Black Radio Shows Lead The Way Bringing Attention To Issues In The Black Community

“Oh, Oh, Oh, It’s The Tom Joyner Morning Show!” How many of you hear this jingle introduction to one of the most popular syndicated black radio shows in America on your way to work every morning?

When clips from Senator Barack Obama’s interview on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, with journalist Roland Martin, aired on CNN’s evening news on Monday evening, it became clear that what African American journalists have to say is becoming increasingly important to the American public as a whole. Journalism veterans, like Roland Martin, whose popularity and fame is steadily rising through media outlets like CNN and Radio One, play an important role in how the news is delivered, not only news about the Black community, but how news is delivered by a Black journalist, through mainstream media.

And we can’t forget Senator Obama’s biggest cheerleader (other than his wife Michelle), Oprah Winfrey. Aside from the fact that Oprah is a very influential and inspiring African American journalist in her own right, her star power and global influence helped to catapult Barack Obama into the Rock Star that, his image and what he represents, has become today.

(Oprah’s interview with Senator Obama: http://abcnews.go.com/politics/vote2008/Story?id=3965092&page=1)

And despite the controversy that recently surrounded veteran journalist, Gwen Ifill about her book, The Breakthrough: Politics in the Age of Obama, she remains a staple on the Public Broadcasting System, as a host for The Washington Week, now in its 40th year, and The McNeal Lehrer News Hour, and one of the few African-American journalists to have the opportunity to host a National Presidential Debate. Having an African American face as the moderator of such an important event, speaks volumes about how important it is to include African Americans in the middle of the conversations, writing and giving commentary on important issues in politics that affect the Black community, instead of on the outside looking in.

In 2007, syndicated African American radio and television personality, Michael Baisden, also gained national fame when he increased awareness of the Jena 6 case, in which six young black men in Jena, Louisiana were charged with attempted murder and conspiracy, for their participation in a fight with white teens who allegedly hung a ‘Noose’ from a tree after a confrontation with the young men. The white teens were left to go on with their young high school lives, while the six young Black men were left to fend for themselves against the criminal justice system. This case would have been left on the fringes if not for the attention brought to it. Michael Baisden is, one of many, who is credited with bringing national attention to the Jena 6 case by encouraging, not only African Americans, but all Americans to converge upon the tiny town of Jena, Louisiana along with other civil rights leaders like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Baisden was cited for spearheading this “movement” by many majority white mainstream media outlets, which in turn, brought attention to Jena by the mainstream media, which might not otherwise have happened, had an outlet like CNN not paid attention to Baisden.

Now, this is not to say that African American journalists have not played a part in bringing national attention to issues that are important to the black community in the past, because indeed, they have been doing this for years. Journalists like Ida B. Wells first brought national attention to the string of lynchings that plagued the South in the early 1900’s and John H. Johnson who first brought attention to Black lifestyle, pop culture, and Black Leadership through Jet Magazine and Ebony Magazine. Johnson also brought us the haunting images of Coretta Scott King as she prepared to bury her husband, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., providing not just African Americans, but the entire world with yet another image of the results of the effects of hate in America, when one of our national leaders is slain.

However, in recent years, when ratings and sweeps weeks are what becomes important to the major networks, it’s important for African American journalists to continue to use their influence with the still mostly white owned and controlled mainstream media to get these outlets to focus on stories that not only affect the Black community but, in turn, can affect the world on a whole. When black women and children go missing, it’s still a struggle to get the “BIG” networks to give the stories of these grieving families coverage. It has been the work of Black journalists, radio show hosts, and community leaders who have insisted that shows like “Nancy Grace” on CNN, who often talks about missing children, increase their awareness and coverage of missing children cases in the Black community.

It will continue to be up to Black journalists to draw attention to these missing Americans and to the issues in the Black community so that these stories become as common to report as the latest antics of the likes of Paris Hilton. I realize that was probably not the best comparison, however, I got your attention, and you get my point. People like Paris Hilton make other people pay attention, despite how frivolous her antics might be. As long as the mainstream media continues to be just that, mainstream, and continues to be where most Americans get their news, then it will be up to Black journalists to continue to create partnerships with the mainstream media so that attention is brought to the issues that affect the Black community. These issues need a voice.

We need Black journalists to be that voice.

media.think
Kellea