a doorway to ethnic media in the american heartland
Archive for February, 2010
February 25, 2010 at 2:44 pm · Filed under community reporting that matters, covering the schools
Schools are being shut down in Chicago because of their crippling failures.
But are they the only ones who have failed? Who else is accountable? Who else needs to come to their rescue?
What else needs to be done?
Few stories matter as much as these school closings to communities and this is the time for the ethnic news media to find new ways to tell this story. My suggestion is to take the whole picture apart and tell parts of it. And keep up your reporting so that eventually you have covered everything possible and painted the whole picture.
You don’t need a staff of hundreds to get started.
Here is one start – listening to the schools social workers. This is an op ed piece written by a group of Chicago Public School social workers. Consider their points. Contact them. Let’s keep listening, looking and finding better ways of telling a story that truly matters and that keeps us a part of our communities.
Here is what they have written.
Steve–and if please share with us any stories you have written on this
THE VILLAGE MUST BE REHABILITATED!
As violent deaths of our youth continue, the pervasive sense that “nothing can be done” increases. Children and families are left with a marked sense of powerlessness that is compounded on a daily basis. The violent loss of our youth will always be a tragedy and must not be tolerated.
During the past decade we have been inundated with the African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child”. The Village is crumbling and we see blatant murders of the weakest in our society. The societal Village is fragmented, mutilated and discouraged; it has essentially renounced its responsibility. It is clear the Village has not only lost its way but is in need of a massive overhaul.
School social workers are acutely aware of the terrible toll youth violence has taken, yet they continue to be significant components of the Village, invested in preparing students to assume positive roles in society. In many ways, the school social worker has become the primary Village to many children.
School social workers see firsthand the tragedy of constant exposure to violence, the deep-seated anger and rage, the fear, the risk-taking, the disregard for life and the difficulty trusting others and themselves. School social workers see the catastrophic effect of students unable to focus and learn, thus reducing their ability to have a productive and positive future.
Students expect to be fairly safe within the school confines but when they emerge, it is indisputable that the “buck stops at the school door”. When students step outside there is a change of priorities and a harsh reality becomes shockingly conspicuous.
In order to combat these feelings, school social workers sponsor conflict resolution, anger management classes, positive problem-solving techniques, social awareness and improved social functioning programs all within the guidelines of the Social/Emotional Learning Standards.
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) for students is excellent and has been regularly proven to change attitudes and behaviors while improving outcomes for school communities that foster its engagement. Social Emotional Learning skills are organized around three simple but galvanizing goals:
Goal 1: Develop self-awareness and self-management skills to achieve school and life success
Goal 2: Use social awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships
Goal 3: Demonstrate decision-making skills and responsible behaviors in personal, school, and community contexts.
In order for the Village to be effective, everyone must be trained and share a similar view; we must restore the Village by teaching Social Emotional Learning standards to all its members. SEL must leap from school to society so there is no longer a collision of students trained and not those of the desolate Village. This would ensure the seamless transitions of students into society.
In order to encompass the Village foundations, several major groups must be immediately involved in the process of learning SEL.
All city employees, whether having direct contact with the public or not, must be trained. Parents must receive trainings; SEL should be a mandatory course for all graduates of higher learning institutions, all those in correctional system must be targeted.
A special department is necessary to establish SEL trainings, monitor them and issue relevant materials. Ongoing public service announcements related and adapted to SEL skills is necessary. These trainings, and eventually, the associated activities would be integrated into the culture of the City of Chicago.
A cultural shift is required to save the Village and all of its inhabitants. The Village culture must be steeped in the basics of maintaining a civil and humane society.
It not enough that school social workers heed this message. The goal is to be inclusive of all. SEL must no longer be limited to students, as we all know being a life-long learner is optimal. Life-long SEL makes for an improved quality of life for all
February 24, 2010 at 5:24 pm · Filed under Covering the Census
When the government launched its pitch to the ethnic news media last year, it was very attractive.
We want you. Want you to help us. Want to help you. Want you to help us reach people who are unreached. That is how the mantra went.
