Media explores community role
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 31, 1995 9:00 p.m.
Media explores community role
By Rashmi Nijagal
With the onslaught of television and advancing technology, many
believe newspapers may be a dying breed. However, a new type of
print media is emerging where journalists are taking a hard look at
community issues by facilitating discussions within the community
itself.
"I think there is a general perception that there has been a
breakdown in the community and a retreat from public life in the
past few decades," said Roy Clark, senior scholar at the Poynter
Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida. "We, as
journalists, need to figure out how we can carry out our role in a
world that is changing so quickly."
As American society evolves and technology advances, the media
has found it necessary to adapt to a new environment and join the
community in adjusting to the current changes as well.
To this end, the Daily Bruin is sponsoring its first town hall
meeting on "The American Identity," a discussion among campus
community members about issues such as race, class and culture,
said Matea Gold, editor in chief.
"By holding forums, such as the ‘American Identity,’ it involves
the newspapers by playing more of a role in the community," Gold
said.
"It is important that the media take on this new role because we
need to redefine what we as newspapers will be in a community,"
Gold added.
Newspapers across the country have conducted such forums in
order to increase dialogue among citizens of their respective
areas. The Miami Herald, for example, has organized more than 70 of
these community discussions in the past two years.
"We call them community conversations and we bring together
various groups of people from the community," said Pete Weitzel,
Miami Herald senior managing editor. "We don’t set the issues for
the conversations, the citizens do. These discussions have given us
the chance to talk with people we normally wouldn’t have talked
to.
"Most newspapers are looking for ways to connect with readers
and the community in order to understand them better," Weitzel
added.
Organizing community discussions are not the only way newspapers
bring people together.
"We are trying to foster some kind of effort to get people to
take back their neighborhoods," said Jim Walser, assistant managing
editor of the Charlotte Observer in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"We’ve gotten about 700 people to volunteer their time to do
various things like tutoring and setting up day-care centers. The
idea is to let people know that they can do things to help."
Communities are welcoming the new role that the media is taking,
Walser added.
"The media is so full of gloom and doom that people are getting
tired of it," Walser said. "People want the newspaper to represent
something and to be a leader as well as a participant in the
community."
With UCLA’s diverse campus, some say there is a growing need for
open discussions between members of the student community in
regards to issues such as race, gender and religion.
"I really believe that all the problems, in terms of ethnic and
racial tensions, are the result of people who are uneducated about
other groups," said Houman Esmailzadeh, a fourth-year biology
student and business manager for the Jewish student newsmagazine
Ha’am.
"I think that the media is responsible  if not for
aggravating these issues, then for educating people about
them."
