I taught a engaging program at the Boys and Girls Club today, and I posed a question about drugs and one girl raised her hand and said “because the media makes it ok. People see celebrities and rappers doing it so they think its cool because they want to be like them”. Media has for a very long time controlled people’s perceptions of beauty, fashion, weight, and what is deemed as acceptable to society. So many onlookers say “it’s the media’s fault, if all people see on television is….. then that is what they are going to want to do”. Game Changers, one time Howard University student, Sean Combs and Michigan State graduate; long time Los Angeles Laker, Earvin Johnson unite to launch cable channels for Hispanic and African American audiences.
The new nets will launch between this Spring and early 2014, with Comcast having a minority stake in each.Combs and MTV veteran Andy Schuon will launch Revolt – a music and pop culture channel that plans to draw heavily on social media elements. It will debut sometime in 2013.
Revolt will deliver “a completely new model of television that brings together the artist community, social media, and cutting edge technology,” said Combs, whose company, Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment, is behind it.
Johnson has partnered with GMC TV on Aspire, which will aim at African-American families with a mix of movies, docs, comedy, performing arts, faith and other programming that “celebrate the successes” of the black community. It is due to launch this summer.
“Aspire will be a network that encourages and challenges African-Americans to reach for their dreams and will appeal to all generations,” said Johnson.
As it was closing the deal for NBCU last year, Comcast told US regulators it would launch 10 new independent channels over the following eight years. Four would be majority-owned by African-Americans, two by Hispanics, and another two would be programmed by Hispanics. An additional two would feature other independent programming.
All 10 will be added to Comcast’s digital basic tier. The Philadelphia-owned company is the largest cable provider in the US with some 22 million subscribers.
With television time comes the need to pay the bills (commercials) and all I can say is I hope we will be more mindful as these channels draw a specific audience. In terms of being mindful, we ought to think twice before the images we’re putting on screen as well as the images that are being portrayed. A whole bunch of light skinned size zero’s with large breast is in no manners realistic nor does it portray real life people. It is important that we think of women that between the ages of 18-35 because that is a large audience but 18-25 are most susceptible to these images that are shown. I hope that these new channels will look to boost the morale for colored men and women. Average sized people of color and plus sized women ought to be put in the same light as actors and actresses.
This is a huge step forward for Black communities but a bigger responsibility is on the shoulders of TV producers to portray positive images of Black people. They also have to keep in mind that what they show will alter the decision making of their viewers. I’m sure they’ll do the right thing.
