a doorway to ethnic media in the american heartland
Archive for Ethnic Media in Chicago
March 6, 2010 at 5:00 pm · Filed under Ethnic Media in Chicago, ethnic radio, story telling
You are driving up Western and stop at the redlight at Devon and look at the folks in the next car.
Wonder what they are listening to on radio?
Or, say, you are wandering along West Belmont and there’s a storekeeper staring into space and listening to a radio station.
I’ll bet they are listening to voices that remind them of places very close to them. I’ll bet they are listening to an ethnic radio station. I know I have three preset stations in Spanish and I switch constantly.
But Chicago is a global city and the languages uttered in the air can make you feel like you are spinning around this earth.
Here’s a well-written and enlightening story about ethnic radio in Chicago from Northwestern’s School of Journalism:
click on the url for the full story.
Stephen
A trip back to the homeland – in a dozen languages – right on your Chicago radio dial
Graph: Taras E. Berezowsky/MEDILL
Chicago has a greater proportion of multi-ethnic stations than New York or Los Angeles.
Taras E. Berezowsky/MEDILL
Yousif Marei, host of “Islamic and Arab Voice of Chicago,” received accolades from Mayor Daley for his community involvement.
Related Links
Access Radio Chicago – Home of WSBCWCEV 1450 – We Are Chicagoland’s Voice
Cost and Content
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=159400
On a recent snowy evening at WSBC’s studio on Milwaukee Avenue in Jefferson Park, a former Ukrainian presidential candidate paced in the cramped lounge, waiting to be interviewed on the air.
Earlier, Hindu was heard on the intercom in the hallway as an Indian and Pakistani broadcast their program. The next day, Arabic and Spanish programs would have their turn.
But at that moment, it was time for Ukrainian Wave Radio.
WSBC, the station that hosts Ukrainian Wave, is home to some 30 ethnic radio programs in 13 different languages. One of the oldest stations in the city, WSBC – the call letters stand for World Storage Battery Co. – began broadcasting in 1925.
Clad in a military uniform with medals and official seals, the Ukrainian official looked as though he was about to testify before an army tribunal. Instead, Ivan Bilas readied himself for a conversation with Ukrainian Wave’s hosts, Maria and Mykhailo Klimchak.
“Even priests stop making their rounds in blessing people’s homes with holy water,” Maria said, “because, they say, ‘The Klimchaks are talking on the radio!’”
The program has been on the air since just after World War II, when its founders, Stepan and Angelina Sambirsky, arrived from Ukraine.
After the Klimchaks immigrated to Chicago in 1993, they helped read the commercials during the show. When the Sambirskys started to think about retiring to Florida, they began handing the reins to the Klimchaks. They’ve been running the show since 1998.
For an hour every Sunday evening, the Klimchaks combine local community news with international issues to bring a little bit of Ukraine to the airwaves. That night, they would discuss the country’s future under its newly elected president, Viktor Yanukovych.
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=159400
December 8, 2009 at 3:27 pm · Filed under Ethnic Media in Chicago, Irish in Chicago
By Angela Evans
“I would do everything better,” says Cliff Carlson, editor of the Irish American News.
But his newspaper is flourishing, and running an ethnic media paper is no easy feat. The community readership is often so limited that it is a challenge to stay afloat— particularly in an economy that has had a brutal affect on the news media.
He thinks of expanding and revising his newspapers, but realizes that today is not the time to take such a step.
Carlson, 62, bought the Irish American News in November of 1991 from Bob Burns, who was the original founder and owner in March 1977. Burns was getting too old to go out and do it, and that’s where Carlson came in.
The Irish American News (IAN) has always been about covering everything and anything to do with the Irish community here in Chicago, with minimal coverage of Ireland due to the difficulty of accessing information from there.
Carlson is technically the only employee, relying primarily on independent contractors to cover the work he is unable to do personally.
He runs the paper out of an office of his Oak Park apartment. It contains two desks, a printer, a bookcase stuffed with various history and other books, and dozens of Irish tokens displayed as décor on the walls and other available surfaces. Carlson was born in Chicago, and is a mix of Irish and Swedish decent.
A Foot In The Door
Carlson got his start in publishing back when a friend wanted to publish a book and Carlson suggested the food industry, offering to do the type work. They put the book together and sold it, also selling ads from scratch. The rest is history- Carlson has stayed in publishing ever since.
Prior to the digital age, the paper was done by cut and paste, printed on two-color newsprint, making up 16 pages. Everything was done from the outside, Burns paying various people for stories and photos.
But times have changed and now much of the reporting and writing can be done in one place, which is cost efficient for Carlson.
