DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 101 050 OD 014 752

AUTHOR Astor, 'GeraldTITLE Minorities and the media.TNSTITOTION Ford Foundation, New York, N.Y.PUB DATE Nov 74NOTE 27p.

'EDP'S PRICE MF-$0.75 EC-$1.85 PLUS POSTAGEDESCPIPTORS Broadcast Industry; Broadcast Television; Business

Responsibility; *Educational Programs; *EmploymentOpportunities; *Employment Programs; FoundationPrograms; Job Training; Journalism; Legal Problems;*Mass Media; *Minority Groups; Policy Formation;Radio; Television

ABS/PACTPartly in response to the findings of the Nationa'

Advisory (",:nmission on Civil Disorders, partly as an outgrowth oVitsearlier efforts to widen monority opportunities and improve racerelations, the Ford Foundation in the late 1960s and early 1970ssupported a series of activities designed to enhance the content andthe sensitivity of the media in relation to minorities. The projectstook three main directions: (1) training of minority journalists; (2)

opening broadcasting to more and better coverage of minority affairsby means of advocacy in the administration and interpretation ofbroadcast law; and, (3) supporting organizations committed to producematerial about minorities and matters that concern them. This reportsummarizes the experience. Since 1967 a far greater number ofnonwhites have had bylines in the press (though the American Societyof Newspaper Editors reported in 1974 that probably no more than oneper cent of the professional newsroom staff come from minoritygroups) and there are more minority-group members on televisionworking as both journalists and entertainers. The communicationsindustry may not become substantially more sensitive to the minorityexperience until members of the minorities attain policy-makingpositions, and so far very few have made it to. the executive suitesof the mass media,, (Author/JM)

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Minorities and the Media

Training and Employment 7

Academic Efforts 7

On-the-Job 1:0

Related Programs 11

Using Broadcast Lays 13

:License Challenges 14

Payment for Redress, 15

Negotiation 16

Employment Analysis 1t

Media Content 19

Projects in Prim 19

Sensitizing a 'Media Capital 20The Book World

Public Broadcasting and Minorities 21New Coverage 13

Direct ServiceRacial DialogueDrama as a Vehicle 24Unfinished 'Businesh 1:8

Prospects 29

lest by Gerald Astor

One of a series of reports on activities supported 1.1, the Ford FoundationsA complete hst of puheations ma be obtained from the

Ford I ounkLition, Office of Reports, 120 Fast 4 Street, New York. N. V. 10017.

fro,

Library of Congrey Card titimhcr 74-252K1November 1974

ON rt ! s ZJ, 041%', While NillOi...e still drilledover .1 number ot riottoin votes, President

I yndon ti Johnson met with an eleyen-per-son ).01prnissoivn he had appointed to look

into the of 1 disorders that letsdoiens dead, hundreds intoned, and millionsof dollars in damages Among his rernatio tothe ononission. the President meluded as a

shatge "Vs'hat effect do the massmedia hose on the

In its tenort eight months lat,:r, the Na-tional Advisor COmnussion on Civil Dr\or \lets t the Bernet ('ommission) oriel ed threegeneral responses to this chat 1,,t- 1 he first twodealt with the actual cos crap: ot the piecedmg summer's cis it disorders the third findmg, wltt.h the -ommession Libeled ultimate'smost important was the media hosethus tar tailed to report adequatels on thecauses and consequerwes ,or cis ii tiisni, lei sand the undeth mg problems of tats rela-tions,"

The commission said

by and large. -new., oiganizations -have failed to`-'omintmwate to both their slack and white audi-ences a sense or the 'plohlerns America faces andthe saitrces at potential solutions. The mediarcport and write from the standpoint of a 'Whiteman's world the ills of the ghetto. the difficul-ties ot Id there. the Negro's burning sense ofgrievance are seldom coo e\ ed. Slights and in

ditznittes are part of the Negro's daily life, andMany of them come from what he now calls -thewhite press" a press that repeatedly, if uncoil-soously, the biases, the paternalism, theindifference ot white America This may he un-derstandahk, but it is not escnsable in any insti-tution that has the mission to inform and edits:ale

the W- /10Ie of our society

Such critiques of the media were not lim-ited to those who studied the civil disorder,of I 9h7 Hen liagdik tan, a longtime studentot media per t ormance , said sire i (M,S

Until the recent past, Ncgioes appeared in thenews most often because of .r uric this news

treatment of 14,e err rte was more persistent andmore pernicious than that of an' Other low in-come stains pollp 1-Or the average white,Negroes did not go to sehool, earn scholarships,min election to the hieraishs at the Masons, attend PTA meenngs or die peaceful ,deaths afterlaudable or even uneventful lives, One \sondep,what the effects of this have been on white percrphon of. the Negro, on the Negro'sof himself, and on the news media's ability tohypnotize itself with its own information

For their part the re'sideras of ghettos sawthe ;Mess as at one with the police and a gen-eral ,povvr structure they fell to he oppressive.While assentor editor at NewsweeA, EdwinDiamond, remarked, "the white press all toooften lined tip with the police -that is to say,about the only lime the white press reportersgo unto New York's Harlem, or Detroit'sTwelfth Street, or Washington's Street isbehind a police eat uhen there is troubles"

Commenting on white newsmen, a blackreporter said to a Sew Yori, times editor,"the white moves in and out. The whitesees a Negro leader at rallies when he givesspeeches The Negro sees him in chinchat patties at the grocery store . on the

street I he Negro lives the ghetto lite, dayand night. I he Negro doesn't have to do re-search to 1,nov, what Stokey Carmichael istalking ahotit

Why were there almost no Hacks in themedia' I here weie men like the managingeditor of a mass magazine who constantlyprofessed a desire to hire a black writer butwould ,always add. "I never met a coon whocould write worth a sticks" Those white edi-tors who approached the task without bias,

like Martin Hayden, editor-in-ehiet of theDetroit New s, ev.plamed- "I'verswhere theexperience was and it remains the sameNegroes were hired only when editors wentout and looked for them, frequently loweringnormal education and experience quafitica%

The p 0 hie tn.-f Tettehtt Met iCtin.!

who win not wail tr lool, at anthing abiout qinolizieA depend..upon the vonflition ,ot the.'society, 1c 1tIc h the inellitt shapeonly in purl.Lions to hire awn)." Asa result of the rankestkinds 01 discrimination phis all of the otherdisad antages itectiong from it s stein thatlimited their educational opportunity, thepool of blacks proli41nally able or moti-Vilteii nter ioninalisin was very small.Only MO Till-black colleges Meted journalismPrograms to tilcu NutkicntN DI, William'KeaTIICI of Hampton I OS t Utile Najd, Jnur-nalisnl has been, for black people, a no-futureoccupation 1 he probabh could see them-%eh reporters tot a 1)1k ptitiliition, but

some 01 them had higher aspirations ,intithere was no way to satisfy them.

Partly in response to the Kerner 'Commis,.4sion partl\ an outgrowth ,ofearlier efforts to widen 'minority opportunitiesand improye TACT relations, the Ford Foun-dation in the late 1960s and early 1470ssupported a series of activities ,designed toenhance the ,content and the sensitivity of themedia m relation to ininoruies, 'the isioje,etsloA three main directions:

Training of minority journalists_2. 'Opening broadcasting to more and

ter 'coverage oi minotit), affaiis by- means ofadvocacy in the administration and interpre-tation of broadcast lave

3. Supporting 0g:intuitions committed toproduce material about minorities and 'mat-tors that concern them.

This report summarizes the experience.

s)

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Training and Employment

the nitunalism: proles ion has been snockinglybaekward in seeking ,out, hiring, training andpromoting Negroel, fewer than 3 per eent ofthe people employed by the news business in'editorial jobs in the United States Today areNegroes. Few cr than l per ent ut editors andsupervisor, ae e Negroes, and most of them workfor Negro owned organizations.

Kerner Commission

A insonno. ,thserimination -against non -Whites an the media had been heavily re-sponsible for the _bsence of black and brownlaces in city rooms Amid on 'television screens.In .iddition. the lament **Can't rind nydne'qualified- had some josttication. As Profes-sor 'Kearnes of Hampton pointed out. jour-nalism was stewed by mans' nonwhites as a:held closed to them Prior to 14)(17 there ssasliple -attempt by white-donumited journalism

hoots to attract or subsidize nonWbiles,

Academic EffortsIn 19b$:. offiebils of the Columbia UniversitySchool ot Journalism proposed a program of':te-n weeks of intensive training for nonwhitesinterested in a journalism career, The Fordiroundation supported the program in its ini-tial 'year and by 1'974 had made -grants of_sow 1971 the CBS Founda-tion and the National Broadcasting Companybegan to contribute. Smaller sums from in-dividual newspapers and broadcasters havebrought the total invested to date to about

In .1972; the ,program becameAnown as the Michele Clark Fellowships for

Minority Journalists to honor a 1970 gradu-ate who was killed in a plane crash whileworking for CBS,

From its inception. the program activelysought recruits across the nation. Letters to

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newspapers and broadcast stations informedthem of the 1'i:flowships; Schools and torn-Manly groups such as the Woodlavui Or-ganization at Chicago; the New DetroitCommittee, and the Puerto 'Rican Foramwere asked to encourage t andutes. Re-cruiters combed the inventory of the l'rbanleagues Broadcast Bank in search otindividuals 'who had registered an interest inthe media as -a vocation.

