Category Archives: Media

The case of Shirley Sherrod and what it says about media and politics today

Share I found the whole Shirley Sherrod case to be pretty disgraceful to be honest. I’ve written a number of pieces on it for different publications, as well as appearing on the BBC talking about the nature of the media today and how easy it is to score cheap political points by manipulating the media… [...]

Africa as told by Africans – “Football Fables”

Share As the World Cup gets underway, each day I’ll presenting at least one positive perspective on Africa and something that’s going on that I think will be of interest to you. Today I’m presenting an award-winning documentary film called Football Fables which has recently opened in London. Hopefully we can get it to come [...]

Lola Speaks: Why is it still ok to discriminate against the overweight?

Share httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om3ckepog-U

Haiti and why media coverage of tragedies sucks!

Share Recently I have begun advocating for a new approach to media output. I would like to see a media that is focussed on looking at solutions, rather than just regurgitating scary and titillating images and statistics (or sometimes speculation, rumours and misinformation) which don’t help the people/situation being discussed and leave those watching, reading [...]

Do we need black/ethnic media in a ‘post-racial’ age?

Share The answer to my own question in the headline is a resounding YES. But let me qualify that by saying that we need GOOD black media (and indeed other ethnic media). Black media that perpetuates stereotypes and limits the scope of our interests to crime and entertainment stories, and doesn’t take into consideration the [...]

CNN panel: Swines + Planes

Share Yesterday I took part in another CNN panel… 3 of us including Pete Cashmore from Mashable and Shawn Williams from Dallas South Blog talked about swine flu and the jet that flew over NY. We had some differences of opinion… have a listen.     Embedded video from CNN Video     

Diversity in Newsrooms – what to do about it?

Share A lack of diversity in newspapers and on TV has been an ongoing problem for many years. It happens in the US, it happens in the UK and no doubt it happens in other western countries too. I’ve written previously about the need for diverse perspectives in the media especially at a time in [...]

Changing Race: What was the NY Post thinking?

Share As the controversy over Sean Delonas’ chimp cartoon continues to grow and people have taken to the streets in protest, the NY Post has finally issued an apology. Well, kind of. Although the Post apologized “to those who were offended by the image” the paper clearly has no desire to apologize to Al Sharpton who [...]

NY Post: Monkeying Around

Share I’ve written before about the dangers and sensitivities of using of monkey imagery when depicting black people. And the NY Post has now found itself embroiled in controversy over this cartoon: I don’t care whether or not you think black people look like monkeys, or whether or not you think black people are being [...]

Missing Black People In The Media

Share When Spike Lee asked why Clint Eastwood’s movie Flags Of Our Fathers had no black people in it, Clint Eastwood responded with anger saying that ‘a guy like him should shut his face’. According to Clint Eastwood, there were indeed a few black people there in Iwo Jima, but they didn’t raise the flag [...]