A major roadblock for IAN along the way has been advertisers’ unwillingness to purchase ads. Carlson explains that nobody wanted to purchase ad space the first two times he approached them after he took over the paper. The third time was the charm, and finally they started buying.
Carlson says he has a hard time getting advertisers to realize how useful the publication can be to them in print and online. They often put up a defense, and it is his job to open up the lines of communication. His strategy for overcoming such barriers is to see people in person. He says calling and or emailing them is the lazy way to do it.
“Mainstream newspapers have made a big mess for us,” he says and blames the larger publications for throwing money at the Internet before they knew what to do with it.
He recounts the story of how newspapers then suffered steep financial losses and had to fire their reporters, compromising journalistic integrity and making wrong moves afterwards.
His Survival Strategy
All of this has not contributed to a thriving situation for a concentrated media outlet like the Irish American News or other like-minded publications.
IAN’s strategy for keeping interest in the paper is to report on as much as they can, and stay connected with the various Irish groups in the community.
Recently they participated in an event called IBAM Chicago, Irish Book Art and Music celebration, which was a three-day event that took place over the Celtic holiday. (Oct. 30- Nov. 1) This was a successful event, and Carlson plans to work further with the Irish American Heritage Center and the Gaelic Park to create awareness for the facilities and promote the Irish culture.
“We try to marry the web to the paper,” says Carlson, “and that seems to be working so far.” Carlson explains that the way to keep readers coming back to the publication is to offer a little something for everyone; you can’t cater to any particular niche. Everything Irish is the way to go. IAN prints about 25,000 papers per month, with an estimated 100,000 readers.
Carlson has also formed a group with 10 other Irish newspapers across the nation as well as started an Irish book club. The Irish book club have become a place to find the largest variety of Irish specific books, and the website appears in each of the affiliated papers. Indeed, the website has been a success since it was started approximately 6 months ago.
Though there are many stories Carlson would like to cover, he realizes he cannot do it all on his own. And though the recession may have stalled the paper’s march forward, Carlson says things are looking better lately.
And that alone is good news.
Angela Evans is an intern with the Community Media Workshop
December 7, 2009 at 4:09 pm · Filed under Ethnic Media in Chicago
You are elated. You are lonely. You are stuck in time and you are flying ahead of time.
You read the signs and hear what people say and you understand somewhat how these people behave and how they treat you and you wonder—what — what does this mean? How do I fit in here?
I was struck the other night listening to these snatches of remarks that come from stories about immigrants and their lives here: lives started anew, lives jolted from one country to another, lives renewed and replenished and restored.
It was at a session with Northwest University students who have been working with professor Jack Doppelt in writing about immigrant communities. For truth in typing, let me point out that Jack and I are partners in an effort that is linking together immigrant news outlets here in Chicago with the help of Northwestern students.
But back to the words that struck me.
This is the core of what the immigrant news media does here: it tells stories about there and here and makes here a more comfortable, more friendly place to be. And that is why I long to read and hear more of these stories that swirl in our imaginations.
Here is the link to the Northwestern program. Read their stories:
http://www.immigrantconnect.org/
November 19, 2009 at 5:01 pm · Filed under Ethnic Media in Chicago, latino news media
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Who speaks for Chicago’s Latinos and what are they saying?
And who is telling their story?
That’s what we talked about the other day at our gathering of Chicago’s Latino press and community organizations.
We met at the National Museum of Mexican Art and there was very good news on top of the talk. The folks at Radio Arte (WRTE 90.5fm) announced a new partnership with Vocalo – 89.5 fm, public radio for and by the people. This a deal that will boast Radio Arte’s presence across the Chicago area.
We talked about the need for community organizations to decide how they are going to tell their message. Don’t just try to get your story in the mainstream news media, said Tania Unzueta of Radio Arte. Think of the Latino news media and the independent new media.
But don’t give up on the mainstream news media. Let them know what your story is and let them know you want them to cover it. That was the message of Teresa Puente, an assistant professor of journalism at Columbia College and who writes a blog – chicanisima for Chicago Now.
Fabiola Pomareda, a reporter at La Raza, suggested holding the news media — Latino and mainstream – accountable by studying what they cover and how they cover stories. Armed with the results, community organizations can then go to the news outlets, she said, and ask them to do a better job or a job that tells all that matters to the community.
Gerardo Cardenas, the editorial director for Contratiempo and the head of communications for AARP of Illinois wondered if it is correct to say that the the Latino community is too polite and too poised to speak up and tell the news media what it wants to see covered and what stories it needs to hear about.
And Tony Martinez, who is pictured above and who is news director for Telemundo Chicago – WSNS – agreed heartily.
“We have to be more demanding,” he said.
Si, se puede.