The lure of advertising dollars rang in the ears of ethnic news media just scraping by.
But apparently the government’s desire to spread the word has been limited and not all ethnic news media have benefited.
If you reach an immigrant or minority community in the Chicago area that needs to make sure it is counted in this Census, especially one that barely took part in the last count, and you didn’t get any of the Census campaign funds, let me know.
I’ll pass your word along to the U.S. Census, New America Media and to the advertising firms in charge of locating the ethnic news media and allocating the federal dollars. Don’t give up.
You can reach me at steve@newstips.org or 312 369 6400.
Here is testimony from Sandy Close of the New America Media about this problem:
NEW AMERICA MEDIA TELLS CONGRESS TO USE THE NATION’S ETHNIC MEDIA MORE EFFECTIVELY TO INCREASE ACCURACY OF THE 2010 CENSUS COUNT
WASHINGTON-The US Census Bureau is missing opportunities to provide reporting instructions to diverse communities in the United States by failing to fully utilize the ethnic media that can reach more than 60 million adults in those communities, according to testimony from New America Media (NAM) in Congress today.
Sandy Close, NAM’s executive director, called the 2010 Census advertising program an “unprecedented investment” in ethnic and community media, having identified 3,000 media outlets across the country. But she cautioned that many key media outlets were left out, including 47% of those that attended roundtable sessions organized by NAM and the Census Bureau last year to learn how they could help with the count. She noted that several prominent African American papers had been excluded.
“Many are frustrated – they don’t know why they fell through the cracks. Some are bitter. All very urgently want a role – even if small – and believe, as I do, that together they can move the needle those extra percentage points,” said Ms. Close, testifying before the Oversight and Government Reform’s Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives. Her organization represents more than 2,500 ethnic media outlets across the country.
The roundtable discussions organized last year included more than 600 ethnic media representatives in 12 cities from coast to coast. The ethnic media participating included media giants like Univision, Asian language dailies, BET and Clear Channel stations to established black and Spanish language weeklies, upstart radio and TV stations, as well as niche print and online outlets serving Burmese, Ethiopian, Arab, Russian, Mixtec, Punjabi and Samoan communities.
“Their hunger to participate in the 2010 Campaign is intense—you could cut the exuberance at these gatherings with a knife,” Ms. Close testified. “For many media, it was the first time they’d come together as a media sector in the same city. They get the Census: they get their community’s stake in a complete count, and they get their own.”
In citing the importance of an accurate Census count not only on federal dollars, but private ones as well, she noted the experience of Juan Carlos Ramos of the El Tiempo Hispanic newspaper in New Orleans. Mr. Ramos said the 2000 Census undercounted Hispanics in New Orleans and as a result Coca Cola dropped New Orleans, and his paper, from their national ad campaign.
Many ethnic media outlets are frustrated by being excluded from the Census advertising.
“From our first briefing in March of 09 until our last one in early December, ethnic media attendees also expressed a uniform anxiety over the lack of transparency in the decision making process of the Census ad buy,” Ms. Close said, adding that she has received correspondence from ethnic media outlets across the country not been utilized.
Moreover, there was also criticism that some of the communications vehicles chosen by the Census Bureau are not having the desired impact. She quoted Joe Orozco, of Hoopa Radio in northern California, lamenting that the Census spent the “the biggest chunk of money to reach American Indians” on billboards that don’t have much of an impact on isolated reservations like his. “Most of us don’t do a lot of freeway driving,” she quoted Mr. Orozco as saying.
Ms. Close said that hundreds of ethnic media like Hoopa Radio want to inform and mobilize their communities to participate in the Census. As the Census Bureau recognizes the regions with the lowest response rates, she recommended that the government fund a program similar to a NAM project launched to reach American Indian and indigenous communities in California.
The Save our Services campaign for Census 2010 replicates an approach that NAM has pioneered through numerous social marketing campaigns over the last decade. It relies upon local ethnic media outlets to design their own messaging campaigns and earned media components. Under this program, Hoopa Radio received a small grant of $2,000 that will help pay to develop a PSA that will grab listeners’ attention with a message that says: “If we don’t let ourselves be counted, they’ll say no one lives here and take away our water rights.”
