New Directions

Volume 5 | Issue 3 Article 5

4-1-1978

The Mass Media In the 21st CenturyAbdulai Vandi

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Recommended CitationVandi, Abdulai (1978) "The Mass Media In the 21st Century," New Directions: Vol. 5: Iss. 3, Article 5.Available at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol5/iss3/5

NATIONAl

20 By Abdulai Vandi

In the last quarter of the 20th century, theone overriding social feature to be reck-oned with is that not a single area ofAmerican Iife has escaped the touch andinfluence of the mass media. It is pos-sible that the impact of the mass media inthe next century may be just as great asnuclear energy is today-meaning, themedia will represent a source of deepcontroversy, almost infinite power, greatpotential benefit, and great potentialdanger. The responsibility of the 21stcentury media expert will be to determinethe positive ways in which mass com-munications can be used.

Responsibility is the key word. It repre-sents a basic concept. In the coming cen-tury, it will be important that media ex-perts- regardless of their ethnic back-grounds- receive training not only in thetechnical and business aspects of themedia but also in professional respon-sibility.

By technical training it is meant: inthe future, as at present, the televisionproducer will have to understand televi-sion production techniques, managementmethods, social and cultural develop-ment, politics and economics, cinema-tography, graphic design and educa-tional technology, and the like. Thenewspaper editor will need training inwriting, management, advertising, newsreporting and editing.

Such a training is crucial today. It willbe even more important in the future. Themajor reason is to be found in the extremelikelihood that future innovations in mediatechnology will make today's gadgetrylook primitive by comparison. Obviously,the media expert will need broad tech-nical training if he or she wants to surviveand progress in the industry.

But training in responsibility is not atall obvious and doesn't show up in thepresent-day college curriculum. Yet thistraining is as important as technicaltraining to the mass media expert.

THESS ED~A

~NTHE 21STCENTURY

n

LJ

ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL PLAn

-- first responsibility of the media ex-~ is to fulfill the needs of the industry.

media expert does not accommo--=--::=. those needs, he or she simply will

=:nd rewarding employment. This is aIt area to discuss because theof the industry change constantly.

_seems safe to say that the mediaiof the future wi II be best prepared

- - mose needs onIy if he or she has re-:9d a solid formal education in mass

unications, mass sociology, mass-:::nology,and related areas.

- day of the self-made media expert:= but over. As proof one can note that

;:;man 450 schools in this country of-ergraduate and graduate degrees

-.ass communications. Many more in-- - ns that do not have degree pro-

offer courses in journalism, broad-- ,speech, drama and advertising.

breakdown on the numbers of Blackhite students enrolled in media

rses and schools is available. Butkey figures give an indication of the

.- g influence of the mass media. By= ~ mere were 41, 691 journalism stu-

enrolled in 166 American schoolsdepartments exclusive of enroll-

-=-= in journalism courses at otherIs. Of the 223 4-year colleges and

ersities providing courses in radio-olevision, 180 offered broadcasting

_:::: major leading to a degree. Also ina total of 12,162 students were en-in these courses, but only 251 stu-

were engaged in doctoral level pro-at 26 schools.

latter figure is important. Journal-and communications faculty mem-

-= at the university and college level- sngaged in three major activities-

- - g, research, and service. They-::......one or more specialties in jour-

ic techniques acquired through theirexperience: magazine writing, radio

production and so on. But the com-:::::cationsteacher is also well advised--=equipped forteaching and research

of the scholarly fields, such as the

history of journalism, literary criticism,public opinion polling, and mass com-munications theory.

Various other kinds of media studentscan be listed: filmmaking, advertising,public relations, book production andprinting.

Formal training in mass communica-tions teaches the individual responsibil-ity to the industry by engendering under-standing of the system and the basicskills of communication. It must alsoprovide the individual with a liberal, gen-eral ist background. If media personnelare to be socially responsible and con-structive, they must have an intell igentunderstanding of the social, cultural, andeconomic issues that they report.

How does the Black media expert ofthe future fit into this picture?

The answers lie essentially with jour-nalism school education, which is de-signed to train workers for the industry.For example, the Black student whoseambition is to establish and operate acommunity newspaper will likely find nocourse that will assist him reach this goal.

We can note a paradox: the Black me-dia expert is being asked to be respon-sible to an industry which, by and large,has not been responsible or responsiveto him or her. In general, the mass mediaindustry has a history of exclusion withregard to minorities.

Except in recent years, Black reportersand editors could find no employment inthe white press establishment. Nonethe-less, there has been a thriving Blackpress in the United States since thefounding of the Freedom's Journal inNew York in 1827. Since 1850, more than3,000 Black publications have beenfounded; many of these were short-lived,but some survived for generations. For along time, the Black press provided theonly training ground for the nation'sBlack media men and women.

But changes in the Black press are re-flective of the changes that have also af-fected the white press. These changes

may be a portent of the future. The fact isthat television and radio have made in-roads on circulation and newspaperreadership.

