from The Atlanta Voice
This post was originally published on the Atlanta Voice
So far, 2022 has been a year of many socioeconomic and political challenges for all Americans across the country. However, for African Americans and other communities of color, this year represents both challenges and opportunities from a business ownership perspective. In particular, for black-owned media businesses there is a growing sense of resilience even in the face of continuing deep racial and social inequalities.
The communications and media industry in America in particular should be one of the leading industries to adopt the understanding of “good business” to embrace the values and benefits of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). This is not about charity or benevolence. Diversity is objectively good for business.
The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) are working together to encourage the media and advertising industries to become more proactive and committed to diversity from C-suites to executives decision maker. But more needs to be done to increase and increase ownership of media businesses by African Americans and other minorities.
Economic equity in media requires equal access to investment capital, technical advances in communications infrastructure, and inclusion in other industry innovations. As the growing changes in the nation’s racial demographics continue to accelerate in the United States, the American media must be more representative of the nation’s growing diversity.
Therefore, it is worth noting that one of the large media mergers recently announced has Standard General, a minority-owned firm, pending regulatory reviews and approvals from the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission, acquiring TEGNA, a company that owns 64 television stations. across the country. Soo Kim, a successful Asian American business leader who serves as founding and managing partner of Standard General, emphasized, “We are open to exploring new partnership models to get different perspectives and perspectives on broadcasting and to make sure people have the resources to do it.”
We agree with this sentiment as multiracial ownership of American media businesses will continue to be seen as a strategic predictor of the nation’s future economic well-being. We aim to raise our voices in support of the positive economic and social equity consequences of American media diversification.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights has noted, “Access to the media from the broadest sector of society is essential to ensure that diverse viewpoints are presented to the American people, but racial and gender disparities in media ownership date from the beginning. of the civil rights era continue.” Again, overcoming these inequalities should be a national priority of the media industry.
“At a time when more people, especially black people, are distrustful of the media, diversity in media ownership,” argues the Leadership Conference, “has become more important than ever to the functioning of our democracy. Diversity in ownership is part of that solution.” We agree with the position of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights on this issue.
Finally, as our nation prepares for the upcoming midterm elections in November, many are predicting low overall voter turnout. Millions of dollars will be spent on Get-Out-the-Vote (GOTV) campaigns. Those who wish to increase GOTV among African Americans and other communities of color will need to engage black-owned media outlets such as the “Trusted Voice of Black America” in order to increase voter turnout.
The post OP-ED: Diversifying American Media Ownership Must Become a National Priority appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.