Fewer Young Black Men in Journalism Pipeline
The premise behind the question from Cecil Cross of The Panther newspaper at Clark Atlanta University was evident from looking around the room.
Cross, attending the 6th Annual HBCU Newspaper Convention in Montgomery, Ala. — HBCU meaning “Historically Black Colleges and Universities” — asked keynote speaker Caesar Andrews, editor of Gannett News Service, what could be done to attract more male students to the campus newspaper. The ratio on campus seems like 10 women for every man, Cross projected, though official Clark Atlanta statistics put overall enrollment at 70 percent female and 30 percent male.
There are twice as many women as men among the 132 student journalists at the conference, which has 200 attendees. The imbalance isn’t just at black schools, Andrews responded from the lectern. But he said the question of why there aren’t more African American male student journalists could have to do with “image”: that the image of black journalists isn’t attractive enough to young black men.
Surveys and anecdotes seem to bear him out. The imbalance is part of a larger picture.
Last year, in his Annual Survey of Mass Communication and Journalism Enrollments, Lee B. Becker of the University of Georgia reported that “the percentage of female undergraduate students enrolled in journalism and mass communications programs increased slightly in 2002-2003 to 64.1 percent, resulting in the highest percentage since the end of World War II.”
Overall, women comprise about 56 percent of U.S. college students, whereas the numbers were equal between the two genders five years ago.
And as the American Council on Education reported, the gender gap within blacks is the largest of all races. It reported that black women enrolled in schools at a rate nearly double that of black men.
Once the young men get to school, said Dr. Valerie D. White, assistant professor of journalism at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, in her experience, “they all want to be Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs.”
“They don’t see that he’s the exception, not the rule. The first thing they say is, ‘he made it without the education.’ I don’t think they understand where the real power is,” she told Journal-isms. “Media can make or break presidents.”
White, who chairs the Black College Communication Association, an organization of journalism faculty at HBCUs, also said that too many of the African American males “go into journalism as a gateway to entertainment” — as a way to become a publicist or eventually, a Sean Combs. It’s what can happen, she said, when “all they see is music videos all day long.”
Robert Garcia Out as GM of CNN Radio
Robert Garcia, vice president and general manager at CNN Radio, is out of that job, employees at CNN say, though spokeswomen for CNN did not respond to inquiries about his departure.
Garcia was also active in the Radio-Television News Directors Association, serving as chairman in 2000 and as a chairman of its diversity task force. He had been at the network since 1995.
Members of the journalist associations of color are ex-officio members of the RTNDA board, and “it was his leadership as RTNDA chairman that led to the inclusion of the ex-officio members of the board in all aspects of RTNDA, including programs and committee service,” Condace Pressley of Atlanta’s WSB Radio, a CNN affiliate, told Journal-isms. She is also immediate past president of the National Association of Black Journalists.
“It is also largely because of his leadership that former ex-officios like me and Janice Gin of KTVU-TV are now voting members of the board. Robert always was and remains a strong advocate for diversity,” Pressley continued.
A CNN biography said that before his arrival at CNN, “Garcia served as executive producer for CBS Radio Stations News Service in Washington, D.C., where he managed the day-to-day operations for the Washington bureau of the seven owned and operated CBS all-news and talk radio stations. Garcia also managed all coverage, story assignments and broadcast schedules.”
Natalie Morales Named Anchor Of “Early Today”
Natalie Morales has been named anchor of NBC News’ “Early Today,” effective immediately, NBC announced. In addition to anchoring “Early Today,” Morales is to continue to contribute to MSNBC.
Morales has been an anchor and correspondent for MSNBC since March 2002, anchoring weekday and weekend coverage and breaking news reports. She also has appeared as a substitute news anchor for NBC’s “Today” and “Weekend Today.”
Morales is serving as the mistress of ceremonies at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ 15th Annual Scholarship Banquet Feb. 19 in New York.
Morales speaks Spanish and Portuguese, was born in Taiwan and spent the first 18 years of her life living overseas in Panama, Brazil and Spain as an Air Force “brat,” a news release said.
5th Anniversary for Black Issues Book Review
“As Black Issues Book Review begins celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, its three cofounders are attributing the magazine’s longevity to a dedicated staff, a good niche market and the ability to operate on a shoestring budget,” writes Diane Patrick in Publishers Weely.
“The magazine has nearly 75,000 readers, with a demographic that [publisher and editor-in-chief William E.] Cox feels ‘pretty good about. These are people who make good salaries, spend money, and are computer literate: 97% black, 83% female. We have a highly educated readership: 27% have at least some college, 28% hold baccalaureate degrees, 23% masters degrees, 8% doctorates, and 9% associates’. And the audience is very mature: 32% are ages 30 to 39, 31% are ages 40 to 49.”
“BIBR is the only consumer magazine of the three published by Cox, Matthews & Associates and the fastest growing, said Cox. ‘In our five short years, it’s become the industry bible for African-American titles.’
“One of the things on the BIBR wish list is stronger publisher advertising support,” the article continues. “After publishers get coverage of their titles, [Associate publisher and co-founder Adrienne] Ingrum said she gets calls saying, ‘”Thanks so much for the great coverage! Would you send me three copies?” But the fact is, we’re a struggling magazine. I’d like them to say instead, “BIBR does such a good job that we’re going to advertise!”.’ “
ESPN Cancels Criticized “Playmakers” Drama
Yielding to pressure from the National Football League, ESPN has decided not to renew its successful freshman drama series, “Playmakers,” John Consoli reports in Media Week.
