Media Justice

On Fox News, ABC, and most other mainstream media outlets, Reverend Jeremiah Wright has been cast as an anti-American spouting hate speech, a racist, a threat, and/or a lunatic. Yet what is missing from most of the “analysis” of his sermons is one crucial point: Much of what he says is simply factual.

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama have put race in the news. This is long overdue in my estimation because Americans are usually so reluctant to talk about race in any meaningful sort of way. Unfortunately, much of the recent commentary by media pundits is marked by both ignorance and hysteria. I'll post more about this in the weeks to come, but meanwhile, to coincide with March Madness, here are a few thoughts on race and a huge and important part of our media and popular culture environment-- the world of televised sports:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoJwOXzO8Vw

From ACME Co-President Rob Williams on YouTube:

"What happens when you bring together 10 young Jordanians and 10 young Vermonters for eight months of cross-cultural conversation, media education, leadership training, digital storytelling production, and reciprocal three-week home stays in both countries? The answer: so much. Take a look..."

Counting is so simple, so basic, so important. We counted the numbers of boys and girls on sugary cereal boxes, on the covers of board games, in the action section of toy aisles, in Newbury Award winning books, and we reported studies that counted the number of boys and girls in G-rated films, and other forms of media. This was our way of showing where the girls aren't, sure, but more importantly we did this because numbers give a clear and present message to girls (and boys) about who should be doing, wearing, listening to, reading, and playing with what.

The crux of Tom Regan's thesis (article below) is: "The reality in today's world of online journalism is that both old and new views count, and traditional journalists ignore this at their own peril."

He defines "new" news views as youth interests such as stories about the iPhone and "old" views as NY Times stories about the Iraq war. I see it as more than youth vs aged.

Here's a question. Should the news try to be objective? There is no doubt that Olbermann is a brilliant, articulate, analytic genius whose passion tends to agree with mine, and I love him. But, should we evolve toward a news environment that is totally composed of competing one-sided shows (like Olbermann and O'Reilly)? That seems to be the direction we are heading.

From Media Education Foundation on YouTube.

Four teenage digital storytellers - two Jordanians, and two Vermonters - tackle cross-cultural stereotypes in this Media Education and Democracy In Action (MEDIA) project, co-sponsored by Project Harmony, ACME, and UPA.