If anything, it was probably easier tostart a Black periodical in the first half ofthe 20th century. Before that time, only 24Black publications were in existence. Butsocial and economic repression becamemore effective and balanced after the on-set of industrialism.

The standard-bearers among the na-tion's daily Black newspapers did notchange substantially until in the mid-1940s. Since that time a substantialchange in the character of the Blackpress has occurred, particularly in thearea of circulation. In 1945, the three"giants" were the Pittsburgh Courier, theChicago Defender, and the BaltimoreAfro-American. At present, the Defender'scirculation is down to 33,300, from 202,-000 in 1945; the Courier's is down to48,800, from 257,000. Only the Afro-American is close to its 1945 circulation,despite the fact that the nation's Blackpopulation has increased by about halfduring this period.

The three newspapers take a generallyconservative stance. Thus the changes inBlack readership may reflect an evolu-tion of Black consciousness. Two of themajor replacements are MuhammedSpeaks (now the Bilalian News) and theBlack Panther. The former has a profes-sional staff of more than 30. The BlackPanther, on the other hand, is a tabloidproduced and distributed by volunteers.

Further,even though copies of the larg-est Black "standard" newspapers can stillbe found outside their home base, theend of the national Black newspaperseems near. Circulation costs and losseshave to be minimized because the main-tenance of a far-flung distribution net-work is too costly.

In the past 10 years, more and moreBlacks have found employment with thewhite media establishment. But a studyby the Black Congressional Caucusshows that only 4.2 percent of all news-

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22 paper employees throughout the countryare Black and that Blacks make up only1.5 percent of those employees in deci-sion-making jobs. In periodical publica-tions, Black journalists fared only slightlybetter, making up 7.3 percent of the work-ing force and 2.5 percent of the profes-sionals. In the broadcast industry, Blacksmade up only 2 percent of the officialsand managers, 6 percent of the broadcast-ers and news reporters, 3 percent of thetechnicians, and 2 percent of the salesemployees. Significantly, 15 percent ofthe laborers in the broadcasting industryand 46 percent of the service workerswere Black.

For Black Americans, these statisticsare both depressing and familiar. As inmany other industries, the mass mediahave failed to employ Black applicants inanything like a proportion of their per-centage in the total population.

One has also to face the problem ofBlack media ownership. This is best un-derstood against the background of thecorporate media picture in the UnitedStates. The 1972 figures showed 1,761dai Iies and 10,100 nondai Iy period icalspublished in America-more than anyother country in the world.

Approximately 93 percent of all the ra-dio stations in the United States are pri-vately owned, but more than 2,300 ofthese are affiliated with one of the threemajor networks. About 76 percent-or701-of all television stations are com-mercially owned and operated; but 178 ofthese are owned by newspaper or maga-zine companies. For example, the New-house chain owns 21 newspapers, 5 tele-vision stations, and 3 radio stations. Also,practically all television stations are af-filiated with a network, mainly because ofthe high costs of production. About 220noncommercial educational stations and4,875 cable television (CATV) systemsare currently in operation in the UnitedStates.

In contrast, figures compiled during1973-74 show 163 Black-oriented publi-cations, with a total circulation of 5.1 mil-

lion. But almost 40 percent of this circula-tion was accounted for by three publica-tions-Ebony, with 1,222,000monthly,Jet,with a weekly circulation of 565,000, andBilalian News,with a weekly circulation of530,000. About 385 radio stations havesome Black programming, with only 67featuring Black programming exclusively.

This picture is not uniformly depress-ing. Conditions are improving every year,and they wi II continue to do so intothe next century. Federal regulations con-cerning equal opportunity employmentare pressuring the industry to recognizeits responsibility to hire more qualifiedBlacks. And the industry is recognizingthat the Black community houses inten-sive consumers of the mass media prod-uct, particularly in the areas of radio, tele-vision, and film. In order to continue toserve these consumers, the media indus-try needs experts who can provide thekind of entertainment and informationthat the Black community demands.

The main challenge is obvious: themass media industry is learning that itneeds Black media experts who can dothe job right, and who possess the neces-sary technical skills in mass communi-cations.

In order to be responsible to the indus-try, the Black media expert will have toexemplify a pervasive Black conscious-ness at all times. The reason is that thechanging roles of Blacks in mass commu-nications followed rather than precededthe civi I rights upheaval of the last dec-ade. Black revolution was not a productof mass communications but of forcesmore fundamental to the formation of pri-vate and public attitudes.

The other key area of responsibility forthe mass media expert is the public-the larger society that the mass mediaare designed to serve. In general, themedia expert serves the public in threeways: preserve the society's culture, his-tory, tradition, and national identity; pro-vide useful and relevant information tothe public; provide instruction that is im-portant to the community, such as family

planning, health, safety and vocatiooatraining.

One may ask: "How can the Black -dia expert fulfill his or her responsibilitiin this area?"