Admission was competitive. In addition tosubmitting samples of their work, applicantswere required IA) cos atn iligititteril on isdeadline and lindergo a personal interviewwith at 'program administrators In many cases,those accepted proved to be individuals withfar less formal education than ordinarilyfound in student at a professional school.The most extreme example was J. J. (ion-zalers who had dropped out of elementaryschool in the fourth grade. After completingthe program, he joined -WCBS-TV News inNew York. Some Fellows formerly wereletter carriers, school teachers, communityaction workers, secretaries, clerks, and mes-sengers. None of them had ever held full -time positions in journalism and at most theyworked in the fringe jobs of the media; TheFellows received a full tuition scholarshipplus a salary sufficient to cover room andboard and maintenance of a family if theyhad one. Every applicant was hacked by asponsoring newspaper or ,broadcast station.which, beginning in 1970. and with the mt.ception of public television stations, com-mitted itself to hire the student upon

of the course. "The job guarantee isessential to the success of the program," saidone of the instructors.

The curriculum, using both thestaff 01 the Columbia Journalism School andguest lecturers -from the media and publicaffairs, offered -Well Shelia on fundamentals ofnews coverage:, tiews writing, principles ofjournalism, lairness, taste, judgment, andlibel. Students were instructed in bow to or-ganize stories, cheek sources, and rewriteraaterial. Outside experts, such AS TOMWicker of The New York Time WalterCron:we of CB& columnist William Buckley,pollster Louis Ran is, Georgia legislatorJulian Bond, and June, Shagaloff of theNAACP, offered insights into journalism'shandling of 'contemporary affairs. Those Fel-lows headed for the print media publisheda paper called Deadline -while broadcast en,Toffees aired their own nightly closed- circuitnews show. Some of the Material for these:productions canoe trom actual assignmentsgiven to cover news events breaking in NewYork.

Students in the ten-week program thus hadtan opportunity to combine academic instruc-tion with practice of the journalist's craft,instructors dealt with such individual prob.leans as that of a Hispanic student who tendedto employ only the present tense.

The Michele Clark program has graduated22. individuals, About two-thirds of thementered broadcast mg while the remainderwent to work in the print ,media. Gloria

.,Rojas, a 1968 graduate who had been a schoolteacher, became the .first Hispanic employedby' aNew York televiSion-station when shejoined WCI1S-TV. Ex-doorman Henri Wit -tenberg, after a 1969 summer at Columbia,.went to the staff of the Detroit News, .Geraldo

ver,e,.alawyet in the class of 1970, became,:;nationally: known for his work at ABC-TVin New York. And Anita Sims, a former

--,secretaiy. followed her 1971 fellowship witha job .as'a reporter for the Rochester Demo.vial chronicle.-.--The-ford Foundation concluded support

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for the program in 1974. The program, orig-inelly a crash effort, had demonstrated itsvalue. Also, its ,per-student cost A as unusuallyhigh $12,000 for the eleven-week session,and by now undergraduate scholarship andjournalism programs designed to attract mi-nority candidates appeared to be supplyinga large pool of qualified minority applicantsfor journalism schools, fly 1971, for example,forty black colleges had added instruction inthe media to their curriculums, The Founda-tion plans after 1974 to help finance aMichele Clark Scholiuship Fund that wouldenable a number of candidates to attend jour-nalism schools in the United States.

At Syracuse University, a 1969 progremfocused exclusively upon graduate fellow-ships for minority candidates in the Depart-ment of 'Television and Radio, The two-semester course led to an M.S. degree.Scholarships were budgeted at $4,500 plus$2,000 as the stipend for each student. Syra-cuse obtained $30,000 from the Ford Foun-dation which was to he matched by contribu-tions from other sources, However, theunivers4 could only raise half the amount,all of it from the Allen Punt Foundation, andthe program was cut to one year. Candidatesneeded a college degree, admission was com-petitive, and twelve minority individuals en-rolled. Five graduates immediately enteredthe mass media. One woman became a publicschool teacher, and other Fellows pursueddoctoral studies,

The Washington, D.C., Journalism Center,directed by Julius Duscha, a reporter of manyyears experience with the Washington Post.

Differed a somewhat different program toaspiring minority journalists. The center,founded in 1965, ordinarily provided fellow-ships that enabled working reporters fromaround the country to spend five months inthe capital studying the workings of the Fed-eral Government and how the press coversit. From 1969 through 1973, the center con-

ducted a program to "eneourage and assistsoling Mach. and members of other minoritygroups who aspire to e.neers in journalism"It N\-,as awNlvd grants 01 about $2:00,000from the ford Foundation and contribution.f.r.tini other sources.

To recruit applicants, an official of theetitter visited a number of colleges, partieulailv those with predominantly black studentbodies. In addition, the eentei asked civilrights and community action groups to referpotential ,candulines. Admission was compet-itive, htly-two of 1:11 applicants were W.-cepted Almost all of the Fellows either heldor ,expected to obtain college degrees

The center organized semmars for the Fel-IOUs With federal officials. Congressmen,-White :House staff, diplomats, editors, andwriters. 1.'qn.d1), valuable We're internshipsarranged With the Washington 'humans ofTime magazine. the -Knight Newspapers,`National Publ.. R Idio, and 'WesnnghomeBroadcasting. Material ,prepared by the ap-prentices Wazs printed or broadcast by thenews organizations. 1 here was much lesselassroom instruction than at Columbia. Theinovices also benefited from close associationwith veteran journalists brought to the centerunder its re,,gular programs.

The center actively sought jobs in themedia for any .graduates and in 1973 twenty-nine of the til=ts 4s participants were -WM-k-ing as reporters or editors. For example,Jerome Mondesire, from the class of 1971,started at the Baltimore Sun and is now withthe Phihnielpino Inquirer. Lucious New, Jr.,alter his 1970 fellowship, was hired by1:DFY4.'4V in Dallas, Joseph Whittaker, agraduate of the 190 session, joined theWii.vitington Post and recently won the prizedjournalism award. a Nieman Fellowship,

On-the-Job

in contrast to the programs at Columbia,Syracuse, and the Washington Journalism

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center, three other Foundation-assisted proj-ects involved nonacademie ,organizations di-rectly involved M the dissemination of news.

United Press International tit:signed a pro-gram to recruit and train black newsmen.Selected e:1),1 bureaus added about twentyfledgling reporters and :photographers to betrained on the job. tacit bureau found itsown candidates and there Was no formal com-petition to determine who was hest qualified.A grant of $168,000 from the Ford founda-tion 'went toward payment of salaries for thetrainees and the executive three:tor, a UPIemployee,

The UPI program suffered from a series offliiscaleulations, "Remember, we're going totraln them, not provide basic education,'advised the director in a memorandum to thebureaus, But while the original stipulationsrestricted the .program to college graduates,UPI editors reported serious deficiencies inhaste skills, including spelling. Many of thetrainees did not have a college education.

The most notable weakness in the UPI pro-gram was the absence of any formal instruc-tion in news gathering. itegiilar UPI stafferswere .notSudo...Jime off from their normalworkload to devote to the trainees. As oneUPI editor said, "Are we doing a disserviceto our own reporters who find themselves inthe position of educating and performing ajob at the same time? Everyone thinks it's agreat idea but there's little volunteer spirit.even among the liberals."

