The Charlotte Area Association of Black Journalists (CAABJ) is an affiliate chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), a nonprofit organization focused on establishing strong ties among African-Americans working in the media and expanding and balancing the media's coverage of the African-American community and experience.
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June 18, 2009

Ethnic Media Reaching Record Numbers

Nearly 60 million Americans now regularly get information from ethnically oriented TV, radio, newspapers, and websites, many of which are published or broadcast in languages other than English--and that number is on the rise. New America Media, the non-profit group that supports ethnic media producers nationwide, commissioned a poll by Sergio Bendixen.

As mainstream newspapers and cable news channels in the United States are losing more money, readers, and viewers each year, ethnic media appears to be "maybe the most vibrant part" of the media landscape, said Bendixen, releasing the latest statistics this month. "The ethnic media is growing, and it is growing at a very impressive rate," Bendixen told a meeting of media producers.

Spanish-language television giants Telemundo and Univision have captured large shares of the U.S. viewing audience, but smaller Spanish stations are having an impact as well. Channels have popped up to serve Hispanic populations in new locales like Raleigh, North Carolina and Seattle, Washington, Bendixen said. And the majority of African Americans report watching BET or other television channels with African American-oriented programming on a regular basis.

To determine where the 69 million Hispanics and African and Asian Americans in the United States get their information, Bendixen's company conducted a poll in eight languages. They determined that more than four out of every five Americans of those ethnic backgrounds are now being informed on a regular basis by ethnic media. Many consider non-English programming their primary source of information, though most also get information from mainstream, English-language media like CNN, Fox News, and the major networks CBS, NBC, and ABC.

The number of U.S. adults consuming ethnic media is up 16 percent--from 51 million to 57 million--since 2005, when Bendixen conducted the first poll of this sort. New America Media says advertisers, lawmakers, and others would be wise to pay more attention to the sector.

Click here to read the full article.

Click here to see the results of the recently released study on ethnic media.

June 12, 2009

Behind the Blogs

A recent article by Russell Smith of The Globe and Mail gives an introspective look into how blogs are measuring up in media. Titled "So Many Blogs, So Little Cash," the article details how blogs are being used by newspaper reporters, freelance writers, and book authors in addition to many other types of professionals. Smith says there are several forms of a personal blog, but the main three types are:

1. The compiler or aggregator of information about a specific subject, with links to various news stories and updates, which may have a clear journalistic function.

2. The professional journalist's blog, paid for by a news organization, which reads very much as his or her regular reporting does, and has the same financial resources behind it, but happens to be online.

3. The amateur opinion column, which can often degenerate into a diary.

He also cites an interesting 2008 survey conducted by Technorati.com that included 133 million blogs. The survey found that only 7.4 million of them had been updated in the last four months and concluded that 95 percent of blogs were essentially abandoned.

Click here to read the full article.

Dedrick Russell's NABJ Campaign Video

Online voting began this week for NABJ national elections and Dedrick Russell, a CAABJ member and education reporter for WBTV, is running for Vice President of Broadcast. If you're a member of the national chapter then you're eligible to vote in the elections and we're asking that you support Russell. Voting concludes at the NABJ Convention in Tampa in August.

In the video below, Russell explains why he deserves your vote.

June 4, 2009

Group Brings Together Social Media Users

Social media is getting more popular by the day. And traditional media outlets, communications companies, and marketing firms are among those seeking to discover if social media can help them reach more readers, viewers, listeners, and/or clients. A group called Social Media Charlotte is facilitating those efforts and they're now holding monthly breakfast meetings on the second Tuesday of each month. The upcoming Social Media Breakfast will be held Tuesday, June 9.


The guest speaker for this month's breakfast is Geno Church from Brains on Fire. Church is responsible for developing word of mouth, buzz, viral, and evangelism strategies for the agency’s clients. In his 13-plus years with Brains On Fire, he has helped build word of mouth into the identities of brands including Fiskars Brands, the American Booksellers Association, Rawlings Sporting Goods, National Family Partnership, Earshot Independent Music Stores, the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities, and Rage Against the Haze (South Carolina’s youth-led anti-tobacco movement). Church holds an advertising degree from the University of South Carolina and has received awards from numerous organizations, including the 2008 Effie awards, 2004 National ADDYs, and the 2006 Word of Mouth Marketing Association WOMMIE awards.

Social Media Breakfast
June 9, 7:30-9 a.m.
Dilworth Neighborhood Grille, 911 E. Morehead St.
Cost is $10 per person and includes a hot breakfast buffet.
Click here to register online.

Visit www.socialmediacharlotte.com for more details.
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