Ms. Close cited reasons why the Census Bureau should utilize the ethnic media more. She noted that a survey by San Francisco State’s Renaissance Center last year found that 68 percent of ethnic media leaders described their primary goal as service to the community, with less than a third listing making a profit as their goal. In addition, she said that while mainstream media audiences have sharply declined, there has been a 16 percent growth in the ethnic media audiences over the last five years.
“Even a modest investment of $2 million in those outlets that have been left out or, like Joe Orozco, believe they have more effective ways to message to their audiences could increase the response rate dramatically in some regions between the crucial period between April 15 and the end of July,” Ms. Close said. “More important, it would acknowledge that not just the primary ethnic news outlets but the entire ethnic media sector has an indispensible role to play in how government communicates with the governed.”
February 22, 2010 at 3:05 pm · Filed under reporting on mental health, reporting on the ethnic elderly
So much tears at their hearts. They are alone. They lost what they had years ago. They never got back on their feet.
They can’t seem to find friends, find a place for themselves, find their voices, find a way to feel at ease, at home, at rest, at last, at rest.
The elderly suffer from depression, but the ethnic elderly endure it even more greatly.
This is one of the topics we’ll talk about at our meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 23rda in a briefing for the ethnic news media from 10 am to noon at Age Options, 1048 Lake St. Suite 300, Oak Park.
And here is a story from New America Media that precisely makes the point about the mental health of the ethnic elderly.
See you there, Steve, steve@newstips.org or 773 595 8667
Managing her diabetes day-to-day is a constant struggle for Maria Carr. Like so many black elders, the 68-year-old San Franciscan must wrestle so much with the debilitating effects of chronic illness—the neuropathy that weakens her ability to walk or the continual pin pricks to test for blood sugar levels—that it gets her down.
It’s in those low hours that Carr’s thoughts often drift back to her “rotten childhood” on a farm in her native Jamaica and the constant verbal abuse she endured from her stepfather.
“People think about their past history,” said Carr. “I’m prepared for the worst. I’m not in the best health, but my mind is still okay. When I get depressed, though, it’s very difficult. Sometimes I wish I could die.”
Study: Ethnic Differences Suggest How Mental Health Services Can Better Serve Elders
“Racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive lower overall mental health care,” including less outpatient care and fewer visits to mental health specialists, said Daniel E. Jimenez, a research associate at Dartmouth Medical School.
But ending disparities in mental health care between ethnic elders and non-Latino Whites, Jimenez said, isn’t a simple matter of improving access to care. At the Gerontological Society of America conference last fall, Jimenez and colleagues at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research showed that mental health care providers need to better understand differences among various groups to realize how to treat each more effectively.
Their analysis of data on almost 3,000 people ages 50 and older reveals patterns that can help mental health professionals reach out to ethnic seniors better. For example, although many Latinos generally have access to mental health care similar to that of non-Latino whites, older Hispanics are more apt to discuss mental health issues with their doctor than seek psychological counseling
Asian seniors in the study also had good access to mental health services but were deterred from seeking help by intense social stigma, which “carries with it a high level of shame and embarrassment.”
Furthermore, Jimenez and his co-researchers found, “The American health care system focuses on individual ailments, rather than taking a holistic approach.” Asian elders are frequently wary of Western medicine, and only use it as a last resort, when traditional folk remedies are not working,” they added.
The study did expose access disparities between older whites and Africa Americans, but Jimenez and colleagues noted that many blacks refrain from seeking mental health services because of significant distrust of health and mental health professionals, due to widespread discrimination over the years.
Jimenez and his co-researchers added, “Cultural differences may go unaddressed, which can lead to African American patients feeling underappreciated, misunderstood and less engaged in treatment.”
In another recent study in the January 2010 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, Hector Gonzalez and colleagues at Wayne State University in Detroit found that mental health researchers need to end the common practice of lumping people together as Asians, African Americans and so on, and do more to differentiate, say, between, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans or African Americans and black Caribbean.
