Category Archives: television

MTV Networks A "Diversity" Champion?

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

The latest from Lisa Fager.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Lisa Fager, Lisa@IndustryEars.com
202 253-0435

Please SIGN PETITION and pass on.

MTV NETWORKS A ‘DIVERSITY’ CHAMPION?
Kaitz Foundation Cites MTV Networks a Model Network for Diversity Programming (Stop laughing!)

WASHINGTON—The Walter Kaitz Foundation has announced that on Wednesday, Sept. 13, it will honor MTV Networks with the Diversity Champion Award during its 23rd Annual Dinner at the Hilton New York in Manhattan.  

A press release by the Kaitz Foundation describes MTV Networks as promoting “culturally relevant programs [that] are the most outward demonstration of their dedication to diversity.” Additionally, the Foundation cited that MTV Networks provides its viewers “with content that has global appeal” and emphasizes their programming that “strives to meet the needs of diverse audiences.” 

As a think tank group that focuses on the impact of media on children and communities of color, Industry Ears is perplexed by the Kaitz Foundation’s choice.

The following programs are but a few current examples of MTV Networks’ “diverse” programming:

  • “Where My Dogs At?” – a Saturday afternoon cartoon show on MTV2 with an episode in which African American women are portrayed as dogs on leashes (i.e., “bitches”) and who defecate on the floor.
  • “Yo Momma” – a tasteless and insensitive show on MTV pitting teens against each other to spew racist and hate-speech insults for crowd reaction.  MTV refers to the pitted groups as “rivalries.”
  • “Flavor of Love” – A VH1 show that proffers exploitative and demeaning images of women through what is described on the VH1 website as “sensational, raunchy and outrageous” entertainment.
  • Music Videos – According to some researchers, MTV networks consistent airing of narrowly focused music videos are particularly damaging to children’s self-concept and social attitudes.

Do these examples reflect the action of a “diversity champion”? 

Historically MTV Networks has been criticized for its lack of programming diversity and its promotion of content that is below community standards. 

The Walter Kaitz Foundation’s choice to honor MTV Networks is perplexing.

Industry Ears encourages all concerned citizens to Take Action by signing our online petition to let the Walter Kaitz Foundation’s Executive Director, David Porter, know that MTV Networks is not the model for programming diversity and we hope that this is not an exemplar for other cable networks to emulate.    

Go here to sign the petition.    

The petition will be hand delivered to the Walter Kaitz Foundation on Thursday, Sept. 21st.  The last day to sign petition is Sept. 20.  

About Industry Ears 

Established in 2004 by co-founders Lisa Fager and Paul Porter, Industry Ears (www.IndustryEars.org ) is a new generation think tank focused on media’s impact on children and communities of color. IE is dedicated to addressing and finding solutions to negative and harmful content through media education, research, advocacy, public policy and continuous dialogue with industry stakeholders.

Obama 'Endorsed' By Biography Channel? And Why Don't Women Get Better Political Roles On Tee Vee?

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

An interesting CampusProgress.org article that I thought you’d want to read.

Biography’s Unnatural Women: On and off TV, men get better political roles than women

By Sarah Laskow, Yale University
Wednesday, September 6, 2006

The names are already familiar: Clinton, McCain, Condi. Inevitably, the next presidential election will be about celebrity: The media has already begun obsessing about the details of the event with all the ebullience of E! before the Oscars.

Unexpectedly, that media includes the Biography Channel, which seems to have implicitly endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Recently a series of paired profiles aired under the rubric “Then & Now,” and with a heavy hand matched Obama with John F. Kennedy. The all too obvious implication was that Obama is a sort of inevitable President.

The Biography Channel trades in celebrity; naturally they would prefer that the candidate with the handsomest face win the nation’s highest office. But the “Then & Now” series distinctly understands what it takes to be president, and demonstrates why Obama has a better chance of being elected in 2008 than either of the high profile women who might run.

There’s a key moment in each hour-long Biography program, and it comes precisely at the 30-minute mark. This juncture always portrays pain or absolute triumph, as when, in a typical Hollywood bio, Vivian Leigh (best known as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind) becomes mentally ill. Right before the half-hour, after the usual obstacles to success have been overcome and accolades won, a wide-eyed picture of the subject will take up the screen as the emotion intensifies. The camera will close in just a bit more. At this moment, the text of the inane narrator ceases to communicate anything at all (though he’s still talking), because the only thing that matters is the pair of eyes on the screen. From the still frame, the celebrity gazes out, and for that one moment, succeeds in telling his or her own story.