Before answering the question, it ~important to note that in the past the massmedia have failed in their responsibilitito the Black community. At various timesBlacks have been ignored, ridiculed, ar-;stereotyped. Years ago radio institutior-alized racism by introducing the "A'n' Andy" syndrome. In radio and inearly days of television and film, Blaoccasionally appeared on news and SPOrEprograms; but rarely was any effort macsto depict the American Black experienin all its richness and diversity.

A statistic underscores the importanof such neglected material: 90 percentall low-income households in the UnitecStates have at least one television se;Cinema is less prevalent among Blacthan watching television but it remainsarimportant media outlet. Further, the aerage low-income Black family hasperiodicals· regularly available. Researhas shown that urban Blacks use televi-sion as stimulation but also as a kind -school to learn from the mistakes of others.Such watching is most common when theprogram has at least one Black character,

The media outlets, therefore, help toreinforce the prejudices held by the whitepublic with regard to Blacks. At its bestthe industry ignored Blacks; at its worsit made them look childish, inept, anarid icu lous.

Recently, however, some changes ha coccurred - particularly in the 1960s. Irthe mid-'60s Bill Cosby became the firnonsinger, nondancer, nonbuffoon Blatelevision star. Others followed, ancBlacks began to appear as televisioonewscasters and fi 1mstars.

In the '60s, things seemed to be im-proving but the industry still was not em-ploying Blacks to any great degree. Asrecently as 1972, a study on Children'sTelevision Programming for BEST (BlacEffort for Soul in Television) showed that

:; than 60 percent of the shows on tel-had no Black characters at all,

:nat no show had an all-Black cast.on children's television rarely ap-in work situations. Black char-

usually had only positive attributeswhite characters tended to be well-'ed and realistically presented. Theional Black leader had a white co-

- •but most shows had white leaders.shows did not display interaction

n races, race was never dis-, and all figures of authority and

~ of information were white.

=- ms were taking basically the same- The so-called "blaxploitation" films

aft, Superfly, and Cleopatra Jones,absurdly one-dimensional per-

- of Black people. A major rationaleat such films enabled Black pro-to get the money needed for "bet-

oroductions. But while the media- no longer ignoring or ridiculing

. they were continuing to stereo-31acks by fai Iing to reflect the true

~ ity of the Black community and its- nces.

situation has improved in the past:gars.Today television programs and

epict Blacks as both good guys:J8.dguys, as leaders and followers,

Ithy and poor, as smart and not so- as strong and weak. The industry is

away from stereotyping Blacks=c -:lOrehonest portrayal. But much re-

to be done. And what has beencan also be lost. If things have

~ ed, it is because the industry has_ ized the importance of the Black

consumer. But the Black mediawill have to see that the industryes to serve the Black public.

- ~ increase in the number of Blackpersonnel in white organizations

- eatened the professional level ofnewspapers. But this only means

= employment opportunities forJust as the Black media expert

z: equal right to employment, the. community has an equal right to be

served by the media and to have accessto them.

For obvious reasons, the white mediaexpert-even with the best of intentions-can only know the American Black ex-perience from the outside. The Black me-dia expert with a pervasive Black con-sciousness knows the Black experiencefrom within, and he or she can use tech-nical skills to see to it that the media re-main true to that experience.

Every media expert is responsible tothe media industry only insofar as it alsoserves the specific community or com-munities and the larger public. This canform the basis for self-responsibility. As inmost American industries, the media in-dustry has a way of making employeesfeel that they are expendable. Therefore,the training of mass media personnelmust give the individual a sense of per-sonal achievement and fulfillment.

New possibilities for Black media ex-perts are opening up and will continue toimprove in the future. These possibilitiesare not only to be found in the traditionalBlack press but in such newer techno-logical fields as cassette systems andtelevision recording methods. A Blackmedia industry is actually developing.Blacks as individuals and as groups aremaking efforts to purchase television sta-tions, and Black film companies are com-ing into existence. A major area, one thatreflects the newer technology, is theBlack-owned cable television outlets.Efforts to establish and to operate suchcompanies are already underway in NewYork,San Diego, Santa Barbara, and othermajor cities.

The place for the Black media expertin the 21st century is now being prepared.In order to find that place, Blacks must betrained not only in technical skills but inresponsibility as well. And a sense of re-sponsibility without the management skillnecessary to make it work is meaningless.Technical skill without a sense of respon-sibility is dangerous, given the immenseinfluence that the mass media have onpeople's lives.

In the future, institutions of higher 23

leaming will have to recognize their obli-gation to provide for this vital sense ofresponsibility. In the case of the Blacktrainee, this will mean courses in the his-tory of Blacks in the media, the Blackpress, Black culture and the Black ex-perience. But this must be supplementedby economics, management and admin-istrative programs, courses on incor-porating and where to go for funding as-sistance. Schools such as Howard Uni-versity must constantly re-evaluate theircurricula.

Without such training, the Black mediaexpert of the future will have gained intechnical knowledge but will have losthumanity. The future task calls for encour-agement, hope, support for the means ofstruggle, development of Black talentsand self-awareness, and the transmissionto American society of a true image of theBlack experience. 0

Abdulai Vandi, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at theSchool of Communications, Howard University

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