"Twice in seven months someone has ac-tually trained me." complained a Chicagotrainee. Another attributed the failure of theeffort to the problems of running a news busi-ness. "Mc bureau chief is just too busy. I dida feature and he let it sit on his desk threemonths before it went out on Ca: line." Sev-eral participants considered themselves ex-ploited,

When the UPI program terminated aftertwo years, five of the twenty trainees were

hired as permanent 1 PI shitlers An outsideconsultant hired by the lord Foundation .211"-

lot tvso others to get lOhs eiseWherein the media I hiee men decided to complete'their tourrialimu edth.ation in college

A NinnIai plioeo insolved theKari newspapers. a :ham ,at hlacls-o+ ned

MINUY neA \NKr\ s' lib -1 )1,111011;11 anionthat is supplemented In local sci..nons pro,,tiusAtil m Richmond, :Baltimore. Washington.1)C and Nes+,trls i he students were calledI-rederick Douglass ellov.s. and the VirginiaCoofnell on Human :Relations administeredthe program init IAN 1 he I oundat ion grantedSiUtt,000 to 4:o\ et Nalaric,h, 'stipends hothe I chows. and eqmpment sneh as type\\niers No prerequisites for education oarvocational 1.1ackgiotinil were; set Ainone theinitial fifteen 1 %etc ivio :former on-

-JournaliAln hav been, for blackpeople, a no-ha are occupation.They probably vould Aee them-selvea a-steporien for a blackpublication. but .some of 1 /tent hail.higher aspiration.,' and there 'wasno way io :calisfy

vms, an sunwed Mother, and a house parn;e1as Via as four college gratillates and severalindividuals with lunged newspaper expel!ence.

The program was troubled almost from theoutset. The FletieTiek Douglass Fellows didreceive some rudimentary schooling beforebeing assigned to the on-the-jOb training inthe offices of Afro-American newspapers. Rutjust As in the UPI situation, regular news staffmembers were not given time away fromtheir regular duties to teach the trainees. Inaddition. the Fellows leaned to "advocaeyjournalism," which did not tit the policies ofthe AfroAmericim papers Under thesestrains, along with a bitter personality conflict

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heiNveen the \\hue A:Nei:lime director and theAludicrts, the original concept of workingthrough the Virginia -Council on human ReMunn\ and the Afro..Amerieon chain collapsed.

doss at the 1 '1,edel nongiassdeeided to shill their haw tit operations to\e'; YOrk sated 1.0 work through William'Worths-, the correspondent for the Afro-American papers ANhil had NeiVelj as the i';hielinstructor. The Urban 1 earue io Neu Vorisassumed the ,,idrninisitati.c role The '.NeuYork survivors received on-the -)oh traintnras unpaid stringers for the iommunity KinksSersiCIZ. .a sOni,Ce of intOrinatit)11 to the MaS,media on the nonwhite community tree ,p-.4:e2in When the Frederick Douglass Fellow,prop ain terminated in 1470. three of thestudents moild :posts to itoirn.ihsm

Vetel an Washington, D.C., 111:10allan Ruh -ert (i Spraek sl.,rtect ditellhet program 10'ain niniont newsmen It was Inn in con,inntion %il the Reporter Newsa press service which he headed. 1 he NessYork Urban Coalition recruited and selectedthe trainees. Spi,0, rented space tor class-rooms and iitranged tar stvidents tai ,attendseminars and lectures given by prominentpoliticians and newsmen. I he Appetit tees recoved news ,assignments. some at whichSpivack used as part of the Reporter New%Syndicate service, lie also mailed copies ofthe students' work to prospective employers.His death in 1970, about one year alter theprogram started, eut short what was essentally a one-man operation.

Related ProgramsProject Able in the San Francisco Bay areafocused upon training minorities in technicalskills associated with journalism, teachingphotography, videotaping, and filmmaking.The Rosenberg Foundation had providedmoney to establish the project, and it wasenabled to expand through funds from the

I slid I oundathin and the San bane:Nees) %vat ()prom:1111'o, council and offiee spacedonated 'ht the :IR redevelopment egeneyter a two-veer NMI& flints ,iine men Ind

morneri drawn iron the pool tai herd core unemployed reeeised instruction tinting)) Ploy=ect Able

t he originators tat the pa oleo had plannedto both train individuals AN xstahlish SCItsupporung serviees 1 he exo.utive direetee

Twice iv Aeven !?1 mills sOlne011ehtlA tlellialh !Tabled lilt','. CO'

ul . "The burran.0101'1OW A iMf ttn.)

,

pobtained several ,,,Asjraets sob some privatebusinesses arid 4:ortitnil ats elotirs 140

sal photographs depai uncle 01 Project Ablebegan to paN its d\kn w,/, the stall madeintensive efforts to 'widen the Noshes to -n-elude mmorits siNtiCffieti Bless tin planned par-enthood, recruitment 1,4 the 'Peace Corps,and vocationa 1 training 1 I owever, the if i verstlied =effort ,drained both energy and tesoark!esfrom the project It Iwcame increasingly Mill-eult taa maintain both the training programsand tarn out quality prodncts for ehentses,iluation sunimed up the pre.ject'sweakness. It is trs mg to move in too manydirections at once." When the grants hadbeen espended. Plojeet Able shut down op-erations.

Clark College in Atlanta took a differentapproach to mereasing the number of ,quali-lied nonwhites tor the mass media. Studentnewspapers often serse as an introduction tojournalism But at many black universitiesstudent =newspapers have been poorly done,unresponise to campus interests. publishedintermittently. and hampered he censorship.Clark, a member institution of the predomi-nantly h1,Kh Atlanta Univeesits Center, be-kin =;11 1968 an effort to improve the conditionof student newspaper, at black colleges.

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the aid of a $12n,u01) grant liont theFord Foundations some torts =colleges par-ticipated 1 he basie teehrui.lue vs-as 101 theejltdr and 'OA IA eampus paper to meet

ith professional .newspapermen worlang onnearby metropolitan dailies. Also, =regiOnalmeetings brought the college editors togethertta exchange ideas.

Consultation between the black Studentnt:AS*papcnnen .and the whflt proi essionalwornaltsts got eel to a slow start, but the battiers broke down and 'enthusiasm on bothsides of the table mounted. As a result thestudent newspapers appeared More rtTniiitlyand their writing and editing improved AtKentucky State Colleges where no paper p-peared following 'campus disorders in 1 entis

threi: issues 01 a student newspaper -were pub-lished the follossine t ear At Jackson StateCollege the 'combined team of campus editorsand a professional newsman couvineed theauthorities to end their censorship of thepaper, in several Instances- funds were usedto keep a NI Went paper going until it attractedenough readership to support it.

The Foundation granted additional fundsto Clark' College for two summer workshopsfor tifty-hve black undergraduates interested411 journalism careers.

The successful journalism training programsfunded by the Fwd Foundation had severalcommon features. They were operated by es-tablished institutions that offered organized,structured training in the ,profession as wellas on- the -jib experience. Selection of studentswas highly competitive and in the main thoseaccepted came with strong educational back-grounds.

In programs where an institutional struc-ture was missing or where the students lackedhigher education, the few individuals whomanaged to become journalists in spite Or thehandicaps were highly motivated people ableto make the most of even a small opportunity.

Using Broadcast Law

As i ARI s As I Nall, Ilackson,Nlts-as-appr bad tornplained to the VedetalCommtinwmion, Cotitnipoion shout the be.

lot ,ol releA pool) slat ion WI II I V in jal,von, 1 he vc\)dviiI\ :protestedladed to proveideN4,Alospornis on such con-Iltnersial issues as rtvrl rights laws and alle-g1311011 c>l .t.bx'tolls and other ,pirble

NeNvial and art the lace of :CCpressure, WI HT, IN promised that it wouldair a tali Mart. opimon Rut local blaclo,float the National Association for the Advancernent all Colored People. And ii asksTougaloo College did not observe any -signifi-cant change in the station's treatment of ,con-tioAelNiAl niatel Val. pall wal.aly racial matter.,Again allegations of INass kcte ;presented, butthe FCC rejected the Charges and permittedthe operators of WI 14 I -1\` to renew theirbroadcast license

An example of the failure of Jackson's.lnetha to cover minority life was demon-strated ,after the moor declared his city hadno slums. A group ,of blacks took him on atour of their part of town, where he sawdilapidated housing, trash-strewn lots, andoutdoor privies three blocks from the-statecapitol. Subsequenuy. the mayor remarked,-I've seen things today I wouldn't have 'be-lieved ,existed in the city of Jackson." His lackof know ledge was partly traceable to the per-sistent absence of media attention to the worstparts of town,

In 1%4 a petition to deny renewal of1il.1.11T-'1Vs license V1 filed with the FCCby the Office of Communication of the UnitedChurch of Christ and several Jackson citi-zens_ As a result of the evidence they sub-mitted of discriminatory practices, the FCC

renew ex 'le license for only one ye:fr insteadof the customary three However, the FCCrefused to grant the petitioners official stand-ing, w Ina would has-c Iheal toargue the bett»Vibe COMMIsman andthe courts.

The struggle therefore shifted to the courtsand In 1966 the U S. Court of Appeals for theDistrict of Columbia ruled in favor of thetietruoners. 'I be FCC 'was ordered to hold ahearing 'cone:eating the license renewal ofWI:HT-TV and to allow the petitioners toparticipate The landmark &vision estab-lished the :precedent of citizen standing inquestions of license renewal.

