BALTIMORE — According to recent data, African-Americans own just 10 U.S. television stations.
When you think of all the television stations that are out there, the number of African-American-owned stations is astronomically low.
There are many reasons for this. When television stations were first distributed, the U.S. government gave those exclusively to white males.
Media consolidation is also at the core of the problem. TV, AM and FM radio stations have been bought up primarily by the same white males.
The FCC has not helped this matter, either. There is currently no minority ownership policy in place in regard to these instances.
It is mind boggling to sit back and read this data. For all the hundreds of channels that we flip through on a daily basis, only 10 of those channels are owned by African-Americans.
But it’s not just television stations- white ownership for FM radio stations is at 94 percent, and 80 percent for AM.
The lack of diversity among television station and radio station ownership is very interesting to examine from a cultural perspective.
As a society, we consume media daily. If we are consuming media daily from the same cultural background of ownership, it makes us less aware and mindful to different cultural perspectives.
Jordan Cope 