“Although he did not mention the NFL by name, Mark Shapiro, ESPN executive vp of programming and production, issued a statement in which he said, ‘Many considerations went into this decision, not the least of which was the reaction from a longtime and valued partner.'”
Last October, when Rush Limbaugh lost his job as an ESPN sports commentator after disparaging Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles as an affirmative action hire, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie replied by saying, “the issue is not Rush Limbaugh. The issue is how we’ve come to hire Rush Limbaugh, and how we’ve come to portray athletes. For example, showcasing NFL players purportedly doing cocaine at halftime in Playmakers. Nothing could be further from the truth.’
“It is primarily an African American sport, and it is covered primarily by non-African Americans,” the owner added.
Later, the Association for Women in Sports Media protested a story line that revolved around a flirtatious female reporter who entered the locker room and touched a player suggestively.
“Born Indian, Raised White,” Journalist Makes Choice
“Born Indian, raised white — walking in two worlds: how the heritage lost as a child is reclaimed as an adult,” reads the headline on an essay in last Sunday’s Oregonian in Portland by copy editor Seth Prince.
“I am Choctaw and Cherokee, but you would not know it if you saw me; I could easily pass as white. For a good chunk of my adolescence, as I struggled to figure out who I was, that racial ambiguity swallowed me up. I wasn’t Indian or white, I thought. I didn’t know what I was. And to some extent, I didn’t think it mattered. . . .
“I went home last week to speak at a conference in Oklahoma on the role of Indians working in the news media and how Indian people are covered. I stood alongside many of those Native American journalists I have long looked up to,” Prince writes.
“For years questions about my Indianness led me to doubt my credibility in such circles. But in this journey to better understand my heritage and myself, I’ve learned I have a role to play and a voice to add to the discussions.
“I have come to believe that faces such as mine, which I once questioned whether could be called Indian at all, are the faces of tomorrow’s Native America.
“The government’s old blood quantum principle, designed to gradually assimilate Indians into white society as their degrees of tribal blood were diluted by centuries of interracial marriage, is working. But Indians cannot let it change how we define ourselves.
“If we do, tribes will melt into society at large just as the U.S. government intended at the peak of its anti-Indian fervor generations ago. As I was recently told in the course of sorting out my story, it is what is in my heart, not what pumps through it, that makes me Indian.”
Jim Kelly Joins Fresno Bee as AME
Jim Kelly, a newsroom editor for 16 years who was a white board member of the Hawaii chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association, has joined California’s Fresno Bee as assistant managing editor for news and business.
“Kelly, 43, comes to The Bee from The Honolulu Advertiser, where he spent seven years, including the past three as executive editor,” the Bee reports. “He will oversee a staff of 45 in The Bee’s Business and Local News departments, including the South Valley and Sierra Gateway bureaus. He went to Honolulu in 1997 as assistant managing editor/news and also worked as managing editor.”
Kelly told Journal-isms that while not Asian American, he was asked to join the local AAJA board when the chapter was competing last year to host the 2005 national convention and members thought someone of his stature could help. The prize went to Minneapolis, but the chapter is hopeful of getting a future convention, Kelly said.
Jennifer 8. Lee Polishes Reputation as Hostess
The New York Times’ Jennifer 8. Lee, based in Washington, “has become better known for her parties than for her peculiar byline,” writes Anna Schneider-Mayerson in the New York Sun.
“In just a year in Washington, Ms. Lee has fashioned a high-powered and occasionally raucous social circuit around the brunches and barbeques, dinner parties and poker nights, holiday soirees, and intimate concerts she hosts on a nearly weekly basis in her penthouse loft.”
“In the chipper and maternal Ms. Lee, ambitious 20-and-30-somethings have found a plugged-in peer who’s filling several voids.” Lee is 27.
“Luck is something her family thought about when giving her the middle initial ‘8’ as a teenager,” the Sun story says. “After too many identity confusions with her popular name, she and her parents, who immigrated to New York from Taiwan in the 1970s, added the digit –the most auspicious numeral in China. It’s spelled out ‘Eight’ on her New York driver’s license, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles, meaning her middle initial could be less dramatically rendered ‘E.'”
Vernon Jarrett Says Lucile Bluford “Saved Me”
“Vernon Jarrett always says ‘Keep the faith’ when he ends conversations with me,” writes Lewis Diuguid in the Kansas City Star.
“Jarrett is a giant among journalists. You can see him Feb. 23 in the PBS documentary ‘The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords.’
“But I never really knew his connection to Kansas City until after Lucile H. Bluford died last year at age 91. Jarrett said he owed Bluford for getting him back into journalism.
“‘She saved me,’ said Jarrett, who had been forced out by the Cold War, the Red scare and racism. ‘She encouraged me. She said, “You ought to be writing.”
“‘I hung out at The Call. I don’t know what would have happened if they hadn’t been there.
“‘It helped me get back into my old self. Those were the days of people taking heroic stands.’
“That heroism is what Black History Month is all about. Bluford was The Call’s longtime editor and publisher. She was an advocate for good journalism, civil rights and our community,” writes Diuguid.
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