Inequality In Broadcast Ownership

Weekly Reflection Post

It was shocking to read the case study in our text book by Kristal Brent Zook.   It spoke about how less then 2% of radio stations and television stations are owned by African Americans. The article describes how there were some programs in the past put in place by the FCC for example that began to help close the enormous gap that is caused by racism and inequality. 

The implementation of a Minority Ownership Policy began to help by providing tax incentives for people to selling stations to minority owners.  The incentive worked and black ownership started to steadily rise over the seventeen years it was in place.  It was still a far cry from equality in broadcast ownership and a reminder of the overt racism that the African American community has been subjected to throughout history and still is today.   Sadly, this small step towards an even playing field was removed by Congress in 1995 and the percentage of Black owned TV and Radio stations declined. 

The article mentioned how little has been done since 1995 and how large companies continue to buy up small owned stations, many of which were the few Black Owned companies in the industry.  Looking on the FCC’s website you can see what was explaining in the article the Diversity Committee which was put in place by the FCC to address this issue and submit reports on diversity and minority ownership has not formally met in over two years. 

This article is a few years old so I looked on the FCC website and found that the group does not even have an official section of the website.  It has been achieved and hasn’t been updated in 2013.  That’s incredibly disheartening and provided further examples of the disregard and racism the Black Community faces.

Organizations like NABOB (National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters) are fighting for equality and providing Black owners with support to fight in this unequal playing field.

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This is a problem not only for the Black Community but for the country as a whole. Programs we are watching and listening to are lacking the culture and diversity that make this a great country. By not having equal ownership in broadcast stations diverse views and cultural representation are excluded. In the process an entire community is keep down in the name of profit gains and racism.

Programs like the Minority Ownership Policy need to be put back in place and more programs need to be implemented to provide funding support and incentive to Black and Minority Owners to purchase stations or start new stations and begin to change this narrative.