The Office of Communication had 'beencreated N.c4 by the Unwed ChurchChrist -to reaze the ethical values of thi.church through a ministry in mass com-munications." In 146'8. the Office of Com-munication obtained a grant from the FordFoundation for a campaign to combat racialdiscrimination in broadcasting in twelveSouthern cities. In the following year, theMee of Communication spread its effortsto stations across the country and included-activities to promote greater employment ofminorities at the programming and mina-

-, Amid levels. Field representatives taughtlocal citizens how to marshal grievances,Monitor 'programming, and approach and ne-gotiate with management. The Office of Com-munication published a guide, /tow to ProtectCitizen Rights in Television and Radio. andA Guide to Understanding Broadcast LicenseA pplieationv.

Also active in combating discriminationin broadcasting is the Citizens Communica-tions Center, a public interest law firm in

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'Washington, 1).t. , that is supported lip theFord Foundation 'and Other ,philanthropicsoirees Although both organizations retain

liv separate 1,tentines. l'iniens Commu-nications Center has cooperated with the

-A !ter noari iiiseatie,\ tit Erperli-

Iwn, hi'o indttstrr threst'ent fr;r hove grAired rite

;act that a broadcast license iN

MIMIC IffiNt 1r, iei t)tliltd- liOt3

Ir bletteh at alit\

(Vice got Conimunieation from nme to timein' to make the indusin

41 is designed ti regulate more aecomitableto the public 01).1 more reprevotalive of nit-noidies C'itr'ons Commumcations (enteracts as lq.11 ..ounsel for the Office of Com-municatten and other groups, drawrot uppetitions to challenge license renewals. It hasalso lOrged the machmen to enforce andmonttor agreements and develop provisionslot subitration and penalties,

License Challenges

The hams for the efforts of both 01 thesegroups has been the statutory ;structure regti-bung broadeasting. and In particular therules of the I ederal CoMMOnteations Com-mission In return for the license granted 1wthe FCC owners of a station must meet aSeries of requirements. Their responsibilitiesin regard to tepresentation of minority peopleand their eoneerns rest upon the FCC state,-omen, broadcaster is obligated to makea positive. diligent and continuing effort. ingood faith. to determine the fast es.,needs, anddesiretie the public in his community andto piovide programming to meet these needsand interests- Applicants for license re-

newals are also required to submit a des;:sip-non of eommunity Novices performed by thestatton and .in eplanation of its methods of

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"aseertainMebr bONN the conummity wasurVeed and 'the prograMs the station pro-

posed to create in order to cover local prob-lem's discovered rn its ;curse y ,

Neither broadcasters nor the CC paid;much ;attention to the ;requirements ion! theWLIAT-TV ease, Chief Justice Warren Burger.,then sitting ion the Court of Appeals inWashington, put the FCC and theIvi.o.ideasters on police with his 19bbTV opinion. ly establishing the vital prece-Aiellt isf clitlen standing' in questions 01license renewal, he wrote, 'Atter nearly byedecades of operation, the broadcast industrydoes not seem to have grasped the simple facttharti broadcast license is a public trust sub-'Nett.) termination for breach of dffly,-

The nest major development in theTV case came in 1960, when the Court ofAppeals. in an unprecedented decision, or-dered the FCC to vacate the station's licensy.An integrated nonprofit corporation, Cornnumieations improvement inc., whose earn-ings go to educational causes iii Mississippi,was named interim operator: It was the first:to hire a black television station manager.Shifts in programming changed wurrlinto an outlet with a better 'brilanCe of Mate-rial. For example. when "Soul" and -BlackJournal,- two national minority-orientedshows., -were shown widely in the rest at thecountry but were rejected by Mtssissippi's

Cameras either turned away fromblack leaders or else they werehidden ''hr systematically placingwhite persons in front of them orpushing them aside."

public television system. they appeared onWLBT-TV, Profits from the temporarycense were channeled to a Iougaloo College'training course in communications. Blackemployment at W1.8T-TV during the tern-

po rart4 siev.ardship has risen from 17 per centti' '')8 pet eent, And at competing stations,N1 API and \ \'J 1 \' in Jackson, the eample11 .\\:1 l 1 l'V's tate .uJ not pass unnoticed.Mote blacks went on 'the payrolls of thesestations. and newscasts earned ,lyrics aboutnOin.4hite, ,en it Tight, affairs.

1(.0111tninealions Imprmeme.nt Inc. re-

111,1111S- the interim beensee ot the station, but

an 1-1't Ltw iiidgLe ha, issuedsari initial deeission awarding the permanentlicense h' a group oi Nfississippians voth themallest blak membership among those

groups that had applied decision IN, -110111)2

sirrt:Aled M tb: Ofliee ot Conuninueaumi1 he Of Communication and local

groups lease also addle ...Asti the phenomenonof white-owned. black-oriented radio stations1)10 sosalled pro..iramming

soul mush:, to, e talk, rip - wind -lead newserbai inaletia) Liken irtlnl the %kat: set-

s. ices vi,ith no independent 01 local reportingfliese kinds A'q opeiations usitall\ Avoidedlocal news coverage and contiovermal publicissues the' ,11,4) seat toed AN adverusers fimance ciipanies that e \plotted borrowersand stores that hal-.tually took advantage otill-informed consumers

two campaigns concerned with stationsot this kind were waged against WOW in

olambia, South Carolina and WTNIP inFlorida WOK' in particular had

been imind to have made no serious attemptto aseenap %:011ittliittV needs and attitudes.11 relied upon .1 commercial investors' demo-eraphic study and on a questionnaire thatwent to only fitly -eight people out of 20000residents ot the areas, ot the fifty-eight. sixwere blaek F.Nur years after Columbia Citi-zens Concerned with Improved Broadcastingtiled its first petition with the FCC. the man -agement agreed to transfer the license to

new Corporation tWs neat by blacks whopledged themselves to render service in thepublic interest.

15

Payment for Redress

A second signal court decision involved ,theOffice of Communication and 'KTAL-TV inTexarkana, Texas, in 1908. A petition againstlicense renewal for wrAt.Tv argued thatthe station, serving a local population '01100,000 that was 39 per cent black, '"deliber-ately refused to cover local events whichwould be distasteful to The white majority."

"This is legitimizing the paymentof blackmail," complained theindustry's magazine. But theNecedent stood up. It was nowfinancially as well as legallypossible to Like issue with theproprietors of stations

t',ven at public functions. film T,AL-1showed few black laces. Cameras eitherturned away from black leaders or else theywere hidden "by systematically placing whitepersons in front of them or pushing them,aside." Sports events at black schools receivedno coverage, and minority children wereexcluded from the station's "Laugh-A-Lot-Club" program. No public service announce-ments for minorities came over the air.

A 189-page bill of particulars impressedthe N.TAL.TV management sufficiently toenter into direct negotiations with black com-munity representatives. The station commit-ted itself to hire blacks, to treat various sides.of controversial issues, to provide public ser-vice announcements on the activities of blackorganizations, to make no unnecessary refer-ences to race, particularly in connection withcrimes, and to consult continuously with altof its constituency.

However, the confrontation with KTAL-TV had cost the local citizens group a gooddeal of money. Depositions and monitoringprocedures required substantial outlays. TheOffice of Communication brought a suit for

-4

The derision marked the firs"time the lit denied renewal onthe Nisi\ fit eomplaints.

reimbursement of e pe uses .and CitizensConuratmeations Center was engaged as

cotinsel. The L.: S Com t of Appeals sustaineda :request tor the painent cat expense of thelocal group iii its Mort tai relorm"ThIS the :parment of black.mad," complained the industry's Broadcast-

magazine. Hut the precedent stood up Iteras flow 1111am:talk as well as legally possibleto take issue with the in opriet1)IN tit broadcaststations

!Vte re. recentk, in the tall ,o1 1'474, theFCC. acting on a complaint brought b theCitizens Communicanons Center on behallof three Alabama .liti,rens, oied not to jenev,the license for the agency that runs the eight-station Alabama public teleislon network.fhe decision milked the first time the I( Cdented renewal on the Nisi, alt eihiens eon).plaints The citizens had complained that thepubhe television stations hired virtually noblack entplo ecs and tailed to televise programs designed tor black adults. Once thedecision takes ell ect. am group in Alabamathat wants to operate one or more of the Aa-nons will he to appl for the license. Theoriginal operating agency may also reapply,and if it pros ides the I-CC with adequateplans for the hiring ot and programming forb1.44,:ks, according to as spokesman for theCitizens Communications Center, the FCCmight Justitiabb. award it the license.

