Introducing: Blogging Insider [$2 Challenge]

by Latoya Peterson

Recently, I did an interview with Mike Green, titled “Media, Entrepreneurship, and Birth of a New Nation.”

Mike had asked me about what the ultimate goal was for Racialicious. It’s a tough question to answer, since it’s such an evolving space. Here’s what I said:

[T]here’s not enough minority-controlled media. There just isn’t. There aren’t that many spaces controlled by minorities, controlled by women that have the power to push back and have the power to discuss issues that are critical to us. To look at things through a different lens. There’s tremendous power in that. In being able to have a stage and to use it for what you will.

So I found myself shifting a bit. At first, my goals were to be financially comfortable, eke out a living and have a job I didn’t hate that was flexible. And now it seems like there’s a bigger responsibility in that I’ve been able to acquire this huge platform and grow it. Now I’m asking, “OK, What can we really do with this?”

Can we provide people with the job training they need? Because that’s one of those things people are up against. They don’t have experience. They don’t have training. They don’t have their first published clips. Can we be that for some people? Can we grow this into something larger? Can we grow this into a media company?

So, I think that’s the direction we’re moving. What does this new media marketplace look like? What does entrepreneurship in media look like online? I feel like there’s tremendous potential in this space to do it.

Q: Why is it important for there to be more Black-owned media and, in particular, women-owned?

A: One reason is the corporate control of media in general: media consolidation. Just the fact there are thousands of media outlets but when you start tracing it’s really owned by basically eight people. (laughs) There just a few companies that control about 85 percent of what you watch and see. And there’s just a few families in control. It’s a small number, maybe 40 or so that have access into the ridiculous range of how we consume media.

And since media is how we understand ourselves and society, media helps to project not only things that provide understanding, like the news, but also projects things that stereotype. And so the media is this very powerful tool and it’s really disconcerting that there aren’t that many institutions dedicated to representing minorities in a fair light.

And the employment practices also reflect that. There’s always a very dismal representation (percentages) of minorities on television, radio and news. It doesn’t matter the format. It’s all the same problem. It keeps going.

So when you have minority-owned organizations, you can help not only become a pipeline for people to receive training to move on, but also as an alternative voice. And you can use that very powerfully.

There was a lot to be said for BET, despite how it’s been in the last 10 years or so. Because Bob Johnson was able to create that from scratch and Cathy Hughes is trying to do that with TV One and Radio One, the One Network. We really want to grow that and have it broader and have something that really reflects the new America.

The America we’re growing into in 2050, which is multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual. And seeing that reflected, we should not have to wait for anybody else to lower the gate to allow us in. We should be able to make things on our own terms.

Q: And you see the Internet as a gateway?

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