Carr is among the four in 10 black older women who live alone in the United States. She is philosophical about her condition and knows that chronic illness can set off bouts with depression.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), depression is the most prevalent mental health problem among older adults.
Although groups of ethnic elders experience percentages of serious depression similar to that of older whites (about one in six people ages 50 or older at some point) mental health experts say that African-American, Latino, Asian and Native-American seniors are less apt to get treated. That’s because of their higher levels of poverty, lack of insurance or access to treatment and the pervasive stigma of mental illness in many cultures.
http://tinyurl.com/yg7su6d
February 18, 2010 at 4:22 pm · Filed under Reporting on ethnic communities, reporting on the ethnic elderly
The struggle is almost gone from them. They worked. They saved. They did the best they could. But now the days are tough days.
These are the ethnic elderly who are just getting by, who are alone, and who fear their tomorrows.
This too is a story that we need to tell about the immigrant and minority elderly: the story of those elderly who are alone and struggling.
Here, for example, is some recent research on Latino boomers and elderly from the Center for Policy Research on Aging at UCLA.
“Many aging Latinos have minimal
pension and health care benefits or
no benefits at all, a result of their
unmet needs in regard to education:
in 2006, for example, only 59 percent
of Latinos over age twenty-five had
obtained a high school diploma,
compared to 90 percent of non-
Latino whites (Gassoumis, Wilber,
and Torres-Gil 2008). In California,
Latino elders who lived alone or with
only a spouse had the highest rates
of economic insecurity among all
elders age sixty-five and older. About
three-fourths of Latino elders who
lived alone and almost half of those
who lived with only a spouse could
not cover their basic costs of living.”
These are some of the issues we will be dealing with at our news briefing for the ethnic news media from 10 am to noon Tuesday, Feb. 23, 
at Age Options in Oak Park. We will talk about sources, contacts, new ways of reporting. I hope you can join us there.
Steve
, steve@newstips.org
February 17, 2010 at 9:07 am · Filed under reporting on the ethnic elderly
They buy the newspapers and listen to the radio shows that have talked to them for years. The voices they trust first. They listen to the radio shows in the languages they learned as children. They watch the TV shows that remind of their different lives in the places where they come from.
They are the ethnic elderly.
And because of their role in their communities, because of their loyalty to the news media and because of the problems and gifts that they bring to their communities, their stories must be told.
Also because of their growing numbers, they can’t be ignored.
According to the American Geriatics Society:
Currently, the senior US population is mostly white, but the fraction from other races is growing rapidly. Within the next 50 years, the number of elderly black Americans is expected to triple. The elderly Hispanic American population is growing at an even faster rate and may exceed that of the elderly black population within 30 years.
At our background briefing on Tuesday, Feb. 23rd, from 10 a.m. to noon at the offices of Age Options in Oak Park we will talk about this and other ways of doing the best job possible of reporting on the issues of the elderly.
See you there.
saludos,
Steve, steve@newstips.org, 312 369-6400
February 16, 2010 at 4:06 pm · Filed under Indian community reporting, reporting on the ethnic elderly
They made a new life, a life unlike the one before. Was it better? Hard to say. But they kept their roots. They tried to pass them on, too.
And now in their later years where do they go? Where is their home? Where are their roots?
And what do they pass on to their children?
This is one of the many stories to be told about the ethnic elderly. And here is a good example of one telling from New America Media.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=f96efd5bba8a30ba0d2861525459197f
We will talk about this at our upcoming session on reporting on the ethnic elderly on Tuesday, Feb. 23.
Let me know if you can make it.
saludos,
Steve
February 15, 2010 at 10:31 am · Filed under Asian immigrants, reporting on mental health, reporting on the ethnic elderly
What are the stories we need to tell?
One of them is about becoming a citizen despite their age and despite the challenges they face.
Here is a story from a Seattle newspaper, carried by New America Media that tells this story. If there are any stories you have done like this, I would gladly add them here.
saludos,
Steve
Stories of Hard-Won Citizenship
IExaminer, News report, Vivian Luu, Posted: Feb 07, 2010 
Tran Tran is 75 years-old. He lives in Renton and enjoys shopping and visiting with friends in the Phuc Loc Tho mini-mall in Seattle.
