Journalism of All Colors
November 28, 2003
With San Francisco as its backdrop, the New California Media (NCM) Expo was held Nov. 18-19, and gave people a look at ethnic media, complete with panel discussions on topics such as the ethnic media’s impact on political races, to workshops on how to bridge the generational gap with youth voices.
More than 1,500 people descended onto the largest convention of ethnic news organizations in the United States held at San Francisco’s Concourse Exhibition Center at 9th and Brannan streets. The expo showcased some 150 exhibitors, including national news publications that serve immigrant and minority populations, youth media organizations and human resource companies.
Attendees had a chance to browse through a bevy of English and non-English publications. Among them were weeklies that report on Sikhs in the United States and a magazine that features articles about South Asian Americans living in the hi-tech metropolis of the Silicon Valley.
People also got to watch pieces produced by the Samoan American Media Services TV and Radio Program and hear sample radio pieces from a Vietnamese radio station based in San Jose, Calif., while flipping through pages of a Spanish-language magazine or an English-language Filipino newspaper based in Daly City, Calif.
Many said this was an eye-opening experience since they were able to read and see how stories were covered by the ethnic press compared to the mainstream dailies.
“What this event does is to help put the whole map of the ethnic media onto people’s mental radar,” said Sandy Close, executive director of NCM. “Ethnic media is powerful, and has a tremendous impact on American journalism. Ethnic media has been undervalued and misunderstood.”
Close added that one of NCM’s primary goals is help ethnic media build visibility and to bridge with other mainstream media organizations, as well as Fortune 500 companies.
The expo allows advertisers, marketers, civic leaders, mainstream media and the general public to work and partner with diverse media, organizers said, and with 17 million ethnic Americans living in California, ethnic media has proven to be an effective method to tap into America’s growth markets.
“This year, we had representatives from the human resources group Hewitt, which is headquartered in Chicago, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and 12 representatives from Boeing, and now Boeing now wants NCM to sponsor an expo in Texas; so this is an example of building national visibility for ethnic media in the United States,” said Close. “We also had our longtime supporters like PG&E and Bank of America.”
Before the expo ended, Close said she was already thinking about plans for next year’s event. She wants to take the expo to California’s Central Valley in Fresno to build on the visibility of that area, which is home to a diverse group of immigrants. She also wants to expand the NCM journalism awards to make it a national contest and have fewer awards to make it more competitive and prestigious. Close said instead of holding the awards dinner and expo back-to-back, she’s planning on separating the two so people can concentrate on each event.
“Now we have momentum and we want to bring the expo to local areas,” Close said. “We keep on reinventing what we’re doing and we’re really grateful for all the ethnic media that has enriched and enlightened us.”
Founded in 1996, NCM is a national association of more than 600 ethnic media organizations with the goal of sharing information and developing a more inclusive journalistic relationship. NCM released a national directory at the expo, which lists 2,300 print, broadcast and online outlets nationwide.
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