I hear the complaints constantly from all around me about the state that our media. They comprise of the desire to flip on the television, the radio, or even to be able to open a newspaper and recognize a diverse content that resembles the diversity of America. Particularly when it comes to people of color who want to be able to see faces in the media that resemble their own. The article in Race After the Internet called "New Voices on the Net: The Digital Journalism Divide and the Costs of Network Exclusion" by Ernest J. Wilson III faces the issues concerning the disproportionate spread of race across the various forms of digital journalism and media.
Wilson mentioned the illusion brought about with President Obama’s inauguration into office that spread a faulty rumor insuring the disappearance of racial division. This combined with the idea that the internet is a race-less space where all races have their space to express themselves created a false illusion that leads us to believe all is fair in the digital world of media. However, one glance at the statistics presented by Wilson throws these illusions out the window and reveals the truth buried underneath: the disproportionate divide is still here today. That can be clear by simply opening your eyes to the lack-there-of people of color on our color screen televisions. And I’m not just talking about the black American presence, but also the dwindling presence of Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans in our media.
The lack of numbers of Americas “minorities” who are soon to be the majority highlights in the brightest yellow how skewed the proportions are. I emphasize again that the people of color often considered the “minority” is soon to be the majority, yet as Wilson supported throughout his article the numbers in digital journalism of all forms are not falling in line with that trend. In fact, the statistics he shared displayed the dwindling numbers of people of color in the digital media.
The argument of access was brought up as well in Wilsons article, however, how much can we truly blame on access with today’s electronic age. Media access has expanded in such a short amount of time to allow anyone with a phone, camera, or access to a computer to express their voices in the digital media format. Sites such as YouTube and Blogspot allow users from all background to express themselves and making access easier and easier. Wilson’s argument concerning access can be deemed as a dated source in the present day of technology that has advanced so much in only a few years.
However, one point Wilson hit on as a problem as well as solution to the disproportionate problem in media was his emphasis on the current lack of owners in the digital media field. There are very few owners of color, but if this was changed the appearance of people of color would also increase accordingly. We see it all the time with the few networks that are owned by people of color, but maybe an increase in owners can make a difference in making the proportions more reflective of America’s population proportions.