Media forum: Finding voice beyond the dominant
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The importance, and the difficulty, of gaining a voice to tell one’s own story was the underlying theme of the annual Twin Cities Media Alliance Fall Forum Nov. 8. The forum’s keynote speaker, Nekima Levy-Pounds, expressed concern that minorities, especially African-American men, are portrayed in only one dimension in the local media, and are seldom the authors of their own narratives.Levy-Pounds, Professor of law at St Thomas University, told the audience at the early November event that television, print and online news play a huge role in how people of color are seen, and that role is often not a benign one. She noted that most news stories about minority men describe either athletes or those in contact with the criminal justice system, and that “negative perceptions of young black men influence laws and policies.” She also stressed that “the African-American community in the Twin Cities is not monolithic, and we deserve to be heard in all our differences.”Watch video from the Daily Planet’s Fall Media Forum.Levy-Pounds referred to the recent KSTP story in which Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges was allegedly “flashing gang signs” during a videotaping of an encounter with a young man registering voters in North Minneapolis as an example of media-driven misconceptions. She called the story “appalling” and said it was “a false narrative about the Mayor and the young African American man standing beside her in the photo. Continue Reading
