SWOPblogger

The world of news media - particularly with traditional daily and afternoon newspapers - is fluid and chaotic as the industry struggles with its failure to keep pace with changing technologies, content production dynamics and, simply, the world around it. Ironic for an industry dealing with what's "new," no doubt.

Yet, studies continue to show that public policy follows the agenda set by traditional, often corporate, press.

With the death of the Albuquerque Tribune, the state's public policy agenda is now almost solely in the hands of the Albuquerque Journal. Given the media's profound influence on how we vote, think and understand our world, today's final edition of the Trib is tough news for progressive public policy in the state.

Over the years, the Journal hasn't been shy in it's aversion to progressive voices, values and issues. (The Tribune, of course, has hardly been the champion of progressive and community voices we all would have liked, but at least it was an option when shut out of the Journal's agenda.)

Whether intentional or by default, the stories that result from such a media market tend to give voice to those in power, while marginalized voices remain voiceless.

This double-bind—serious danger combined with a lack of opportunity—faced by communities challenged by increasing corporate and private control of the democratic process, public space and the media, is something we simply cannot afford to ignore.

This double-bind can balloon exponentially given that the Journal is trying to survive in this same landscape, and will probably continue to cut costs in ways that will undoubtedly hurt its ability to give us the local in-depth coverage of public policy debates we sorely need.

And I have little faith in local TV news to be a part of the solution.

SWOPblogger, and SWOP's news magazine Voces Unidas, will continue to offer news and views from a community perspective, (so come back often!) but we all need to do more. We have to pay attention to those seemingly boring stories about news consolidation and FCC rules. And we must participate and act in the process to defend communication rights of disenfranchised communities each and every time a vote to loosen ownership rules or give more of our airwaves to less and less corporations comes up - no matter how cumbersome and disengaging the process.

Karlos Gauna Schmieder is SWOP's former communications organizer. He currently works as a media strategist at Center for Media Justice, based in Oakland, California.

Labels: Media, Media Bias