Media explores community role

Published: Wednesday, February 1, 1995

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."