Civilrights.org

This week is the "2009 Media Violence Fast", an annual week-long campaign that encourages people to take a stand against violent media by making a conscious decision to not watch or listen to it.  The campaign is sponsored by the So We Might See Coalition, a diverse group of faith organizations that includes the United Church of Christ, U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, the Islamic Society of North America, and others.

This year's focus is on the increasing amount of anti-immigrant hate speech in media, particularly in television news and talk radio.  You can go to the campaign's website to sign a petition asking the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Commerce to conduct an inquiry into hate speech and update a government report that collects statistics and information about the connection between hate speech and hate crimes.

The digital divide is large and shows no signs of decreasing. It compounds the racial disparities found in education and household earnings and impacts heavily on standard of living. The broadband initiatives contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) could help to bridge that gap by making the internet more accessible to all Americans.

Blacks and Latinos are much less likely to have access to home computers than are white, non-Latinos (50.6 and 48.7 percent compared to 74.6 percent in 2003). They are also less likely to have internet access at home (40.5 and 38.1 percent compared to 67.3 percent). According to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund report "Are We Really a Nation Online? Ethnic and Racial Disparities in Access to Technology and Their Consequences," data suggests that teenagers who have access to home computers are 6 to 8 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school than teenagers who do not have home computers.

The Recovery Act appropriated $7.2 billion to the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) to invest in broadband infrastructure and access. This has led to the creation of two programs with different aims: the RUS Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP), which will make loans and grants for broadband infrastructure projects in rural areas; and the NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), which will provide grants to fund broadband infrastructure, public computer centers, and sustainable broadband adoption projects.

The Future of Music Coalition, a coalition of members of the music, technology, public policy, and intellectual property law communities, has launched a campaign to educate Americans about the role low-power FM (LPFM) radio plays in diversifying the airwaves, particularly since it provides the opportunity for more minority- and female-owned stations to receive licenses.

LPFM stations are non-commercial, community-based radio stations that operate at very low power and have a range of only a few miles.  They provide news and information that address specific interests of local communities and play an important role in broadcasting emergency information.  LPFM radio also supplies a platform for underserved musical genres, minority and religious groups, and offers a forum for debate about important local issues.

The coalition is pushing Congress to pass the Local Community Radio Act of 2009, which will lift the restrictions on the number of licenses the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can give to LPFM stations.   In a recent report, LCCR said that lifting this restriction will provide an opportunity for greater diversity of ownership and content among LPFM radio stations.

In this video from the campaign, poet and activist Saul Williams talks about how community radio provides opportunities to hear different types of music and community-based information that you don't necessarily get from commercial radio.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is working to collect better data on minority and female ownership of television and radio stations.

In an order issued yesterday, the FCC increased the number of broadcast stations that are required to file ownership reports to the FCC. Previously, many small stations, as well as some owned by individuals rather than corporations, were not required to file, thereby overlooking a potentially significant group of minority and female owners.

"The sad truth is that we simply do not know the precise state of minority and female ownership in this country," acting FCC Chairman Michael J. Copps said in a statement.  "The official term for it is 'we don't have a clue.' We will never get to where we need to go unless we know where we are."

According to the FCC, the new requirements will help the agency assess and promote diversity of ownership in the broadcast industry.

Copps, who was named acting chairman by President Obama in January, has for years expressed his dismay that past efforts to increase diversity in broadcast ownership had been hindered by a lack of accurate data on minority and female ownership.

The deficiencies in the FCC's data collection methods had previously been identified by the Government Accountability Office, as well as by media reform and civil rights organizations.

Today, NPR ran a piece about the success of ethnic media outlets - radio, newspaper and television companies that cater to a specific ethnic or racial minority - despite the fact that many mainstrem media outlets are folding. 

Ethnic media organizations are doing well despite the recession because they have tapped into a growing audience, second- and third-generation immigrants, and are adapting to meet the needs of their growing audiences, like the ability to get news on social networking sites.