ethnic news organizations from the point of view of their proprietors, publishers, editors and reporters. To see the study, click here: http://ciij.org/downloads/Health_of_the_Ethnic_Media_Final.pdf

Also, hyperlocal journalism was celebrated Dec. 5 at Minnesota’s Twin Cities first regional Ethnic and Community Media Awards. Co-hosted by the Twin Cities Daily Planet and New America Media, the event honored stories about such topics as Asian-American theater, the recent arrival of refugees from Bhutan, education in the Hmong community and the Service Employees International Union strike in Minneapolis.

To view a NAM story on this event, click here:
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=2d396e99f74e9f3b7500319ce0b599a2.

For audio coverage of the event, click here: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=979cee7dfd9e5c88c47004478bd04e31.

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Innovative Partnering

Two MF grantees recently came together to spread the word about voter education issues to journalists across the country. New America Media (NAM) and the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) partnered for an Oct. 1 conference call focused on state-specific voter identification laws, registration deadlines, election information sources and citizenship requirements, according to AAJA (for more, visit: http://www.aaja.org/features/articles/2008_09_26_01/aajateleconference.pdf). The call featured a Q&A with John Bonifaz, legal director of Voter Action.

This unique professional journalism training opportunity allowed NAM, the oldest and largest group representing ethnic media, to partner with a media membership association to provide specific, timely information for journalists serving ethnic audiences.

The teleconference was promoted an NAM public service campaign aimed at informing ethnic media audiences about what documents they need to bring with them to vote on Nov. 4.

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Ethnic Media Put Experience into Coverage of Emergencies

In a compelling piece of online audio reporting, New America Media’s Odette Keeley explores the role of ethnic media as emergency responders. Vu Than Thuy, CEO and host of Radio Saigon Houston 900 AM KREH had experienced Hurricane Katrina and armed with that experience managed to continue broadcasting during Hurricane Ike. She even resorted to using candlelight when power was down to continue reaching the station’s more than 160,000 listeners in Houston and Galveston. Hiram Soto, a multimedia reporter for the Spanish-language paper Enlace (San Diego) had learned from earlier wild fires both what to expect as well as the importance of relationships with other Spanish-language media in the area. When wild fires hit the area on a Sunday evening last year, by Monday he was recording and posting video and by Tuesday a special edition of Enlace had hit the streets with information on what was going on, what to do, where to go, etc. Listen to this piece at http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=969ec31cf7cfc605cfdefccc8232a3aa.

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McCormick Hosts Ethnic Media Leaders

The recent “McCormick Ethnic Media Conference: Strategies for Growing the Sector” brought some 30 leaders from across the nation to Chicago to discuss strategies, obstacles, lessons learned and impact of the work they do. The conference featured a public panel Friday, June 20 on “The State of Ethnic Media: Boom or Bust?” This public discussion was moderated by Community Media Workshop’s Thom Clark and featured Sandy Close of New America Media, Cristina Azocar of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University and Juana Ponce de Leon of New York Community Media Alliance. Here are video excerpts from that lively exchange:

• Thom Clark of CMW introduces the panel and discusses the results of his organization’s research into Chicago’s 200 ethnic news outlets (click here)
• Panelists discuss challenges facing ethnic media
(click here
• Juana Ponce de Leon discusses the vibrancy of the ethnic media in a city where 40% of residents are foreign-born (click here)
• Cristina Azocar discusses the research conducted by SFSU on opportunities and threats to EM nationally (click here)
• Sandy Close on the role and strengths of EM (click here)
• Sandy Close on EM and advertising potential (click here)
• Closing comments on MSM v EM v the death of journalism (click here)

A highlight of this event was a spoken word performance by Esther Ikoro and Adam Gottlieb of Young Chicago Authors (click here)

Photo above by Demetrio Maguigad of Community Media Workshop

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American University Joins J-Schools Exploring Ethnic Media

American University's School of Communications is beginning to develop a relationship with the growing DC-area ethnic media community. This project is an outgrowth of Angie Chuang's class "Race, Ethnic and Community Reporting," which partnered with New American Media to identify more than 70 area news outlets working in a dozen languages. The School is now helping to nurture a relationship between ethnic media and the area's public schools.

For more on this growing initiative - as well as Chuang's description of some of the advantages and disadvantages of reporting on your own ethnic community, click here: http://veracity.univpubs.american.edu/today/vol/11/29/042908_chuang.html

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New America Media's Web Site Features J-School Ethnic Media Projects

The New America Media (NAM) Web site now links to a variety of projects at journalism schools that involve the ethnic media outlets in their regions.

With assistance from NAM (and financial backing from MTF & others), a growing number of J-Schools are exploring, researching and engaging the ethnic media in their own backyards and finding that this work reaps huge dividends in return. It helps the schools attract more diverse students, redefine and energize their role within their own universities and become more relevant in their communities. Schools are:

* Studying this growing sector’s diversity, scope and audience;
* Convening ethnic reporters to provide training in investigative reporting, online story telling and issues such as public health; and
* Creating advisory boards and networks of ethnic journalists to explore commonalities and challenges and to explore partnerships.

See more, plus an interactive map of the projects, at: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_alt_category.html?category_id=535

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Georgia's Got Ethnic Media on its Mind

Someone once said that the most creative solutions resolve three problems at once. A recent program hosted by the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia, Athens – in partnership with New American Media - is proof positive.

Trying to tackle seemingly disparate issues – making the campus a more inviting environment for prospective students of color, establishing ties between the journalism school and the surrounding community and providing useful training for ethnic journalists – led to an innovative idea: an Ethnic Media Family Weekend. The strategy is simple: Publishers and editors of the area’s burgeoning ethnic media are invited to campus for a weekend of high-quality workshops on topics ranging from the importance of getting online and how to create inexpensive new media slide shows to investigative reporting and coverage of health issues. Taking the idea a step further, the families of these same ethnic media leaders were invited to attend these same training sessions or to participate in campus tours and evening entertainment. Win-win-win.

To learn more about the MTF-funded weekend, which took place Feb. 23-24, visit http://www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/conferences/2008/Feb/23/ethnic.phtml.

And to see a short video that NAM’s Cliff Parker put together on the event, see
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=84a3fff8558e9bbf49a8908ff053ff54.

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