*Negotiation

,4

The court victories in the WiliT-TV andKT,A1.-TV case.. convinced broadcasters thatthey could not reject the requests for'better minority representation. Both the

Office dt Communication and the CitizensCommuWations Center also considered the

16

courtroom a last and costly resort. The Rev.Everett C. Parker, director of the Office ofCommunication. said, "The technique offace-to .face discussion and negotiation be-tween citizen groups and station i-titinagementhas turned out to be tar snore fruitful thanthat of bringing stations to forma hearingsbefore the FCC."

As as result a pattern for the redressgrievances ,developed. In city atter city, as thetinge for renewal of broadcast licenses ap-proached, local people, advised and aided bythe Office of 'Communication or the CitizensComunications Center, confronted radioand television management with their bjec-tions to programming and practises. Negotia-tions for changes tollowed, and the resulewasusually a compromise settlement. Agreementsto improve minority representation, to bal-

ance coverage of controversial subjects, andto hire and train more nonwhites were ,,r-rived at in Vokingstown, Dallas, Attanta,Memphis. Shrev'eport. Syracuse, and KernCounty. Californi:1 among others.

The issues 'havevaried. In Rosebud, SouthDakota, the Office of Communication workedto improve television service to American In--dr:ins from stations in Sioux Falls and Reli-ance. In tiary, Indiana, the problem wastelephone interview Shows, The Gary HumanRelations Commission charged that the sta-tion permitted personal attacks on individualst often .mernhers of civil rights groups) withno opportunity for people to reply. As a re-sult of the intervention by the Commission,aided by the Office of Communication. the'SW4111 agreed to retain tapes of any calls.This enabled those who were attacked todemand, under FCC rules. free time forrebuttal.

Employment AnalysisEarly in 1972, the Office of Communicationconducted a study of employment practicesat eleven Massachusetts television stations.

.A

The studs relied upon the eiriplo) merit re-ports tiled by the 'STA liOnN under I-CC require-ments, Anal\ \is it the figures -showed asignificant imbalance to the .emplovinern oiboth minorities and women.

On the basis these ifindings, the 1-CCNVit's asked to inquire into the' possibilities ofdiscrimination and asked to delay _incensercneWals until the 'stations proved their good'Loth in equal employment, as stipulated un-

BEST CHOP IMILA6LE

'der :FCC rules. While the complaint filed bythe Othee art Communication failed to haltthe license renewalsal least one station,

lk,:on, showed enough improve-ment in employment practices to bedropped .irom the list of those accused '01discrimination. The FCC eventually issuedorders to three stations to upgrade womenin the employment hierarchy and the 'Officeof Communication 'believes that its analysis

f

One of the early agreements to combat discrimination is the media was reached by the Dallas/Fort WorthCoalition for a Free Flow of information, with the aid of the United Church of Christ, and the managementof IKOFW.TV in Dallas. The station committed itself to train and employ minorities and to cower minority

and issues.

17

and its action has influeneed the FCC to takeemployment ,data into consideration beiOre

tt grAnis Nnewals, Since 1472, the Office 'olCommunication has conducted an annualdill \v: i11 ate ,C.41140 mein status of nunoi ities

and w4.10112:11 In the leieVision indnstry.

he (Ake And the Cm-

Svme 8indent:s hroadcagingbeiieve "hat only with widerdiAperNion Of OWtterShip It'ill Merebt? true minority repreSentalOnthe media.

zees 'ComMainCaltons Center used broadcast

law to open A '11CW Issue than ACCIed minorityrepresentation \kilo) they protested the saleot rise stations Om fled by Time Inc, to Mt:-thaw-Hilt Chicano groups in 'rand Rapids,Denver, San Diego, Bakersfield. and Indian-apolis filed a petition with the FCC opposingthe sale on the ;ground that it violated theCommission's pone\ that bars ownership ofmore than three VHF stations in the top fiftytelevision markets To ignore the FCC's own:policy, said the pennons, would perpetuatemonopoly osvnership of television licenses.In addition. it was argued that the proposedprogranuning and :employment policies otMcGraw -Nall faded to serve the interests ofminOrines and the public generally. The easeWAS significant because some students ofbroadcasting believe that only with wider,dispersion of ownership will there he trueminority- representation in the media,

Following months of negotiations, the par-ties involved hammered out an agreement. Inreturn for the right to purchase the stations.McGraw-Hill committed itself to improvelocal service to minorities, It created localcommittees to advise management on thefeeling and concerns of minority viewers.These councils ad% Ise the stations on planningand production of programs that serve mi-nority interests and on recruiting and training

18

of mmotities for lobs at the stations. Equallyimportant, McGraw-10i accepted the prin-ciple of a limitation on the number of stationsit could buy. The company took over onlyfour of the five outlets t three VHF and oneUHF).. leaving 'Grand Rapids in the handsof Time Inc. The pact set an important prece-dent for the disposition of brcadeast stationsin blocs by multi-station Owners,

As 'Of the summer ,of 1'474, local groupsand the IWO nalianal colltillttniCaltons'organi-,i.thons have cases pending against holdersof :stittion licenses in Delwin AlbuquerqueBakersfield, California: Cairo. Illinois: andS)racose, The FCC now grants membershipon its committees and advisory councils toattorneys from the Citizens CommunicationsCenter, and both the .011ice of Communica-tion and the center have continued to nego,nate with the FCC to improve the capacity- ofprivate citizens to participate in proceedingsthat involve license shifts or renewals.

Several newly organized groups, includingthe national Black Media Coalition and theNational Latino Media Coalition, niay as-sume part of the role of coordinating actionsby local groups in several areas with cOnittlt)ngrievances. But the MO older media advisoryorganizations expect to continue to work with

astsgrass roots movements as well do longrange analysis of the media and provide lead-ership for dealing with the broadcast industryand the FCC.*. .

With minority capital in shalt supply And investsment cots an standard broadcast lactlines high. evenWhen a channel is available, one ,aliernative forgreater minority access to the air lies in cable tele--ision. In 1971, 'Howard L-nOcsity, with as $20.000grant from the Ford Foundation, held a workshoplot elected and. DOM.: otboats from the :ranks of thedisadvantaged. The contviener vet cred such 'nattersas the costs to build a system, stalling, access,and billing of users. To date, cable television re-mains an undeveloped possibility. Meanwhile, Citi-lens Communications Center has entered the field ofcable regulation because it believes that the fieldought not to follow the monopOlistic pattern that hasmarked broadcasting until now,

Media Content

Historian and I. bony editor Ierone Bennettsaid ". white-oriented media are part aftthe race problem. They reflect the interests,values, and 'Ins of white people

fasa t. the fleet, for w bite-oriented media totranscend the limitations ,of whiteness."

In addition to making grants to 'organiza-tions that operated programs to train minori-ties tOr the media or used the law 10 gainaccess to the media, the Foundation has as-sisted projects And institutions that directlyproduce and make available to majority-oriented media 111,,Oettal that deal. ysith theminority e\periencese

,Projects in PrintWell before the urban riots of 19(17, theSouthern Education Reporting Service hadbeen producing materials that aimed at en-hancing racial covelage of established media.Established in 1954, the SERS published intabloid-size newspaper form accounts of de--velopments in education that stemmed tramthe historic. 19.54 Supreme Court decision onschool ,desegregation. Because the st4ff con-sisted of professional journalists from suchnewspapers as the Washington Post, ArkansasGazette, Montgomery Advertiser, Miming-ton News (Delaware), Miami Herald, andthe %tueon New 'Georgia ). the SERS re-ports were accepted by the national press asaccurate.

In 1969, the SERS* changed its focus ands renamW, becoming the Race Relations

Information Center. t Some of SERS'snal data-gathering functions were assumed by

federal .government, whiCh in 1965 be-gan to survey the rate of desegregation ona district-by-district basis.) Operating out

19

of Nashville. the RRIC published a twicemonthly newsletter, the Race Relations Re-porter, The goal was to produce accurateinformation on race relations that wouldserve as both a source for the news media onnationally important developments in racerelations and as a supplement to news mediacoverage where civil rights affairs receivedinsufficient ,attention, Like its predecessors,the Race Relations Reporter was a profes-sional news operation and therefore enjoyedcredibility among editors, and broadcasters.