This moment works wonderfully in Biography’s profiles of politicians. President Kennedy and Senator Obama, when playing their roles well, are idealists who might actually accomplish some of their goals. With all of the real political compromise edited out and only the personal motivation left standing, you can read into their eyes all the hope in the world.

Click here for the entire article

I (HEART) Katie, But What's Really Going On…..

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

…….is that, for good or for ill, she’s taken the first hour of “The Today Show” to the evening with her! LOL!

(Well, CBS and She With The Great Legs wanted to change the game. So, okay……. Maybe she’s actually following those suggestions folks made earlier this year.  I have a big crush on Katie, so I’ll just ignore the spinning Murrow bones many media critics have been talking about. [You mean they HAVEN’T been spinning since Nancy Kerrigan and O.J.? :)] Somewhere in Heaven, I believe that Peter is doing a REAL newscast, and I wish I could see it. )

I began watching “Today” a decade or so ago because I very much liked the “hard news” first 20 minutes, where she had no problem opening a polite-but-firm can or two of whup-ass on an interviewee. So this transition will eventually work out for everyone who cares about this kind of thing. 

Some journalists of color have criticized the lack of racial diversity in the new newscasts’ on-air correspondents over the last two days, but I did like the Latina she used in last night’s “Free Speech” segment.

*******

And here’s a Post-Script, from “Today’s WORD On Journalism”:

TODAY’S WORD ON JOURNALISM–Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006

More on Katie Couric:
“I’m always happy when a woman succeeds. Even if
you think anchoring is stupid, which it is, and
the evening news a pile of propagandistic
claptrap, which it mostly is, it’s good to see
another bastion of male supremacy fall by the
wayside. Anything that gets women thinking they
can do anything is good! And there is the simple
issue of fairness–of rewarding women for their
work on equal terms with men. It’s another crack
in the glass ceiling and every woman who’s come
up against that should be glad. If the news is a
bit fluffier under Katie C, you can bet that’s
because CBS has done market research showing that
will up their ratings. Unfortunately, most people
are very interested in Tom Cruise and Katie
Holmes’ baby.”
   –Katha Pollitt, writer, the morning after
Couric’s debut as CBS Evening News anchor, 9/6/06.

* * * * *
TODAY’S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service”
sent to the 1,500 or so misguided volunteer
subscribers around the planet. If you have
recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and
don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe.” Or if
you want to afflict someone else, send me the
email address and watch the fun begin.
(Disclaimer: While I just quote ’em, I don’t
necessarily endorse ’em. All, in theory, contain
at least a kernel of insight.)

Ted Pease, WORDmeister & Professor of Interesting Stuff
Utah State University, Logan, Utah
http://www.usu.edu/journalism/faculty/pease/
To receive Today’s Word on Journalism, send “subscribe” to
tpease@cc.usu.edu
See the WORD online at the Hard News Café: http://www.hardnewscafe.usu.edu

A Glimpse Of The Futu—er, Present? :)

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

A couple of months or so ago, my friend and comrade Jared Ball and I wrote about the need for a “B-SPAN”—a Black C-SPAN that would serve the people’s needs.

So I was more than slightly intrigued when I found the following in my email box this morning:

Wi-Fi TV Launches Black and African-American Internet TV and Chat as Digital Divide Closes

Wi-Fi TV Leads the Way in Bringing Black Themes to the Changing Face of Television and Millions of Black Internet Users

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — (MARKET WIRE) — August 23, 2006 — Wi-Fi TV Inc. (PINKSHEETS: WTVN) today became the first Internet TV provider in the world to create channel categories for Black and African American TV channels and live chat.

“As live interactive TV comes to Internet enabled PCs, laptops, cellular phones and mobile devices, and the nature of TV itself is re-invented, Wi-Fi TV will work to make the growing economic power, compelling history and great cultural richness of African-Americans a vital part of the mix,” said Alex Kanakaris, Chairman of Wi-Fi TV Inc.

Wi-Fi TV (www.Wi-FiTV.com) will provide extensive links to the Wi-Fi TV Black and African-American channel pages from throughout its live interactive TV web site, and will place channels and content pertaining to Black themes in many different Wi-Fi TV categories, including Education, Entertainment, Politics, News, Music and History.

