While previous scholarship on African Americans and the media has largely focused on issues such as stereotypes and program content,
Struggles for Equal Voice reveals how African Americans have utilized access to cable television production and viewership as a significant step toward achieving empowerment during the post–Civil Rights and Black Power era. In this pioneering study of two metropolitan districts—Boston and Detroit—Yuya Kiuchi paints a rich and fascinating historical account of African Americans working with municipal offices, local politicians, cable service providers, and other interested parties to realize fair African American representation and media ownership. Their success provides a useful lesson of community organizing, image production, education, and grassroots political action that remains relevant and applicable even today.
İçerik tablosu
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction: Unveiling the Struggles for Equal Voice
1. The Black Image in the White Pathology
African Americans and the Film Industry
African Americans and the Television Industry
African Americans in Mainstream Visual Culture
2. Cable Television: Past and Present
Prelude: Early Days of Cable Television, 1948–1969
Legal, Economic, Professional, and Technological Concerns, 1960–1979
Legal, Literature, and Public and Community Access Channels, 1980–1989
Decrease in Cable Awareness, 1990–2010
Need for Grassroots Movement for Cable Representation
3. The Incubation Period of Cable Television
Boston’s Social and Historical Background in the 1970s
Mel King and African American Media Representation
Foreseeable Advantage of Cable Television in Boston
Detroit’s Social and Historical Background in the 1970s
Detroit’s Twenty-Year Period of Feasibility Discussions and Study
Final Draft of the Request for Proposals
4. Drafting of Democratic Communication Media
Drafting and Issuing the Request for Proposals in Boston
Applying to Wire Boston: Submitting Preliminary Application
Issuing of Request for Proposals in Boston
Submission of Amended Application
Drafting and Issuing the Request for Proposals in Detroit
Applying to Wire Detroit: Barden Cablevision
Emphasis on Public Access and Local Origination in Detroit
5. Progress and Struggles in the Process of Franchise Decisions for Media Democracy
Boston’s Period of Application Review
Public Hearings in the Early Summer of 1981
Analyzing the Final Applications
Choosing Cablevision over Warner Amex
Discussion with Cablevision
Granting the License to Cablevision
Detroit’s Period of Application Review
Issuing the Final Report
Politics Delay Media Democracy
Signing the Final Agreement with Barden Cablevision of Detroit
6. From Agreement to Production: Period of Struggling
Boston and Its Post-Agreement Phase
Cablevision’s Failure to Meet the Expectations
A Beginning of an Alternative Media Form of African American Bostonians
Detroit and Its Post-Agreement Phase
Delays during the Post-Agreement Phase
Conclusion: BET is not the Answer
Historical Lessons from Cable Television in Boston and Detroit
African Americans in Cable Television in a National Context
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Yazar hakkında
Yuya Kiuchi is Assistant Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State University. He is the cotranslator of the Japanese edition of Barack Obama’s
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.
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