In addition to the recular newsletter. theRRIC served clients with in-depth specialreports. including, for example. a thirty -ninepage study on the displacement of blackteachers in eleven southern states,

Free to all subscribers; the Race RelationsReporter went first-class mail to all news-papers with a circulation of 10,000 or more,all black papers. the editors of news maga-zines. news directors of blaCk oriented radio,national wire services, radio and televisionnetworks. black piiblic officials and profes-sionally involved individuals. The mailing listreached 65.000. The Race Relations Informa-

Ford Foundation support to minority organizationsN UIth as the NAACP. the Urban -League, and othersmay be said to have indirectly contributed to rep-resentation of minority affairs in the media 't.inccmany of those groups pressed the communicationsworld for more cove' age and sensitivity on minoritymatters./Another pre Kerner Commission proiect was anewspaper, The Southern Courier. Started by a groupof white Harvard alumni in 1965, the paper carriedquestions and answers on coal rights rulings alongwith accounts of incidents in the movement, It alsolisted opportunities for employment and Job train-ing: The Ford Foundation granted $125.000 to keepThe Southern Courier going, but it'eeased publica-tion in 196X.

non 'Center theft :maintained a libtat andcatalog of conte,mporary material on soi,:tal,

economic. and political ;ten\ Ines ni racialrilinormes in the For radio sl,thohs, the

Linter operated .;iudio teed service, taperecorded ;rnessJges that ilmiminied new de-velopments in LAO: :relations rapes UM:

V.hunged 1V. tie At InOni h lac -orien ted hioad-\:J...ter pii;:keti tip this material by simplydialrng a special telephone number. Lack

ni Intlx.,1\ limas forced the audio teed service to

be suspended since I q72. the center helpedcompile a Direcios iii Atro-American Re-soinces, published by ti lt. liouker Co., andTnernher lit the ,:tair ens's-crossed the U.S. ;isconsultants and speakers .it community meet

ings universities.The Ford foun.1:dion. which had earlier

supported St-RS. beeintung in 1 i4(t) granted

the RIM \\ hen the grants termi-nated in 1971, the I dna McConnell ClarkFoundation pros ided funds to keep the RRIC

in business

Neosilizing a Media Orapiial

even supposedlyrs;ew york, ncv.s lit minorities didnot escape such alibis]) as the Kerner Com-missto's. In an attempt to establish a dia-

logue between the mass media in the city and

black and Spanish-speaking residents. theNew School ,estahlished an Urban Reporting:Protect a CtleN of WOrlohops in Inch edi-

tors met with representatives of thinontygroups to discuss coverage of the nonwhite'communit.

'Ihrough these sessions_ conducted undera grant liom the I oundation, the whites de-veloped some news contacts V*IthIn the ghettoareas. Feedback was almost immediate. Items

about minority matters appeared on thewidely watched six o'clock television newsshove's and in the newspapers The ,pool of

spokesmen ICI the nonwhites grew flow-evvr.

there still remained a need for continuous

are relations

'4.1

ibuirstp-ki

Neighborhoods Seek Racial ;StabiiIi,. to. Y.... *OM It

1.1r..1us iITit "

,

Ulric Ivo, 1 *tin+. 'Wow.

1.1's Minority Policemen hprem Their Concern,

li20

or.o,

'Indian Editor ConNis littskiAaiv. .

:1,". . .now of information Iron) the minority com-munity.

Out of the Urban Reporting Project_ there -fore, evolved the Community News Service,an agency that provides the mass media asteady supply ut nelns about the nonwhitecommunity and its concerns. The mission ofCNS is to Increase the :sensitivity and com-pleteness with which established news media

report on the concerns of minority communi-ties in the New York area, and by examplein the nation as a whole.

The CNS staff has always draw n from ainiud hag of talent. Some of the reportershave been untrained, unschooled neighbor-hood people with an imibition to work injournalism; others came with a college edu-

cation or a Journalism background. Few whohave worked at CNS began there as fully

trained and expeilenced newspeople. But overthe years. ,many CNS staffers have developed

sufficient 'skills to move on to The New YorkTimes, the New Yl»1 Post, and the ChicagoSim Times,

In addition 10 A:osetine, minority affairsin New York, 'CNS has had as reporter inWashington and a correspondent at the'United Nations. ai also reports on local highschool sports, a field heavily peopled withnonwhites and largely uncovered by the:metropolitan press, Emile Milne, formerly areporter at the Son Francisco LiTioniner andthe New York Pow: currents serves asLive editor. Along with grants from the FordFoundation and contributions tram otherphilanthropies and private industry, CNS de-rives slightly more than halt Its revenuesfrom subscribers including The New YorkTintre%. the Dui/v New v, WCBS21 V, WNBC-1 V, Ninevweek, WN1- 1 II, the Nev York.l e, and aiming others. Sub-scribers are assessed oh a sliding scale ofltevrri lit a weekto si 00, largely based uponcirculation and amount of 'service.

in the early days of Cls4S, even the largerclients in the media occasionally used someof the material ' crbatun, if not always withcredit to the source, As the big newspapersand 'broadcasters developed more of theirown staff equ -ipped to cover ghetto life withsome 'sophisti.:ation And understanding, thetiles from CNS have served clients generallyacs background or as a means to alert them toa situation. :Messengers carry the files to sub-scribers. For some of the smaller ,publishers.newspapers which have heavy neighborhoodreadership. CNS 'serves a more visible func-tion, As One subscpber put it:. "CNS gives usthe equivalent of an extra reporter, somethingwe otherwise could not Utiord."

A typical CNS daily file of seven itemscovered a strike at a public school, a 'com-munity group's tight for the rights of a dis-possessed family, the coming termination ofseveral Office of Economic Opportunity units,a feature on future plans of two black TV

21

producers, the snuggle within a church con-vention over the power of a SpaniSh-speakinggroup, campaigns by Operation Breadbasketand the United Farm Workers, and a Man-hattan school district's new bilingual program,

Large elements of the media, as well as

"White-oriented Inedm,are part ofthe race problem, They reflect theinterests, values, and aspirations ofwhite people, Nye face theneed for the media to trans-cend the limitations of lihiteness,"

the smaller ones. find CNS useful, New YorkTimes Metropolitan Editor Arthur Gelbwrote, "Editors and reporters on the metro-politan staff have found the CNS to be anextremely valuable source of informationoften tipping us off to stories on the blackand Spanish-speaking community that eitherwe are unaware of or unable to devote themanpower to pursuing."

New York Doily News Metropolitan' Edi-tor Jack Smee wrote, "1 he service has givenevidence of steady improvement in the qual-ity of work and more recently of quantity,While the News has often covered the samestories offered by CNS, just as often CNS hascome up with reports of events or situationson which we had no prior knowledge. Suchmaterial has proven very useful to us in de-

leloping our on stories."Typical entries in the CNS day book of

events in the minority community are a con-ference on early childhood services, a healthcarnival in the Bronx, a luncheon of blackcivil service workers, an anti-drug rally, aconference on the use of school pupil records,a gala in celebration of West African culture,

For all of their enthusiasm for the service,the subscribers do not pay enough to supportCNS, With the Foundation's last grant sched-uled to terminate in 1975, the agracy: has

tip North, even in supposedlyenliklitened New }fork, newscoverage of minorities did notescape such criticism as theKerner Comm iss jolt' s

,otigbt to build TO'vc,nues by auxiliary publish.ing operations. t NS ,crei.ited a well-regardedmanual on drug ahu,e. but star un>mccesslulin its attempt to market it in t 'eNV York

schools fmile 'Milne would like to expandhis list of -stalsa)bec& outside of Nos York,starting on a nearby regional basis and thenNiderung until perhaps CNS might become aresource for journalists across the countryTo make it more valuable, however, CNSmay have to make a heavy investment 10 es-

itselt as a sire service, rather than anagency that depends upon messengers.

The Book WorldA volunteer committee of writers, illustratOrS,teachers, librarians, and editors in 1965

formed the Council on Interracial Books torChildren to promote lair ,and authentic Np-Tesetuatioil of the lives 01 minority groups inchildren's books and the trade press. TheFord Foundation made a grant of 540,000 tothe Council in I'M to support contests todiscover new authors, give advances to prom-ising talent, move manuscripts to publishers,organize workshops for editors and minoritywriters, and to publish a bulletin.

The 196iti contest winner for a children'sbook, Where Dort The Day (. o, was a blackpostal worker. Walter Myers. After the storyof his experience was published by ParentsMagazine, Myers accepted a job as a seniortrade editor at Bobbs-Nierrill. The winner inI 972, with Juninr Fellow Hawk. wa.sVirginiaDriving Hawk Sneve. Her hook was the firstpublished piece of children's fiction writtenby an American Indian.

