African-American newspapers cover full spectrum of black communities
By Alicia Benjamin-Samuels
freedomforum.org
02.26.01
One of a series of articles about ethnic newspapers — how they cover their communities, and what mainstream newspapers can learn from their approach.
Slavery motivated John B. Russwurm and Samuel E. Cornish to publish Freedom's Journal, the first black newspaper in the United States in 1827. Now, 136 years after slavery was abolished, African-American newspapers still exist.
Reading newspapers published by whites in the 1800s was at times like reading the most-wanted list. Ads seeking runaway slaves were a mainstay in newspapers published 150 years ago. For example, two Hartford Courant reporters, Jesse Leavenworth and Kevin Canfield, reported last July that the Courant regularly ran ads seeking the return of slaves from the newspaper's inception in 1764 until Connecticut outlawed slavery in 1848.
But in 1827, Freedom's Journal was a lifeline. Russwurm and Cornish's newspaper, founded on March 16, 1827, in New York City, was used as a forum to discuss the abolition movement and how blacks could survive in a threatening environment.
Today, African-Americans turn to black newspapers for different reasons.
Cultural, community focus
Although mainstream newspapers are making efforts to cover black communities more thoroughly and large numbers of African-Americans read major daily newspapers, many continue to read specialized publications to keep abreast of the events and issues that affect their lives.
African-Americans continue to go, in large numbers, to African-American newspapers to read about themselves, not the majority culture on which mainstream newspapers focus.
Journalists representing The Amsterdam News in New York City, The Philadelphia Tribune and The Indianapolis Recorder talked with freedomforum.org about how their publications cover their communities vs. how mainstream newspapers in their respective cities cover African-American areas.
Anare Holmes, editor and reporter for the weekly Indianapolis Recorder, says African-Americans can go to specialized newspapers to find the information they need. "Like cable television, print media is now about niche," he said.
The Recorder has a circulation of 14,000 and a readership of 90,000.
Holmes mentioned an article he wrote about how AIDS is affecting black women in disproportionate numbers. "We wanted to know why black women are being infected in such high numbers," he said.
"Researchers have said it's because they're having sex with black men who engage in homosexual activities outside of the relationship but are in denial. They don't see themselves as gay. I haven't seen anything about this in mainstream papers."
Brutality and other problems with police, racial discrimination complaints, black business development and community issues are other areas that African-American newspapers tend to cover more thoroughly than the mainstream press, said Holmes, who has been with the Recorder for a year and a half.
"We have more of a community element," he said.
Police issues
Herb Boyd, a free-lance reporter for the weekly The Amsterdam News for 16 years, also says mainstream newspapers don't cover issues concerning law enforcement activity and African-American communities. He said police brutality is an issue that's consistently missed in majority newspapers. "We do it with more consistency," Boyd said. "We'll stay on it and nurse it to death. We're like a bulldog on it."
The Amsterdam News, a Harlem-based publication, covers Harlem events more intensely than the mainstream publications, Boyd said. He said the mainstream media especially overlook Harlem businesses and business people. The News has a circulation of 35,000 and a readership of 140,000.
"Our paper wants to present a balance of coverage," Boyd said. "We want to know who the brilliant leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs are. Who is trying to make the community better?"
In the 1980s The Philadelphia Tribune, published four times a week, covered, in detail, a racial incident in northeast Philadelphia that one of the city's daily newspapers treated in only three paragraphs, said Kendall Wilson, a 22-year veteran Tribune reporter. The case involved a 14-year-old African-American boy who was attacked and killed by a group of whites.
"A young female black reporter from the daily paper called us in tears," said Wilson. "Nothing was being done and she was upset about it."
The Tribune's story discussed the lack of police attention to the case and how the district attorney had not arrested any suspects, he said.
Two mainstream newspapers in the city, the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer, also have ignored many social events in African-American communities, said Wilson. "Black organizations enjoy reading about themselves," he said.
The Philadelphia Tribune, founded by Christopher J. Perry Sr. in 1884, has a circulation of 125,000 and a readership of 300,000.
Wilson says the two major daily newspapers were less critical of Edward Rendell, Philadelphia's former mayor, than they are of the city's new mayor, John Street, who is African-American. "They go through his performances with a fine-tooth comb and grudgingly write about his achievements," he said.
All four journalists agreed that mainstream newspapers in their areas tend to highlight the bad news in African-American communities. They don't often give good news in those areas the same attention, they say.