Stephen
October 29, 2009 at 5:42 pm · Filed under Business strategies, Ethnic Media in Chicago
So, a student asked, learning forward to ask a tough question, how is the ethnic media going to survive?
Everyone else is collapsing, he said.
Hmmph. Quiet. Tough to answer.
And then Lou Ransom, executive editor of the 104-year-old Chicago Defender, explained how and why and it seemed so perfect and so true.
We will survive, he said, seated among the panel of editors and journalists at our job fair the other day for college students to learn about the ethnic news media, because we have always survived.
We will survive, he said, because we have always had to do more with less, because surviving was the only choice and because we learned how to survive long ago.
And now, he said, while others are bankrupt and suffering because they’ve come down from the mountain of good times, the ethnic news media will survive because it never had that much to go on and so it is not scared of tough times.
Amen,
And in case you need some survival theme music, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBR2G-iI3-I&feature=fvw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xui7x_KF7bY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8PUSg5SL7s&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvsI3jc4pPA&feature=related
and this is my favorite -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdcZvnSjFIk&feature=related
September 4, 2009 at 9:29 am · Filed under Ethnic Media in Chicago, Reporting on ethnic communities
Jessica Rosenberg was one of four interns from Columbia College who worked this summer at ethnic news media in a program set up by the Community Media Workshop.
Here is a brief essay she wrote at the end of her assignment:
It’s not easy being a gringa writing for a Spanish-speaking newspaper. Cultural sensitivity and language skills cannot come close to knowing the Latino immigrant experience. And as Latinos come to be the largest minority group in Chicago – and the United States – this knowing is the very reason ethnic media is so important.
As an outsider, I didn’t know that Latino immigrants tend to be distrusting of banks and as a result, stash their money in their houses. I didn’t know that it was common for Latino immigrants to work 2, and sometimes 3 jobs to make ends meet – recession or not. I didn’t know that out of deep respect for their parents, young Latino gangbangers will go to great lengths to conceal their belonging to a gang.
These facts may have been obvious to Latinos, but to me, it was a newsflash. Confronting these cultural nuances made it difficult for me to differentiate between what was really news and what wasn’t. It was news to me foreclosures were hitting Latino communities harder than white neighborhoods. But to residents of Pilsen and La Villita who already know it’s a problem because they live it everyday, how do you give them information they can use? I figured it out, but it required several instances of not being afraid to look, or sound, stupid.
In the eight weeks I was an ethnic media intern, I learned that the strength of ethnic newspapers lie in their ability to voice the cultural nuance of their community. Latino readers can’t pick up a major newspaper and have their culture and opinions validated like most white people can. And on a larger scale, I truly understood how valuable newspapers – all newspapers, that is – are in reflecting the values and voices of a community, culture and generation.
July 13, 2009 at 6:42 pm · Filed under Ethnic Media in Chicago, female immigrants
They no longer wait behind. Now, they are arriving like never before. Some come with husbands, but increasingly they come without. They arrive fleeing poverty and wars and religious and racial prejudice. They race here hoping new doors will open. But the doors still remain shut or difficult to open for many. They are the ones more likely to push for citizenship. They are the ones who hold their families together when the men can’t. They find work when the men can’t. They accept the grinding downward slide in jobs because they need to keep their families united.They more than ever are partners in decisions about their future and their families’ futures. Some fall into silence, their hearts broken by the new isolation. Some are too old, too unsure of themselves, too unprepared to make the new life they want. But many do. And this is what our press conference this Thursday, July 16th, is about. It is a look at the first national survey of immigrant women. With funding from the Ford Foundation, New America Media has relied on one of the most experienced pollsters familiar with immigrant communities to create a telling snapshot of the numbers, the issues, the problems and concerns of immigrant women in the U.S. today. The meeting is from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, 55 E. Jackson Blvd, Suite 2075. Tell me if this is not the time to tell these women’s stories. I can think of few other stories that that are so important, so critical and so basic to the lives of millions of immigrants and their communities. I’m glad to share ideas. Call me. Write me. This is what makes ethnic media a treasure not to be ignored.
March 10, 2009 at 12:50 pm · Filed under Ethnic Media in Chicago
merhaba dünya-hello world!
Hello world. We know you are there because we are the world here in Chicago. That is, we here in Chicago come from all over the world. There is not a city in the U.S. with a greater sprawl of immigrants. We may not have as many immigrants as elsewhere.
But no either city can count as many places where its migrants have come from.
We may not be number one either in terms of the number of our people of color. But again few cities can claim the legacy and riches that have been handed down by generations.
So that is why Chicago is the world.
And that is what this blog is about.
About the way we tell our stories, share our riches, share our pictures, our voices, our space in the sun here in the heartland.
Stay tuned. We have a lot to say.