In the beginning. the bulletin of the Coon-

t;11 on Interracial Books for Children wentfree to editors, librarians, and other inter-ested persons. fly 1972, the bulletin hadconverted to as paid eiretilatii of 3M10 sub-scribers; a campaign is under y to increase

the number to 20,000 by 1975,A Foundation loan of $250,000 was made

to The Third Press, the only substanti!ariin-nority-owned trade book publisher in the11.:x_, ,established in 1971. A thirty-three-year-old Nigerian-born writer, Joseph 'Okpaktrisbecame the 'editor and in less than four yearsthe firm published fifty -two titles by Ameri-can, African, and European authors. Amongthe works were a pair of tiovels, The Polyga-mist, by N. Sititttle, and 7he Trail of Chris-topher r)Aigho, by A. Mazrui, both set inAfrica, The Guinea Pigs, by I- Yawlik, wascalled by the London Time %, "the best workof fiction out of Eastern 'Llirope since WorldWar II," and The New Yor,A Times rated theThird Press's Third World roires for Chil-dren "outstanding." The Third Press scoredsomething of a coup by signing Jerald ter-Horst to do a biography of Gerald Ford be=fore he became President and terHorst did his

brief service as Presidential press secretary.Problems endemic to the book publishing

business and in :particular to a new companyhave made the ,going difficult for The ThirdPress, Originally, a larger .publisher agreedto distribute Third Press 'boas but the out-side firm did not have enough at stake tovigorously push Third Press items, and thecompany Was forced to assume the costlyoperation of distribution itself. Third Pressalso accepted as part of its responsibility tothe nonwhite community the necessity to pro-duce worthy but not immediately ,profitablelhoOks. While these have a strong backlist

potential, they add to the financial prOblems.Reviews of Third Press boOks indicate thatthe company is an editorial success. but itsfuture as an independent producer is uncer-tain because of its money troubles.

Public Broadcastingand Minorities

News Coverage

1n 140, the Ford Foundation launched -a

'Series ,04 grant\ to public television stationsto demonstrate 'what they were capable ofdoing it given both freedom and realistichudgets. :Included in the wide variety of pro -p> .,ah submitted were NeVend that providedadded and more sensitise coverage of mi-nority people.

A richer diet ,of minority content was pro-vided. for vikompit\ III% a soles of local showsknown generically -newsrooms.- Unitscreated in Mdlas, Boston, Pittsburgh, SanFrancisco, New York, Jacksonville, andWashington. D:C., cosered local events andsituations in depth. with heavy emphasis onon -scene visual 'materials and interview's, Thevery nature of the reportage meant that agreat deal more time was devoted to areas that.most concern minorities - housing. welfare,public health facilities, crime, and unemploy-ment,

The newsroom shows generally have beenwell received, largely because the journal-ists, white and .minartty, are professionals._A somewhat similar Foundation-assisted at-tempt. the Storefront Studio at the Universityof Wisconsin in Madison. foundered largelybecause the reporters lacked experience andtraining. The Storefront Studio had been de-signed to involve the poor in the productionof a news show and the staff was drawnfrom the hard-core unemployed, inadequatelytrained, their delivery often vague or rum-bling. the new recruit's to journalism leanedto advocacy reporting and became embroiledin charges of distortion of the news. The

23

Storefront Studio was shut down after lessthan four months on the air in 1970.

Direct ServiceA number of public-television programs pro-vide direct services to minority viewers, TheJob Man Caravan, put on by South Caro-lina's Educational Television Commission,seeks to reach the unemployed and the un-deremployed through a statewide networkof public television stations. The Ford Foun-dation granted $18(1,000 to support the con-cept, The program appeals to but is notconfined to minority interests, providing in-formation on jobs - what they pay and theeducation and skills required.

Businessmen and professionals talk abouttheir specialties during question-and-answersessions with young people. Viewers receivetips on what to wear, how to dress, and howto respond during job interviews, Experts ad-vise the audience about living conditions andthe employment market if they expect to mi-grate to urban centers in the state or evenup North. Mixed in with the ,stsrvice featuresis a sprinkling of entertainment through spe-cifically filmed segments with soul music. tarssuch as James Brown, Lou Rawls, and thePlatters.

The Job Man Caravan was an instant suc-cess. After the first show, 4.91 people, tele-phoned a toll-free number in pursuit offurther information about jobs that had beendescribed. Over the first year's forty-two pro-grams, 2,559 individuals had contacted thestations in search of jobs. Commented oneviewer. "It helps us understand that we should e

house," 'which brought black and white bitt.dents together tor rap sessions, ran into

because of the profanity of partici.pants and ideas that were considered tooratheal. The fourth show, "My New Orleans,"personalized tours to the ,city, did not semi,ate interest. An official of the local publictele \IOD suition said of the failures, "The,knd of television to WhiCh the station COM-Mated ,theit in the last year involved 'racialnailing' at many levels and New Orleans WANnot ready 'tor it"

lacksonvlle's 'Community Television pro -duced -Feedback," an open telephone laneoperation through which private 'CADZeilb

question guests representing various sides oflocal issues, such as school desegregation andbusing plans-, the possible impact of proposedsuperhighways, racial discrimination JD thewalk with our heads up just like the otherman becauit we are just human." :Re-unitized

another., -11 Imre me confidence to go for ajob.- After the cord Foundation grant hadbeen expended, the Job Man Caravan suc-ceeded in attracting local financing, and theprogram is still operating.

Racial DialogueThere have been failures as well as successesin airing minority concerns. The Greater NewOrleans Educational television FoundatiOnreceived a $125.000 grunt for a series of pro-grams That 'would "reflect the feeling of theNegro community of New Orleans" - admit-tedly an attempt to bring together whites andblacks amid growing talk of separatism. Fourdifferent shows were tried. "Neighborhood"attempted to cover schools, track meets, jazzclubs, and ether activities in the black com-munity. Reaction to "Neighborhood" wasnil; not a single letter was written to the sta.lion about it, "Fuualtime." designed to ex-amine controversial subjects, collapsed whenspokesmen for what was considered the local"establishment" declined to appear. "Coffee-

24

Jacksonville post ,office, and a variety ofpending bills in the legislature. Before thetelephone interrogations, a pair of hosts orstaff reporters conduct a brief interview 'with

the guests, On the air 'five nights a week, live,-Feedback' offers a forum for sonic, 'enter-tainment for others, and information for all.The show was created to stimulate greatereonununity involvement in issues that affectedpeople in the 'viewing area, By its nature ithas opened up ,dscussion of matters that con -cern nonwhite residents, Au audience surveyfound that the black community left "feed-back" provides a valuable service, and theentire county has Shown a consistent 10 percent higher voter turnout than any Floridacounterpart since the advent of the Show."Feedback" is still going. financed by localsources,

Drama as a VehicleAt public television station KCET in Los An-geles a major effort was intended for theChicano population. Because there was along Mexican literary tradition of the novella,the continuing story, the vehicle of the soapopera seemed appropriate. ,"Cancion de laRaza" (Song of the People) took the Ramosfamily through sixty-five episodes in the EastLos Angeles barrio. "Canci6n" dealt withbirth, death, police mistreatment, job train-ing, the grape workers' strike, the place ofreligion in contemporary Los Angeles, thewelfare system, the importance of education,the awareness of both individual and groupproblems. Dramas centered on the conflict of

a trucker whose employer asked him to haulnonunion grapes, a character illegally in theU.S. faced with deportation, and a lawyerwho demanded an exorbitant fee,

To produce "Cancun de la Raza," KCETenlisted researchers, writers, actors, and tech-nicians from the Mexican American com-munity. KCET also organized an actors'workshop in order to enlarge the pool of

if

'talent or the draNs. As An adjunct. "LineaAblerta" tOpen 1 010 took. telephone 'callsfrom viewers who discovered in "Cancion dela Rit Za" situations parallel to their own and,for which they sought sonic solutiOns, -LineaMyna" served ass at retertal semee,thscussion.etic'gryT 'chewed over the prtib-lerns of the RarniA family and the reality 0

7'he PirlIVI credited public tele-vision with paying more ,consi:st tint,attention U»ninorhy 'concernsilnai criticized the 'quantity andiptality of materials produced,the answers that they sought. A ,cornmuniqstudy indicated that the :program reachedthe targeted audience, blue-collar familieswoh incomes 01 S4.001) 10 IS000 v hoseeducational background tell below averageInterviewers also found that Wit WW1\ 10Athe lessons of "Carman" to heart. As a resultof the program, many applied tor services,which heretofore they did not know 'esisted.Others participated in 'community action pro-grams for the first time.

Such comments came from the audienceas "It snakes use proud of being a MexicanAmerican. It made me more aware of bonghelpful to other Mexican Americans." "11taught me consider things relating to myfamily outside the home "I found out aboutorganizations that can help. like if you quitschool." "My kids say Mexicans have lessadvantages than whites. 1 Showed them on theprogram bow they have all kinds of advan-

tages, but you have to knowilow to get them."In the footsteps of "Cancian" came

"Afton'," a magazine-style show that featuredTeacher Corps interviews, bilingual schools.Chicanos studying law. and other matters ofinterest to the Mexican American commu-nity. While "Ahora" enjoyed some successin explaining events such as a ins Angelesschool district's program for teacher-parent

conferences. it never eapturi.sd the popularityof "Cancian" and lapsed ate kr lri5 programs.

