Extra Blog #2: Paul Niwa

Posted on September 11, 2018 by by | 2 Comments
  1. In the article “News Coverage” by Paul Niwa, the author gives a clear illustration about the lack of representation among certain media outlets. Whether its radio, newspapers, or TV newsrooms the lack of representation of Asian Americans is obvious through the statistics represented by Niwa. Niwa suggests and argues through his data the means of changing the representation in mainstream news. He shows this but not without certain repercussions that follow in fighting the problem of representation.
  2. One reason Niwa argues why Asian Americans lack such integration among media outlets is because of the lack of trust the mainstream media has on them. Mainstream media see Asian American news as not a profitable source. This mistrust in the community forces Asian American newspaper to be heavily reliant on “less sophisticated local advertisers” rather than “high paying national advertisers” (pg.668) These ads whose income help continue to life of Asian American newspaper has a direct affect to the number of Asian reporters on the field. The general effect of this is the Asian reporters are then left to work for big news companies rather than small independent ones. Working for such a big news outlet hinders Asian reporters from advancing to higher position. As one can see this cause and effect situation stems in part from a lack of trust in Asian American newspaper. In the latter part of the article Niwa brings in AAJA and their influence. The AAJA who set up programs like ELP help “train midlevel newsroom managers” (pg.667) Furthermore, many more Asian Americans become more appealing to mainstream media’s requirements and standards. And through his statistics shows an increase in the number of Asians moving up although the overall number is small like TV workers being at a “2 percent in 2000.” (Pg.667) In the end, Niwa introduced “missing” Asian American coverage. For the example the lack of Vietnamese coverage of those affected by hurricane Katrina, where most of the focus was on a population minority of whites. Niwa exclaims that these obstacles are counteracted through the use of the internet by Asian Americans. By using it they are able to spread rapidly, and self-reliantly with a voice, important topics to discuss, while having the ability to tear down the stereotypes. Using such methods to spread the word and in giving value to Asian American news. And with AAJA to speed up the process Asians can a slow increase of them participating in the different news sources.

 

  1. Key concepts by Niwa include “missing” Asian American coverage. “Missing” Asian American coverage based on Niwa is the lack of any representation of Asian or Asian American communities that have been affected one way or the other and have not been proportionally represented regardless if they are/aren’t the population majority. All the focus goes away from the Asians to “real” Americans.

 

  1. Based on a previous documentary of the LA riots, the cover of the riots shows a similar problem of representation of Asian American reporters. When diversified reporters were sent in to report on the riots in order to protect the lives of white lives, a small surge of color reporters and in respect a small surge in Asian American reporters came from the outcome. But this was a problematic outcome. The documentary made it clear that before the riots had time to develop, in the headquarters of newspapers the main body of reporters were whites. Only when the riots got going did Asian Reporters and their representation of them among the workforce became clear. The news business only gave Asian American reporters the representation they needed because they were viewed as disposable sources if anything were to happen to them while getting information about the riots. Although too late to apologize for such treatment, the hard work that Asian reporters brought was acknowledged. This would in the future slowly change the way representation in the work force is and put more value these reporters have. For there to be equality and fair representation one must learn the lessons from the cruel forces applied on color and Asian American reporters.
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