Tran emigrated from Vietnam in 2002 after his son sponsored him, but didn’t become a U.S. citizen until Jan. 5. Tran had been trying to become an American for three years.
“I feel liberated, free,” Tran said. He was a telegraph operator for the U.S. military, but speaks very little English. We conversed in Vietnamese.
This is a feeling shared by many other Asian immigrants who come from hardship and, like Tran, seek solace in the United States. Obtaining citizenship means freedom from oppressive governments and a chance to start over.
More people are seeking U.S. citizenship than ever. More than 744,000 people were naturalized last year while just over a century ago, fewer than 8,000 people had that privilege, according to the US federal Web site.
Tran tried fleeing to the United States with his son in the early 90s. As father and son ran toward a small boat that would take them away, his son, Quoc, made it onto the boat. Tran was caught and imprisoned for two months.
“Quoc was young,” Tran said. “He was faster. He got away.”
It is no surprise, then, why he was determined to become an American. He took the naturalization exam in 2007 and failed. His application was rejected when he tried again because of speculation his roommate was a family member.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=bc024f9390fae1ddb470145d48f2323c
February 14, 2010 at 5:00 pm · Filed under reporting on the ethnic elderly
Here’s a good reminder of how important reporting on the elderly is for the ethnic news media.
These are projects that will be carried out by many different kinds of publications produced by immigrant or black or Latino publications at a fellowship held by New America Media.
These are the kinds of stories will be talk about our own briefing on Tuesday Feb. 23 at the office of Age Options in Oak Park. Folks from the AARP will also take part. If you signed up, there’s room. Let me know if you are coming.
Steve Franklin, steve@newstips.org, 312 369 6400
These are the projects:
New America Media is proud to present the Ethnic Elders: Today and Tomorrow Fellows for 2010
The New America Media 2010 Ethnic Elders Fellowship is sponsored by The Atlantic Philanthropies.
Lotus Chau, Sing Tao Daily New York, New York, NY.
Project: A three-part series in Chinese and English translation on major challenges for Chinese and other Asian elders, including being exploited by Chinese casino companies, which all but entrap them on Casino buses; being increasingly isolated home alone because their children cannot care for them; and the stresses caused when elder reach the language barrier.
Maricar Hampton, Reporter, Philippine News, Laurel, MD.
Project: Major article on how the large influx of nurses and other health care workers from the Philippines are coping and how they may be affecting the quality of care in a range of U.S. long-term care settings.
Karen Holish, Contributing Writer/Editor, News from Indian Country, Minneapolis, MN.
Project: A magazine length report for national distribution on the scourge of diabetes among the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe and others causing older Native Americans to die before their time.
Kausar Javaid, Washington Bureau Chief, Pakistan Post Weekly Newspaper, Alexandria, VA.
Project: Two-part series in Urdu and English translation on economic, health and family-conflict challenges of older Pakistani immigrants.
Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska, Nowy Dziennik/Polish Daily News and Feet in Two Worlds, New York, NY.
Project: an in-depth news feature in Polish and English on how Polish elders are weathering the effects of the recession and the role of government service organizations in helping them face todays touch choices.
Araceli Martínez Ortega, Northern California Correspondent, La Opinión, (Los Angeles) Sacramento Bureau.
Project: Investigative article in Spanish and English translation on Latino elders facing poverty in the recession, often having to break from tradition and enter nursing homes because their children are under stress to make ends meet
Julie Pham, Publisher/Producer, Nguoi Viet Tay Bac/Northwest Vietnamese News, Seattle, WA.
Project: Series of articles examining euthanasia in three ethnic communities in Washington, only one of two states to legalize physician assisted suicide. The articles will also be published translated into Spanish in El Mundo and into Somali in Runta, as well as in English.
Rebecca Rivas, Staff Reporter/Web video Producer, St. Louis American Newspaper, St. Louis, MO.
Project: A three-part series on housing challenges for older African American seeking affordable senior living and often running into de factor redlining that aims to ignore or discourage them from moving in. This series will continue an investigation Rivas began last year.
