A Right to Media? Lorie M. Graham - Columbia Law School

480 COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW [41:429
boundaries.” 197 However, even with these programs, reliable funding
still remains the greatest obstacle to the survival of Native American
media.
Moreover, public and private funding remains inconsistent
and insufficient for increased production and distribution. Many
indigenous media outlets are dependent on limited federal funds,
because they lack commercial viability due to limited advertising
revenue and a relatively small audience base. Moreover, the
application of free market principles to media places the United
States behind some other countries in regard to the development of
indigenous television and other media networks.
For instance, unlike Australia, the United States does not
have a large, nationalized broadcaster. Rather, television networks in
the United States are dependent on advertising dollars and,
therefore, programming is driven more by ratings than by content.
Because Native Americans as a whole make up a relatively small
percentage of the population, however, it is difficult to make the case
to profit-driven networks that it is in the interest of their bottom
lines to air Native American programming. This lack of indigenous
control over production and distribution capabilities is a stubborn
obstacle to the growth of Native American media.
Further, while a myriad of Native American radio stations,
print media, and television programming is being produced by Native
Americans, these media sources are rarely consumed by nonindigenous
peoples. Compounding the problem is the fact that
mainstream private media outlets do not adequately cover the
diversity of complex issues involving Native Americans. 198 The Native
American Journalists Association (NAJA) conducted an extensive
research project to examine the coverage of Native Americans in
several of the most popular newspapers in the United States. A
“content analysis of nine of America’s largest circulation newspapers”
from 1999 through 2001 found “1,133 articles dealing with Native
197. Press Release, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CPB Awards $1.5
Million to Help Establish Center for Native American Radio, Sept. 23, 2004,
http://www.cpb.org/pressroom/release.php?prn=378.
198. Kara Briggs, Tom Arviso, Dennis McAuliffe & Lori Edmo-Suppah,
Native Am. Journalists Ass’n & News Watch, The Reading Red Report: Native
Americans in the News: A 2002 Report and Content Analysis on Coverage by the
Largest Newspapers in the United States III (2002) (“Our concern is based on a
number of observations including a lack of coverage, uninformed coverage that
perpetuates stereotypes and false perceptions, and gross inaccuracies.”).