SF State Professor'ís Groundbreaking Study on Ethnic News Media

by Dawn Withers

Dr. Rufus Browning received his doctorate from Yale University in 1961. He has been a professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University since 1974 and is member of Urban Studies and Public Administration faculties. He has also taught at UC Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin. In 1984, Dr. Browning co-authored Protest Is Not Enough: The Struggle of Blacks and Hispanics for Equality in Urban Politics, winning two best book awards. He has authored nearly a dozen articles on minorities and political issues. He is currently the director of the Public Research Institute at San Francisco State University and has overseen more than 100 studies for government agencies, non-profits and other universities. Q: What was the impetus for this report?
A: I was asked by the Ford Foundation. The Foundation has been supporting ethnic media for a long time as well as the diversity of journalism. The ethnic media began to grow rapidly in languages like Spanish and Chinese. These consumers of ethnic media need news about their native country not seen elsewhere. Jon Funabiki wanted a survey done that would serve as a model for the study of ethnic media different regions. Q: What are some of things mainstream media can do to attract more ethnic readers and viewers?
A: Perspective is a big part of why new immigrants trust ethnic media for news of the native country. The news in ethnic media is done from a perspective they can identify with. Mainstream media fails in covering these communities well. Itís easy to fall into the role of being propaganda mouthpiece of the government. Q: Why did you want to take part in this project?
A: I am so fascinated by the stories of immigrants. Back in their home countries, they typically face hardships and endure even more here. That takes courage and perseverance. And this project went well with my life long interest in race and ethnicity. Q: Did you encounter any surprises during the course of your research?
A: I was surprised that the well-respected observers like Orville Schell Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley was quoted as saying that Chinese media is a news ghetto. In the report, I wrote one-third of Chinese immigrants use only ethnic media up to the 25-year mark. But Orville Schell, who was quoted as using the phrase "news ghetto," was really referring to Chinese-language TV. Itís wonderful to disprove the premise that peopleís grandiose declarations that ethnic media cause fragmentation is not true. To show and detail thatís not true is really rewarding. Q: What myths do you hope this report dispels?
A: In general we know that in two to three generations, immigrants become ìAmerican.î It seemed plausible that ethnic media may create a defensive attitude because they always point out the problems in society. But what we found is that the ethnic media create a great sense of community with native culture and a strong sense of community with other Americans. So ethnic media does not create a news ghetto that keeps people from assimilating into the mainstream. We measured sense of community of Latinos and Chinese with three groups--with people from their country of origin, with people in a pan-ethnic group, such as Asians, and with other Americans. We found that people's expressions of community with these three different groups are all positively related to each other, and that all three of them increase together over the length of time that immigrants have lived in the United States. In other words, sense of community with one's people of origin does not interfere with the development of sense of community with other Americans--else they would be negatively related. We did not find evidence for independent media effects on sense of community. Q: What can journalists in the mainstream media do to write better about different communities?
A: The best journalists get into someoneís head and write from their perspective. Youíve got to get into their minds and write from that perspective. You also have to be a good listener in other languages otherwise you get a tailored version of their stories. Mainstream papers have to recruit people from those communities who understand the culture subtleties. The mainstream media need journalists with a broader and deeper education in other cultures and languages and also journalists with life experience and native language fluency in those communities. This is related to my broader point that perspective is not just point of view--it's an aspect of knowledge about the world's diverse cultural communities. Q: In the conclusion of the report thereís a part that talks about the positive impact Chinese-American media had on the Wen Ho Lee case. (Wen Ho Lee was accused by being a spy by the FBI in 1998. The FBI suspected Wen Ho Lee of giving China information on America's nuclear warhead, the W-88. After nine months in solitary confinement, he was released, cleared of all accusations with an apology from the Justice Department in 2001.) Do you think Wen Ho Lee would have received the same kind of support without ethnic media?
A: I don't know what the eventual outcome would have been if the Chinese-American media had not been involved and the Chinese-American community had not therefore become mobilized. The involvement of the Chinese-American media was clearly crucial. It was only after the Chinese-American press raised a ruckus that organizations formed to fight Wen Ho Lee's incarceration. The existing Chinese-American organizations that one might have expected to defend him were all closely tied to the Clinton administration and were unwilling to oppose the administration when the president was under attack. Q: Are Arab-Americans mobilizing through media as Chinese American did in the Wen Ho Lee?
A: There is some mobilization indicated in the report. Itís a crossover of the historical experience from one ethnic group to another. According to the report, The Daniel Munoz the editor of La Prensa San Diego, had Arab-American community leaders come to him. Arabs in San Diego were fearful as a result of the wave of hate crimes against Arab Americans after Sept. 11, 2001 and asked Munoz for help. As a result, Munoz and other Latinos met with a group of Arab Americans to offer experience and help on this sensitive issue.