Initially, it had been hoped that pnblie tele-vision stations around the eountry which hada Spanishspaking audience potential wouldfind "Caruch'in- vo,'Irth 'showing The LoN

program, however, did 'nol appeal to.

rge4, Puerto Rican Hispany commit.n New York. The problems that tilted

xican Ameneans in Eas, 1 os Angeles di1 .fered from those an Meson. Arizona, whereeven the Spanish was a different dialect. In-stead at using -Cau.104-1.,- K uAT.Tv In Tijcson, with a Ford totIntiA14011 grant, Wined0111 iweilly-sib halt hour programs thatincluded -news and entertainment, all inSpanish. the Southwest Texas EducationalI elesision Council, another grant recipient,des eloped "Penodico." weekly looks at vari-ous aspects 01 the .polish- speaking :popula-tion wound Austin. Using the facilities totKI RN, "Pei medico dealt v.uh a 'school hoy-CAM organized over the question of bilingualinstruction, proper diets, and testimony uncivil rights hearings held in Austin.

Reaching out to black Americans, theChicago Educational [derision Association

1969, with a $600,000 grant.used the soap opera form to present the lifeof a family in the Chicago ghetto, The storyline followed from the diary of a black police -man who had been killed during a riot. Epi-sodes involved police use of force, corruptionin 'narcotics casts, racial conflicts in highsehoOl, and exploitation of a black veteranby a used car dealer. Titled -Bird of the ironFeather," a reference to blacks as fetteredbirds, the series was moved from 7;:30 pm- to9:30 p.m, as a consequence of its insistenceupon retaining street language and dealingin subject matter considered unsuitable foryounger viewers.

"Bird of the Iron Feather" employed localpeople; often they learned the trade of actingon the job. The show became the highest

26

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directors,. Wt3I311 secured grunt trot' theCorporation for Public Broadcasting to trainblack ,directors on the ph. By the time all thedramas M ere finished, several individualscompleted this course

in spite of all of ,problems, "On BeingBlack" did put on the air original works bysuch talented writers as Alice Childress, J. E.Franklin. and Clayton Riley. Black actorsWilliam Marshall, Lou (iossen, Al Freeman.

and others whoa had' already won recog-nition on Broadway or in films 'enthusiast,-cally participated in productions W01311,

Dick Ciregory and Moms Mabley brightenedup an hour devoted to the humor of blacks,and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatreprovided another notable segment.

WCillH :telt encouraged enough to plan asecond year of On Being Black," but thefamine of scripts turned out to he even worsethan the first year's and the station was un-able to continue the 'series.

At the 'University jai Nebraska, public tele-vision station KUON used a documentaryapproach to recreate the contributions of'blacks in the settlement of the AmericanWest. With a $205.;000 grant from the Foun-dation, KUON produced four sixty-minutecolor films that depicted blacks who had beencowboys, traders, trappers, pioneers, andcavalrymen.

One of the most popular offerings overpublic television came from 'WNET in NewYork in the form of "Sour% Under its Projectfor New Programming, the Foundation in

1968 originally funded twenty one-hour"Soar' programs that were aired in NewYork. The maction was so favorable that thefollowing two 'scars, the Foundation and the.Corporation for Public Broadcasting sup-ported the production of forty more pro-grams, which were distributed nationally.

With strong emphasis upon music and en-tertainment, "Soul!" also gave time to JulianBond. Imamu Baraka, authors Anne Moody

28

and James Baldwin, and anthers, Alter the

Foundation grants terminat':d, the Corpora-tion :for Public 'Broadcasting continued tosupport the show. Although "Soul!" has dem-

onstrated high audience interest, in 11974 'only

a rritnartry of public television stations votedto continue its ,existence. As a result the show

was terminated.

VnliniShed Business

Despite the efforts noted, public televisiondoes not serve minority irliereNh adequatelyaccording to ,a 1973 review panel headed byRobert C. Maynard, Associate Editor andOmbudsman of the lrodirnerim

The panel defined minorities to includenot only ethnic minorities but also women.the elderly, ,adolescents, the physically handi-capped, and the retarded. The group 'exam-ined three weeks of public television tare

with special attention to programs such as"Behind the Lines," "cist State," "Sour and"Black Journal."

The panel credited public television withpaying more consistent attention to minorityconcerns than us commercial counterpart.However, the group eriticind the quan-tity and quality of materials produced. As apreliminary corrective it called for the mkt.sion of more minority group 'member repre-sentatives, women, young people, the elderly,and residents from outside the Northeast inpublic television decision-making at the na-tional and local 'levels, It also suggested thatpublic television ought to provide program-ming on issues of health, finance, :politics. the

and human rights related directly to theneeds of minorities "who fall outside theAmerican mainstream." Finally, the panelproposed that the people from neglected mi-norities ought to he involved in the actualprogramming in order that the "images ofthese groups before A mass audience becomemore natural and realistic than is the case in

present-day television. ."

Prospects

St's a tar greater number tit non-whites have had bylines in the press (thoughthe American Society of Newspaper Editorsreported in IA17,4 that probably no more than1 per cent of the professional newsroom staffcame from minority groups) and there aremore minority-stoup members on televisionworking 11s both journalists and entertainers.

Whether this brings more sensitive cover-age of the minority conunonity depends upon41 number of subtle factors, A 1968 graduateof the Columbia Journalism School summerprogram, Witham 1.)eiz. of 1S.Li'W, Portland,Oregon, remarked, "The [broadcasting) in-dustry is reaay beginning to open up now,only I would insist 11 Is not enough t0 beblack right now, At least here 1T1 the North-west you might get an interview a little morereadily at some stations if you are blackbut you had better he 'beautiful' too by thatI mean you had better have some talent uswell as that dark skin, The skin mightset you in the front door but who wants tospend his life standing in the hallway?" ThereIs some doubt about how tar minority pres-ence in the media is going. Vernon Jordan,executive director of the National UrbanLeague, recently said, "The fact is that themedial, alter a fling at tokenism and liberal-ism, is settling back into the spirit 4.-if benignneglect of black people."

The successful graduates of minority train-ing,programs in journalism have gone beyondthe hallway, but the communications indus-try may not he ,substantially more sensitive.to The minority experience until members ofthe minorities attain policy-making positions,and so far very few have made it to the ex-ecutive sillies of the mass media. As a recent

29

series on blacks and TV in the WashingtonPost by Joel Dreyfuss put it, In many waysthe influx of blacks into television becomesa microcosmic study of integration in Amer-ica, presence without power."

Another troublesome aspect for the minor-ity person in Th.; media is the question ofpossible conflict between group loyalty andtraditional journalistic rules of balance and

The problem won)" go away in themedia until it goes away in allof A main; therefore followsthat to have a truer ,balance ofcontent. 0 better sensitivity forminorities, they must be in aposition 10 he heard and seen inthe media.

fairness. Tony Brown, producer of "BlackJournal" and currently at Howard University.has called these traditions "white rules usedby the white media to distort black news." Hemaintains that a black reporter ought neverto forget "his ,,primary loyalty is to otherblacks and the movement."

Emile Milne of the Community News Ser-vice thinks the conflict is not irreconcilable."Every black journalist feels some specialaccountability and responsibility, The pres-sure is there. But you have to tell it like it is,positive or negative; if it needs to be told itcan't hurt."

A California reporter who was trained inthe Columbia program wrote. "I didn't fullyappreciate before the delicate position of theblack reporter writing about the black move-ment. One is caught between two opposing

the blaek wininunit)...an the Inle handmho sees ou al Nome sort of manna from

heap en. who H all at last tell their side the\'.0 at alld \tho \\ ill }ire You hell it Youdon't las the sei tt t but little else trout thenon and the paper minch, out of ghat it seesas an objective tesponsibilit to the whitereaderships must carefully peruse sour stordo rnak certain it is not slanted to the blackside."

The piohlent In't alo aysa\ in the mediauntil at goes ;+.i, +\ In all 01 Atnenea. It there-tole toiloAs that to has a truer balance ofeoritent,a better sensiiv.t for minorities.tho must he in a position to be heard and

seen M the media, Lerone Bennetts a black:historian and journalist, ,observed in l96ti,

More than tine hundred years ago, the firsteditorial of the 'first Negro newspaper Free,1,1044".v j >urnal said 'Too long have othersspoken for us. We want to speak for our-selves:"

Rut the problem of reaching Americansmho will not read or look anything aboutminorities goes beyond the legally gained,access, the training of nonwhites: the added

content and media sensitivity to minoritymaterial. It depends upon the 'condition titthe larger society. uhkh the media shapeonly in part.

Ptioto.gra ph, C otumbia 1:niersity (I)ont.tL.:rtesi,17 °thee ut Cornmunk:ation, L:nitedt nuren at Christ: 20 Race Relatiuns Reporter;

pos, 2 . KcET-Ty,Lw Anntle's

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