Quick Hit: Civil Rights on the Airwaves

The Open Technology Initiative at New America hosted an event yesterday “Civil Rights on the Airwaves: Building Community Radio in Communities of Color.” A panel of experts in media access, community radio, and racial and social justice convened to discuss the opportunities for developing community-based radio in underserved and marginalized communities. The ensuing conversation provided a rich look at the intersections of media, racial justice, and ownership. The video of the event is available here.

Only 7% of radio stations in the U.S. are owned by people of color. As several panelists expressed, who owns a media outlet has profound implications for what content is created and disseminated. As panelist Jabari Moketsi pointed out, “radio influences and sets the tone for the discussion.” A community radio station (low power FM or LPFM, for those up on radio lingo) has the potential, the experts explained, to serve as an empowering, educational, and organizational tool. Programming that reflects the demographics, culture, interests, music, and politics of immigrant, non-English speaking, low-income, and/or communities of color is currently lacking from mainstream stations, which are disproportionately white owned. Furthermore, as these same groups grapple with the digital divide (divergent access to internet technologies), radio has the potential to fill in some of these access gaps.  (For more about the digital divide, check out this December 2011 Colorlines piece.)

From an asset building perspective, access to and ownership of resources is a key part of building economic security and political engagement within a community. Ownership gives people a direct stake in their communities and community radio seeks to do just that. I encourage asset building practioners and advocates to learn more about the overlap of media justice and asset building and how community radio can become a community asset. The event is worth watching in full and you can also check out the Twitter conversation using the hashtag: #civilrightsonair.