DeVaun Sanders, Contributor, PhxSoul.com, Phoenix, AZ.
Project: Three-part series on assimilation challenges for Somali and other African immigrants in Arizona, struggles of African American, and how African immigrants and African Americans relate to one another.
M. Kay Siblani, Executive Editor, The Arab American News, Dearborn, MI.
Project: A major article in Arabic and English editions aimed at informing the nations largest Arab community about the difficulties of older Arabs and their families in Post-9/11 America, ranging from health care disparities to caregiving to financial challenges in the recession.
Sunita Sohrabji , Staff Reporter, India West, San Leandro, CA
Project: An investigative article in English about the army of elderly women from India services as nannies and domestics in prosperous Silicon Valley, often under brutish conditions
Abu Taher, Editor, Bangla Patrika, New York, NY.
Project: Two-part series on struggles of older Bangladeshi immigrants to the United States. The articles will be published in Bangla and English translation.
Nahmyo Thomas, Contributor, RedWoodAge.com/Newswire21.org, San Francisco, CA.
Project: Three-part series on the impact of poor environmental living conditions on the health and welfare of ethnic elders.
February 12, 2010 at 4:36 pm · Filed under economic and consumer reporting
They seem like lotteries where you just can’t lose. They offer you money here and now. Money when you need it.
Your tax money.
But it is money for folks who have little and who will have to pay extra to the get money coming to them.
You surely have seen them advertised. In the parlance of the credit industry, they are called refund anticipation loans or RALs, and their most common customers are low-income folks, who use them to get returns due them since they earned so little.
As a newly released report from the Woodstock Institute points out:
They typically reduce the amount of money coming back to the taxpayer by 10 percent.
They are offered by tax preparers in cooperation with banks and payday loan operations as well.
The interest rates nationally can range as high as 140 percent and that does not include heavy fees for tax preparation and same day payments.
Low-income black taxpayers showed the highest percentage use in Illinois, according to the most recent statistics as analyzed by the Woodstock Institute. Similarly usage was high among low-income Latinos.
So, here’s a story waiting to be written. Go to their website for more data:
http://www.woodstockinst.org....and while you are there also check out their report on the failure of the government’s effort to stop the drain of mortgage foreclosures.
The good news from the report is that the low-income and mostly black and Latino communities that suffered heavy rates of foreclosure showed declines in 2009 in their home losses. But the reality, as the report suggests, is that the mortgages have largely dried up for these community. Again, a story that needs to be followed.
Let me know if you do any reporting on this. And if you want to brainstorm on how to do so, I’m around to help.
Stephen
February 11, 2010 at 4:30 pm · Filed under black news media, community radio we listen to
So you are driving or flipping the dial. You click on WVON and this is what you hear: black Chicago talking, thinking, laughing, wondering, sharing. Black Chicago alive as can be.
It’s what ethnic radio does so well. It connects, translates, and transforms.
Here’s is a piece about it from In These Times. Read the whole story and you will appreciate what ethnic radio can and should do.
On Air With Black America
Chicago’s only black-owned talk radio station gives voice to a complex people still struggling to be heard.
Callers’ mistrust of white America is deep; some of it can be attributed to many listeners’ familial links to the South and its tradition of overt and and brutal racism.
Good evening, you’re talking to Salim Muwakkil on 1690 WVON. What’s on your mind?” I ask.
“The election of Barack Obama is the worst thing to ever happen to black people in America,” the caller snarls. “He’s a perfect Trojan Horse for American imperialism and corporate control. What do you think?”
That kind of question is typical fare on The Salim Muwakkil Show, broadcast every Saturday night by Chicago’s only black-owned radio station. These days, one year after the nation’s first black president took office, callers make it clear that African-Americans are divided sharply on Obama’s performance.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5443/
Also, thanks to the Garfield-Lawndale Voice I know that the Regal Theatre is open again. And thanks too to Lou Ransom for his column in the Defender for his take on what happened with the election for the Cook County President’s job.
If you come across other stories that you want to pass on like these, let me know.
Stephen
