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New York's Ethnic Media Honored
Diverse city has 26 foreign language dailies
Adam Phillips, VoA News
New York City, March 18, 2011 - Each year, the best work of New York’s ethnic and independent media is honored
with awards from the New York Community Media Alliance.
New York City boasts a vibrant, diverse media landscape, with an
estimated 350 weekly newspapers and 26 foreign language dailies.
Each year, the best work by reporters, photographers and editors of
New York’s ethnic and independent media is honored with awards from the
New York Community Media Alliance (NYCMA). Those awards are known as
Ippies.
NYCMA director Juana Ponce de Leon explains that the ethnic press often
advocates for its communities, and acts as an intermediary between the
audience and mainstream society.
She adds that her organization encourages reporters to offer practical
guidance to readers, listeners and viewers.
"It helps the communities know where there are resources to address
their concerns. It’s not good enough to say ‘We don’t have enough
translation services from the DOE [Department of Education]’ and leave
it at that. It’s better to say ‘Not only are there those services, but
if you don’t find them, you can request them. And if they don’t come to
you, then you have a right to get your child to another school, for
instance.’"
The ethnic media often provides immigrants with the tools they need to
negotiate everyday life in America, says 2011 Ippie winner Helen Zelon.
"I think the ethnic press does an enormous service when it explains to
people, ‘This is what happens when your kid starts school. This is what
happens when you rent something. Here’s how you establish yourself
here.’"
Zelon, a reporter with City Limits Magazine, a public policy journal,
often writes about education.
"Which means you are writing about race and class and money and politics
and power and privilege and all of it," she says. "And I write about
child welfare, which to me is a hugely important issue that doesn’t get
a lot of coverage until there is a very bad disaster and then there is a
lot of attention around it and then it goes away. We do investigative
reporting."
Often, the ethnic press will cover a local story that illuminates a
larger issue. For example, Ippie winner Sharon Toomer of
BrownandBlackNews.com reported on a public playground with a jungle gym
modeled to look like a jail. Local residents felt that associating
prison with fun and play was the wrong message to send to children in
their largely African-American community.
"This might not be something that a mainstream news outlet would find as
a story or find relevant, for whatever reason. So that's why we pick up
the slack. And we wrote a story and there was big media firestorm in the
city," says Toomer. "And eventually the housing department, within less
than 30 days took down the jungle gym that was jail themed and put in a
more appropriate one, which was an outer space design."
Sometimes, the ethnic press connects immigrant stories to another issue
of national interest. Annie Correal is a reporter for "Feet in 2
Worlds," an immigration news project of the New School’s Center for New
York City Affairs. She won an Ippie for her audio piece about Latinos in
Louisiana helping to clean up after BP’s offshore oil spill.
"And I broke the story that Homeland Security had actually come and done
a roundup to make sure everyone was a documented worker," says Correal.
"And that story went national because it was, like, ‘Where are our
priorities? Do we care about more about who these people are or whether
the oil is getting cleaned up?’ It was a controversial story."
From their unique vantage point, editorials in the ethnic press can
highlight common experiences of different immigrant groups. Peter
McDermott of the Irish Echo, won an Ippie for an editorial that compared
last year’s controversy over a proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero
with 19th century riots against the Irish community which wanted to
build a church in that same downtown neighborhood.
"There was really no difference between the hostility against Catholics
and other minorities in the 19th century and hostility toward the
Muslims today," says McDermott. "People say, 'There is a big
difference.' And I say there is no big difference. It was essentially
the same bigotry, actually."
The ethnic press has a vital role to play in America, according to
independent progressive journalist Amy Goodman.
"In order to ensure a democratic society, we need to cover every
community, people from their own communities covering their own
communities and other communities. I think the media can be the greatest
force of peace on earth because it’s a forum for people to speak to each
other, and to learn about each other. And there is no better place than
in the diverse communities of New York and the presses that represent
them."
As the foreign-born population continues to swell, New York's ethnic
press will continue to tell the stories of the city's diverse
communities.
On the Web
This article originally appeared on VoANews.com. |
