Photo by Jessica Xu

Ethnic journalists and media advocates join in resolve to bring media policy issues to the communities, By Mohsin Zaheer, Sada-e-Pakistan, 2011-04-21, translated from Urdu into English by Shagufta Khan

Members of the ethnic media and media advocates agreed at an information exchange forum held at Free Press' National Conference for Media Reforms (NCMR) in Boston that there was a great need for raising awareness and giving specialized training to ethnic media journalists to better cover the subject. The forum was organized by New York Community Media Alliance in collaboration with G. W. William Center for Independent Journalism on April 8. The forum was attended by GWWCIJ's Executive Director Linda Jue, Erin Polgreen of The Media Consortium, Jehangir Khattak of the New York Community Media Alliance and several journalists and advocates from around the United States.

Participants at the forum said that the level of understanding of media policy issues among members of the ethnic and community media itself was very low. However, as ethnic media journalists started writing about them, after receiving the necessary information, ethnic communities discovered that many of today's media policy issues were their issues as well.

Photo by Mohsin Zaheer

Ethnic media representatives at the exchange indicated that their communities required more attention given their lack of familiarity with the issues, but also because they faced a language barrier. Ethnic and community media could best raise awareness within their communities if they received enough support and training from the advocates.

The advocates present at the forum assured the ethnic media of their fullest cooperation and increased interaction on media policy. It was also agreed that communities could better understand media policy issues and take more interest in them if media policy stories were humanized and presented as part of day-to-day life issues. Some of the participants praised the role being played by organizations such as NYCMA, GWWCIJ and People's Production House in raising awareness about issue, like Internet access and neutrality and media ownership, and the impact in immigrant and communities of color.

Photo by Mohsin Zaheer

The exchange ended with participants agreeing to greater interaction and flow of information between reporters and advocates with regard to new developments taking place in Washington D.C., especially given the complex nature of media policy issues that are mostly beyond the understanding of the man on the street.