“Wi-Fi TV is taking the lead in bringing African American live TV content to the Internet, in connecting Internet TV with African Americans and in providing education, culture and entertainment for an African American audience,” said Mr. Kanakaris. “We are actively selling Wi-Fi TV Channels to the African American community and are truly excited about the kind of content we will be able to provide that old fashioned analog TV never will,” he added.

According to the New York Times (March 31, 2006, article by Michael Marriott) the “Digital Divide” is closing as Blacks turn to the Internet. “African-Americans are steadily gaining access to and ease with the Internet, signaling a remarkable closing of the ‘digital divide’ that many experts had worried would be a crippling disadvantage in achieving success,” the newspaper reported.

According to the New York Times:

— African-Americans, even those at the lower end of the economic scale,
are making significant gains in online adoption.
— Organizations that serve African-Americans are turning to the Internet
to reach out to them.
— The sharpest growth is among young people but African-Americans of
various ages are increasing usage as well.

According to a Pew national survey of people 18 and older, completed in February 2006, 74 percent of whites go online, 61 percent of African-Americans do and 80 percent of English-speaking Hispanic-Americans report using the Internet.

In a similar Pew survey in 1998, just 42 percent of white American adults said they used the Internet while only 23 percent of African-American adults did so. Forty percent of English-speaking Hispanic-Americans said they used the Internet at that time.

About Wi-Fi TV, Inc.

Wi-Fi TV can be seen over the Internet in the United States, Latin America and globally. 300 channels of live TV programming, Country and Category specific breaking news and free voice over IP phone calls are available at www.Wi-FiTV.com.

Wi-Fi TV viewers from 130 countries around the world are tracked on the home page (www.Wi-FiTV.com) by the independent NeoTracker. Wi-Fi TV, Inc. has opened a new content and technology demo room for the press in Newport Beach, California. For further information contact Colby Marceau, (949) 716-9397, info@wi-fitv.com.

Hope You're Reading……….

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

…………….BlackAmericaWeb‘s five-part series on Katrina, One Year Later.

While you’re there, check out BAW’s article on the current state of Black television.

I’m beginning to no longer remember a time in which we didn’t have immediately accessible, national Black-generated print reporting. It’s a good feeling for this Black media historian and AFRO and NNPA News Service alum. 🙂

Katrina Appointment Television

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

And then the waters came. They clearly haven’t left our psyches yet—and they shouldn’t.

Anyway, Richard Prince has, as usual, done a great public service. The “Journal-isms” columnist compiled this list of Katrina network and cable coverage. The electronic onslaught starts tomorrow or so.

(Also, if you missed Spike’s documentary, the entire thing—both parts, all four acts—will air on HBO again Tuesday night.) For those with satellite or digital cable, here’s the full schedule on where and when it’ll air on HBO’s “family” of channels AFTER Tuesday.

The *NEW* Syndicated BET: The "E" Stands For "Enterprise"

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

So Black Enterprise finally has made the leap into Tee Vee. (I’m sure someone at Essence with a long memory is going, “So what? We had a nationally syndicated show years ago.”) ‘Member it? Nope? Okay, moving on, then…….. 🙂

Buying “America’s Black Forum” and re-shaping it can only been seen as a good thing. The program’s only claim to fame in its years on broadcast life-support was that it was a national mainstream platform for Armstrong Williams and Niger Innis to parry their conservative views with crusading—and graying—Black liberals Julian Bond and Deborah Mathis. *YAWN*. It’ll be interesting to see if Ed Gordon and Co. will create something that will have a purpose beyond being an early-morning FCC requirement.

Peter's Farewell Deals With Blacks And AIDS

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

Damn, I miss Peter Jennings. He helmed what was then the only (relatively-free) bullshit-free newscast. I still watch what’s now called “World News With Charles Gibson” still out of loyalty. We’ll see how long this loyalty lasts when I get the option of checking out kick-ass Katie (sans those extraordinary legs :)) on CBS at the same Bat-time.

Peter’s last project, which ABC finished up for him, is a prime-time “special” (the dreaded “D” word was banished from network news divisions a LONG TIME AGO) on African-Americans and AIDS. It’s scheduled to air on Thursday at 10 p.m. Those of us who constantly complain about how the white boys of the internationally-known alphabet either don’t cover our issues, or mis-cover them when they do, should be by their Tee Vees or Tee-Vos.