Ethnic and community media have an influential role in developing the Massachusetts we live in today. They are an entry point for new immigrants to join America's civic and political culture. They also help keep people in touch with important local and international affairs. They help raise the profile of people and issues that may otherwise be overlooked by the larger community. Studies show that nationally, the ethnic media are the growing edge of the news business. One in four adults in America regularly consults ethnic media, according to a national survey by Sergio Bendixen for New America Media. Yet too often ethnic media lack professional training and access, struggle for funding, and don’t get the support or attention they deserve.
The Center on Media and Society at the University of Massachusetts Boston has created a comprehensive initiative to improve the quality and vitality of ethnic and community media in New England. The Ethnic Media Project offers periodic workshops, conferences and a free online database of Boston-area ethnic media (www.mediaandsociety.org). The new ethnic news wire and internship are part of this ongoing project.
The goals of the Ethnic Media Project are to:
- Offer support to local ethnic media, both with training and other resources, so they can do their best, important work for the communities they serve, including all of New England
- Highlight and build respect for original ethnic media content in the mainstream media and with advertisers
- Build a new generation of media leaders from ethnic backgrounds
- Highlight important issues in our ethnic and immigrant communities that may be overlooked by the mainstream media and political leadership
- Enhance the entire region with better communication and knowledge across ethnic boundaries
The Ethnic Media Project was launched at a community-wide brainstorming conference April 7, 2004 at UMass Boston featuring Sandy Close, a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award winner who founded the national New America Media project, Angel Bermudez of the Boston Foundation, Callie Crossley of the "Eyes on the Prize," Bill Forry, Managing Editor of Reporter Newspapers, Charlot Lucien of local Haitian radio; Alberto Vasallo III of El Mundo, and Betty Kit-Fong Yau, local Chinese radio entrepreneur. Initial support for the project came from Fleet Bank (a division of Bank of America) and the Boston Foundation.
The Ethnic Media Project continues to work closely with the national New America Media Project, speaking at national conferences at Columbia University and UMass Amherst, and managing New England regional participation in New America Media's first national "ethnic Pulitzer prizes" (not formally affiliated with the Pulitzers) awarded Nov. 14, 2006 in Washington, D.C. These awards are part of the Center's effort to support best practice and community development across ethnic boundaries.
The Ethnic Media Project hosted a Boston City Council candidates' debate with questions from an ethnic media panel in October, 2005. The debate was covered in an extensive editorial in the Boston Globe. "The only thing that seems certain now is that any successful candidate seeking citywide office needs to keep busy building bridges, not barriers," the editorial noted. Funding for the debate was provided by UMass Boston Chancellor Michael Collins.
The Center's conference on "The Future of the Ethnic News Business" in March, 2006 won appreciative reviews from ethnic media, mainstream media and marketing professionals who participated. "Call it historic, call it bold, but most of all call it a great idea coming from the Center on Media and Society at UMass-Boston," wrote Miryam Wiley in the MetroWest Daily News. "Journalists representing at least six of the multiple languages spoken all around Boston debated with mainstream media and top marketing professionals about different ways to collaborate."
The Ethnic Media Project is directed by an advisory board of volunteer community and media leaders.