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Nieman NotesNieman NotesCompiled by Lois FioreAt Unity ’99 the Topic Was JournalismThe conference offered a glimpse of what newsrooms could be.By Sam Fulwood IIITo many, the only real news thatcame out of the Unity ’99 conferencewas GOP presidential candidateGeorge W. Bush’s attempt tobypass the largest gathering of minorityjournalists ever even though he wascampaigning at the same time in Seattle.I know. I wrote the story thatconvinced him at the last minute toalter his schedule for a brief, impromptuwalkabout at the convention.But Unity ’99 wasn’t about presidentialpolitics.No, for most of the estimated 6,000people attending Unity ’99 last July,the gathering was the largest and mostmultiracial group of journalists to assemblein one place. Over the courseof five days, there were workshops,speeches and cocktail parties involvingmedia industry chatter. Those attendingwere primarily, but not exclusively,representing the Asian American JournalistsAssociation, the National Associationof Black Journalists, the NationalAssociation of HispanicJournalists and the Native AmericanJournalists Association.The oft-stated goal of Unity ’99 promoterswas to unite a divided collectiveof “journalists of color” into a singleforce. Implicit is their ultimate ambitionof pressing the establishmentmedia for greater racial, ethnic andgender diversity at all levels in thenation’s newsrooms.I feel that’s too much to ask; it is aburden on racial minorities that’s unfairand impossible to achieve. Whyshould black, Latino, Native Americanand Asian journalists be the exemplarsof unity, allowing the larger journalisticcommunity—or society at large—off the hook?Five years ago, at the first Unity conventionin Atlanta, the organizationsstruggled among themselves to pull offthe first combined convention of minorityjournalists. This year’s meetingwas even more difficult to make happenthan the first. During the run-up tothe 1999 convention, the constituentorganizations wrestled with whetherto hold the meeting in Washingtonstate, where voters had repealed affirmativeaction programs.If NABJ, the largest of the minoritygroups, had convinced its members tostay away, the turnout might have beenreduced and organizers might havebeen forced to cancel the long-plannedmeeting. Millions of dollars would havebeen lost to the organizations. In theend, black journalists retreated from apotentially crippling boycott threat, andthe convention was spared.“It’s a very, very powerful thing,”Catalina Camia, President of Unity: Journalistof Color, Inc., the umbrella organizationthat organized the convention,said to me as delegates arrived.“Our voices raised together are immanentlylouder and more powerful thana single voice.”Well, voices certainly were raised inprotest of the overwhelming whitenessof America’s news industry, aswell they should be. According to asurvey commissioned by the FreedomForum’s Media Studies Center in NewYork, 55 percent of journalists of colorat U.S. dailies expect to leave the business.Another study by the Latino journalistgroup drew attention to the “networkbrownout” on national newsbroadcasts, pointing out that less thana single percent of their reports wereabout Hispanics.And so it went, from an early-bird’sTown Hall meeting on Tuesday night(before more delegates arrived onWednesday) that allowed Seattle residentsto vent their frustrations over thelack of coverage in minority communitiesto a closing ceremony on Saturdaynight aimed at “Celebrating Our Future,”the themes of race and ethnicitywere front and center. One particularlyinsightful workshop session dealtwith “How TV News Portrayals of Raceand Class Impact Children.”But I’m not sure very many peoplegot the intended message. It’s an oldstory, better told in the 1969 KernerCommission Report, which lambastedthe media for covering the world “fromthe standpoint of a white man’s world.”Not much has changed on that front in30 years, except far too many Americanstune out when the subject arises.For me, deeply mired in the dailymuck of news, Unity ’99 offered a briefglimpse of what could be in the nation’snewsrooms. If given the opportunity,journalists of color will talk about thebroad and complex issues that confrontall journalists. We might evenwrite a story that prompts a presidentialcandidate to adjust his schedule.To be sure, if journalism improves, thenation’s minority populations—includingjournalists—will gain. But Americawill benefit even more.Nieman Reports / Fall 1999 79