"They don't hesitate to put a front-page story in the paper when someone is shot or a disaster happens in African-American communities," said Ronnetta Slaughter, who has worked as a reporter for the Recorder for almost a year. "I want to write about the good things in the community ... if people are getting involved in their community or doing things to uplift the community, then we write about it."
The daily newspapers in New York also tend to focus more on tragedies and crime in Harlem, rather than human-interest stories, said Boyd. "If it bleeds it leads," he said. "We don't hear anything about the successes or victories that occur. We get the dark side. We don't get the bright side of Harlem."
The New York Daily News and The New York Times used to have a Harlem beat, Boyd said. But now reporters from the daily papers go to Harlem only "if something's going down or somebody got shot. Otherwise, you don't see them with any regularity. We fill the void. We give the day-to-day coverage."
The mainstream press often has preconceived notions about a story before investigating it, Boyd said. "To the New York Post, Al Sharpton is the enemy," he said, adding that the Post consistently portrays Sharpton as a caricature.
On the other hand, The Amsterdam News says that "[New York Mayor] Giuliani is the devil" on a regular basis, says Boyd, running an editorial on the front page of every issue. "So you know where we stand ... you know there's not going to be anything good about Giuliani in any issue."
Some progress in mainstream
Although the four journalists interviewed said the mainstream newspapers in their areas had a long way to go to adequately cover African-American communities, Holmes, of the Recorder, said the mainstream daily in his city, The Indianapolis Star, has made more of an effort to cover issues of interest to black people since Gannett acquired the paper last August.
"There was a time when you were hard pressed to find things of interest to African-Americans in the Star," Holmes said. "Now you can find more features and profiles including black people in pictures."
But money is the driving factor for all newspapers, say Boyd and Holmes. Mainstream newspapers are bottom-line oriented, they say.
"The bottom line is that this is a business," said Holmes. "You get your money from advertisers and they pay the newspaper to reach a certain type of audience.
"Many times stories about African-Americans aren't budgeted in, nor do they have the interest."
The weakening of mainstream newspapers can serve as an advantage for specialized newspapers. "If the mainstream papers covered what we do, there wouldn't be a need for us to be in existence," said Holmes.
What can mainstream newspapers learn from African-American newspapers to cover those communities better?
When daily newspapers cover topics such as health issues, they should not only discuss how the illness affects the majority group, but they should also talk about how it affects African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Latinos as well, said Slaughter. "We (at The Indianapolis Recorder) also write about issues that affect everyone."
"The mainstream papers can do investigative stories on topics that we've covered," says Boyd of The Amsterdam News. "They have the money and clout to do it.
"One of the shortcomings of many black newspapers is that they don't have the capital and staff to do lots of investigative coverage," Boyd said.
Newsroom diversity a key
Holmes and Wilson, of the Tribune, agreed that creating more diverse newsrooms would enhance mainstream newspapers' coverage of African-American communities.
Last year, people of color represented 12% of mainstream newsroom journalists, but they made up 28% of the population. A 1999 ASNE survey showed that African-Americans composed 5.36% of the country's newsroom staff, but 13% of the population.
"It goes back to who's in your newsroom," said Holmes. "I think if [mainstream newspapers] had more black reporters in decision-making roles, they'd have a different kind of coverage. There's a difference in how we perceive and look at things."
All of the journalists say pure objectivity doesn't exist in any newsroom. "Some try to be objective but few are," Boyd said. "All newspapers have an editorial perspective. Usually a political perspective." Therefore, they suggested, who's on staff matters a great deal.
"Who you hire really impacts your coverage," said Holmes. The key to producing more fair news coverage is having a diverse staff in newsrooms, he said. "I think we cover issues in the African-American community well because most of us are African-American and we'll approach a topic with more sensitivity than white reporters," he said. "Nine times out of 10 we're closer to the information than they'll ever be because of who we are as reporters."
Both Holmes and Boyd have worked at mainstream newspapers in the past and both say they prefer to stay where they are. Boyd has worked as a free-lancer for The Village Voice in New York City and full-time for the Detroit Free Press. Holmes worked for the Daily Ledger in the Indianapolis area for six months. He left, he said, because he wanted the challenge of serving as an editor for the Recorder and of tackling racial issues.
Boyd, also a college instructor, author of nine books and national editor of The Black World Today, an online publication, says he enjoys his work at The Amsterdam News because he can experience "the richness of the black world."
"You begin to connect with the community," Boyd says. "They rely on you and you rely on them. I'm enriched by the community that I serve."
Slaughter also says her experience at the Recorder has been rewarding. "The people that give the assignments are people who know and care about the community," she said. "Here, I feel like I'm helping our people."