Month: June 2016

Hundreds of newspapers have disappeared in the last 15 years and readership is on the decline. No newspaper is immune from the migration of readership to online platforms, dwindling ad revenues, fragmented audiences and even reduced attention spans.

Even national-recognized newspapers with celebrated histories like “The New York Times” and “The Washington Post” have retrenched in the face of these mounting economic pressures. Many regional and community newspapers – including some members of the historic Black Press – are barely hanging on.

The ramifications of this can be profound. Local publications have long served as the glue that binds communities together. They have served as the microphone for voices that would otherwise be marginalized and the spotlight on the stories that seldom make it onto the front pages of major newspapers and magazines. For African-American communities, the publications that make up the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) have served as that voice across the nation.

Yet, we are being told that the silver lining is that journalism isn’t disappearing – and won’t be any time soon. Rather, it has just moved to an electronic form. Not only that, there are also more opportunities to tell more stories and express more opinions than ever before. Some have said that we should not mourn the loss of the local newspaper and that we should instead explore the myriad possibilities offered by the new media. Or so goes the mantra.

In reality, this upbeat vision obscures the threat that new media poses to community journalism. And that threat is coming from a most unlikely place – the popular social media platforms that so many of us love. Chief among them is Facebook.

Like many other publishers who have recently written on Facebook’s growing power over the media and what Americans read, we too are alarmed with one company having such dominance in news aggregation. Online hubs like Facebook are able to engineer which stories catch on. And they’re able to decide by algorithmic fiat, which bylines, viewpoints and subject matter is promoted to the masses.

This is a new kind of power. It is unlike any power a media company has ever had before. A study last year reported that Facebook drove 43 percent of all the traffic to the top 400 news sites. That’s almost half coming from one powerful source!

What’s more, we don’t know how Facebook’s operations work. The tech company isn’t transparent in its methods. So we don’t know whether the viewpoints of Black publishers are heard or if there is a bias against our views. Without knowing how Facebook’s “Trending Topics” or other algorithms are used in promoting stories, the owners of Black-owned newspapers, magazines and other media are left only to wonder why the stories our outlets produce are relegated to the margins – if they are acknowledged at all. Our readers are at the mercy of powers unheard and unseen as never before.

With 63 percent of Americans and 74 percent of millennials going to Facebook as their source of news, Facebook’s power is only likely to grow in the coming years. And there is something ironic about that. The mainstream media was once derided as unimaginative and monolithic, largely because it had long been dominated by three TV networks and a handful of newspapers in large cities. The Internet was supposed to change all that by bringing a diversity of viewpoints to the table. While this has indeed happened, the emergence of one or even a handful of powerful gatekeepers like Facebook raises profound questions about the nature of news in this country in the years to come.

With so much power in the hands of one company, we risk surrendering our own decisions about what is or isn’t newsworthy to a gatekeeper who may someday push only stories it deems worthy. And that’s a troubling possibility that should worry us all.

It is time regulators took a hard look at Facebook and its news aggregation and promotion practices in an effort to bring some much needed transparency to the new media king. The democratization of the media could be on a collision course with decidedly anti-democratic and arbitrary forces. Think of the proverbial tree that falls silently in the forest because no one is there to hear it. Will Facebook have the power to allow entire forests to fall without much notice?

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) is a trade group that represents more than 200 Black-owned media companies in the United States. As the largest and most influential Black-owned media resource in America, the NNPA delivers news, information, and commentary to over 20 million people each week. To learn more about the NNPA, please visit NNPA.org.

(NNPA) — I have always had enormous admiration for Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.) and that admiration increased exponentially when I watched him led dozens of his congressional colleagues to sit-in on the floor of Congress to force a vote on gun control. As the supercilious Paul Ryan called for “decorum” (where is the decorum in a man walking into a nightclub with an automatic weapon and gunning 49 people down), determined Democrats disrupted proceedings in the House of Representatives. I say, “Right on!”

YouTube

Democrats stage sit-in on House floor to force gun vote

Congressman Lewis tweeted, “Sometimes you have to get in the way. You have to make some noise by speaking up and speaking out against injustice & inaction.”

Congressman Lewis tweeted, “Sometimes you have to get in the way. You have to make some noise by speaking up and speaking out against injustice & inaction.” He is frustrated, as are many voters, about the fact that Congress has failed to take a position on background checks and the availability of assault weapons. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is equally frustrated, saying, “Moments of silence aren’t substitute for the action needed on gun violence.” Republicans have attempted to deflect, suggesting that the focus should be on ISIS and terrorism, not gun violence. But the Newtown, Conn., shooter was not a terrorist connected to ISIS. Indeed, troubled White men have perpetrated many of our recent mass shootings with access to guns, not ISIS loyal terrorists. No matter. Can’t Congress walk and chew gum at the same time? Can’t they focus both on ISIS and on our out-of-control gun culture?

Nobody is talking about repealing the Second Amendment (though that might not be a bad idea). Still, the “right to bear arms” does not mean the unfettered right to bear all kinds of arms. Nobody needs an automatic weapon. And anyone deemed dangerous or mentally ill should never be allowed to purchase a gun. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is an irresponsible organization that elevates the right for any random citizen to own and bear arms over the right of other citizens to survive. Members of Congress need to cut the cord from that organization. Voters need to back them up.

One might think the congressional sit-in has yielded few results. House Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the plug on C-SPAN coverage and dismissed the sit-in as a “stunt.” Still, responding to the fact that 90 percent of Americans support background checks those who sat in showed enormous courage. Taking advantage of social media, they broadcast their sit-in using Periscope, reminding Ryan that he might control C-SPAN, but he doesn’t control all broadcast.

Ryan was insulting and condescending in calling the sit-in a “stunt,” and he reminded me of the many reasons I so admire Congressman John Lewis. Was the Atlanta Congressman’s skull fractured in a “stunt” in 1965 on Bloody Sunday, when his civil rights activity caused rabid Whites to attack him? Lewis pulled no stunt, he stood for what he believed in then. He is standing, firmly in his belief now, and using the time-honored tactic of protest to bring attention to the important cause of gun control.

Congressman Lewis and his colleagues were not successful in forcing votes on gun control. But they were successful in shutting the House down. Speaker Ryan was forced to adjourn Congress before he planned to, and Republicans sulked off like thieves in the night. Democrats held the floor hours after the Republicans scurried away, like hungry rats. No vote was forced, but a point was made.

Congress goes back to work on July 5. People should urge their representatives to take an appropriate vote to reduce access to guns, especially for those on a “no fly” list. People should also give Congressman John Lewis a “shout out” and appreciation for his leadership. He has taken the tactics of the 60s and taken them into the 21st century. He has reminded us that “stunts” have their purpose. His unassailable moral courage is admirable. Thank you, Congressman Lewis, for your activism in the 1960s and now. You are much appreciated!

Julianne Malveaux is an economist and author. Her latest offering “Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy” is available via juliannemalveaux.com or amazon.com.