Black bloggers fight to make voices heard

With its power-to-the-individual approach, the new media world promises anyone with a laptop the possibility of a publishing empire. But, as some black bloggers are finding out, the new media world is a lot like the old one: racially segregated, with many prominent black voices still fighting to be heard.Some bloggers felt insulted this month when the Democratic National Committee selected 55 state-oriented blogs to cover its convention in Denver; critics said few featured African American voices. The DNC said race wasn't considered in its selection from 400 applicants. Officials were more interested in the sites' audience size and how much chatter about local issues appeared on them. The DNC answered critics Thursday by adding several sites led by African Americans to its general blogger pool.But some critics say the DNC situation is indicative of a larger media divide. It's a division in which stories like the racially motivated beating in Jena, La., last year lingered for months on black blogs and talk radio before the mainstream press picked up the issue.That coverage gap is partly what inspired Gina McCauley to help organize the first Blogging While Brown conference this summer in Atlanta. The most popular online community conferences - like the Netroots Nation confab that grew out of the Daily Kos blog - tend to be predominantly white gatherings."The progressive blogosphere is segregated," said McCauley, whose What About Our Daughters blog was accepted to the DNC's blogger pool. Essence magazine named McCauley one of its 25 most influential people last year alongside Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and filmmaker Tyler Perry. "Black bloggers link to other black bloggers, and progressive white bloggers link to other white progressive bloggers," she said."I don't know why that is," said Gina Cooper, executive director of the Netroots Nation conference. After last year's second annual convention, she expressed her frustration about the lack of diversity. Netroots Nation is offering scholarships this year, and Cooper is seeking other ways to make the gathering inclusive.

Black TV News Channel

Obama's presidential campaign might have raised the visibility of black voices and stories in the mainstream media, but it has not, according to some, quenched the thirst for them.That's why former Oklahoma GOP Rep. J.C. Watts - a onetime CNN commentator - is planning to start a 24-hour cable news network devoted to African American issues and perspectives. Comcast plans to add the Black Television News Channel to its cable packages in cities with large African American populations, including Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Washington and Atlanta, sometime in mid-2009."The mainstream press by and large likes to see African Americans through a certain prism, and it is a small and cordoned-off prism," Watts said. "Most institutions are like that. They see the African American community as an afterthought. But we are much more than drugs and crime." SOURCE:SFGATE