Quality Media
 

What are some examples of quality media that you think we as Black people should support? For example

TV: The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Sister Sister, Soul Food

Hip-Hop/Rap: Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Common, Lauryn Hill

Magazines: Savoy, Jet, Black Enterprise, Ebony

Movies: The Antwone Fisher Story, Brown Sugar

And any other media you can think of

Where should our consumer dollars go?

Re: Quality Media
 

You evidently don't know. ;) When you miss Essence, you miss YOU!! It definitely goes on my list.

Looking at the list, I see a huge class component to most of the picks. So any show that depicts middle-class or up blacks is ok, regardless of how mind-numbingly dull or stupid the content (Sister, Sister? I mean I would rather watch Spongebob for life lessons!)

And Backpacker rap is alright, but anything that you dance to or has a thug mentality (which is PLAYED, true, but reflects reality for the almost 1/3 of blacks who live at or below the poverty line and the almost 1/2 of our children who live there) is not what "we" should support?

I am the first one to criticize media representations of blacks when they are distorted, unfair or lean relentlessly in one direction (ignoring how diverse our community is), but don't you think it's just as bad to censor things that we don't like but which contain a grain of truth?

Amen to that!!!

Sometimes I think that we, as a people, are more concerned with chagning our image that we forget to change our reality.

Those were just my personal picks. I know not everyone is going to agree with me. What are your picks?

TV:

The Corner (mini-series)
Roots
Queen
A Different World
Cosmic Slop (HBO special from the 90's)

Movies:

The Brother From Another Planet
The Visit
Bamboozled
Do The Right Thing


Books:

The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Invisible Life by Brother E. Lynn Harris
Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor

Newspapers:

The Washington Post

I so agree with you.

The issue is balance, as Soror LovelyIvy pointed out. And I may not like certain things, but there is a modicum of truth to some of the "thug" things that are out there in the public media.

Again, my problem is when the ghetto image is put out there w/o a counterweight. I love middle-class black reflections, because I'm very middle-class and proud of it. But I think there should also be portraits of people suffering.

IMHO
 

An example of quality media that you think we as Black people should support...

My vote would go for your local PBS station. While I do watch some Network TV shows on an irregular basis, I find that for honest, varied, critical, and open depictions of African-American life and quite frankly, humanity in general- PBS is the best option. Low-class, middle-class, and high-class- PBS covers them all.

Examples include:

This Far By Faith (Black Spirituality and History)
Ken Burn's Jazz Series (Black culture and music)
Africans in America (Black History)
Huey P. Newton Story (Black History)
The Brothermen (Black Music)
Soliders w/o Swords (Black Press)
Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (Black History)
of course, Sesame Street (for kids of all ages and colors)

If you think PBS is for old people, think again. It is a WONDERFUL alternative to some of the mindless TV goo.

Re: IMHO
 

Sands, that is so true. And NO COMMERCIALS! Just the occaisional pledge drive.

Re: Re: IMHO
 

Sands,

I know that's right about the commercials. Pure, unbiased programming. None of the car commericals and fast-food prompts either!

Good point...

Books:

Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By: Harriet Jacobs
Journey To The Well: 12 Lessons On Personal Transformation By: Bishop Vashti M. McKenzie

Movies:

Unchained Memories:Readings From The Slave Narratives
Women in Black History Video Collection

Magazine:
American Legacy: The Magazine of African-American History&Culture

I guess I have a different take on media because I have middle-class values (the good and the bad) but I didn't grow up middle class or in a middle class neighborhood. Anything I have is because my Mom and family went through the struggle so I like seeing the struggle represented because it is true for me and mine.

Apart from that, I don't consider myself African-American but Carribean American and I have yet to see that represented on tv and only rarely in a magazine. It's not something that gets considered in the general "black experience" unless you live in NY or FL which has always struck me as an unfair fact of life. Even PBS (whish I agree is the best place to see shows about Af-Am culture- LOVED the Ken Burns Jazz series) has yet to explore that. There are so MANY facets of the African diasporic culture that tv and media can not begin to show them all.

Anyway, my picks-

books:
Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall (I loved loved loved this book)
ANYTHING by Edwige Dandicat
Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
Race by Studs Terkel
The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon
Brown Girl In The Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas (I can not say how much I loved this one too)


And really, I don't watch a lot of tv other than HBO and reality tv anymore ;) so I can't say much for that medium except that I don't really like any of the "black" shows on there. Law and Order doesn't count as a black show does it?

Music:
Buju Banton
The Roots
Floetry
but then I am a broke downloader so I don't know that my picks can really count.

TTT/No more Honey, Savoy and Heart and Soul
 

Sorors who were not geeked about receiving Honey --no more. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
The New York Times

November 26, 2003, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section C; Page 8; Column 3;
Business/Financial Desk
LENGTH: 354 words
HEADLINE: Publisher to Close 3 Magazines Aimed At
Black Readers
BYLINE: By DAVID CARR
BODY:
Vanguarde Media Inc., publisher of Savoy, Honey and
Heart & Soul, announced yesterday that it would close
the magazines and seek bankruptcy protection.
The company was founded in 1999 by its chairman and
chief executive, Keith T. Clinkscales, a former chief
executive of Vibe magazine. In a statement, Mr.
Clinkscales said that the last few years had been
difficult for independent magazine companies.
"Today, Vanguarde Media regrets to announce a decision
to cease publication of Honey, Savoy and Heart & Soul
magazines," the statement read. "While this is no easy
decision for any of us, our most recent efforts at
securing funding proved unsuccessful, and we are no
longer able to sustain operations."
Mr. Clinkscales did not return a call seeking
additional comment.
Vanguarde Media's investors included Provender Capital
Group and Robert L. Johnson of Black Entertainment
Television.
"Vanguarde was building its business in a magazine
industry that has struggled with dramatically lower
advertising revenue due to the downturn in the
economy," Provender Capital said in a statement. "As
such, it was the fiduciary duty of the company's board
to support a decision to file for bankruptcy
protection."
The company focused on upscale black readers, most
recently by founding Savoy, a magazine aimed at black
men, in 2001. Savoy was designed to tap into an
emerging market of upper- and middle-class black men.
Heart & Soul was a health and beauty magazine for
black women.
A punishing advertising market and a historically
challenging environment for ethnically focused
publications left the company constantly searching for
additional financing.
"This has been a challenge from the beginning and it
is a testament to everyone involved that they made it
this far," said Roy S. Johnson, assistant managing
editor at Sports Illustrated and the former editorial
director of Savoy. Mr. Johnson left the company at the
end of last year. Last spring, Amy DuBois Barnett, the
editor of Honey, which focused on young black women,
left to become editor of Teen People.
_________________________________

Re: TTT/No more Honey, Savoy and Heart and Soul
 

Wow...Mr Toocute used to work for Vanguarde MEdia. Glad he got out when he did. :eek: