Charlotte Chamber’s BPN Hosts Jazz on the Roof

The Charlotte Chamber’s Black Professionals Network (BPN) will host its annual Jazz on the Roof event on Wednesday, July 15 at the Pavilion at EpiCentre, 210 E. Trade St.

Scene from last year's Jazz on the Roof event.

Warren Ballentine, CNN commentator and Radio One host, will be a special featured guest and will sign copies of his new book, The Truth About Black and White: Practical Guide to Money and Race Relations in the 21st Century. His radio program, The Warren Ballentine Show, is syndicated in 20 markets and can be heard in Charlotte on 92.7 FM, WQNC.

Jazz on the Roof will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. and will include networking, food, drinks, and live jazz from the band Uniq Blend. Tickets are $20 if picked up at the Chamber, $21 if purchased online at www.ez-tixx.com, and $25 at the door the day of the event. The event is open to the public.

Click here to learn more about the Charlotte Chamber’s Black Professionals Network.

Ethnic Media Reaching Record Numbers

Nearly 60 million Americans now regularly get information from ethnically oriented TV, radio, newspapers, and websites, many of which are published or broadcast in languages other than English--and that number is on the rise. New America Media, the non-profit group that supports ethnic media producers nationwide, commissioned a poll by Sergio Bendixen.

As mainstream newspapers and cable news channels in the United States are losing more money, readers, and viewers each year, ethnic media appears to be "maybe the most vibrant part" of the media landscape, said Bendixen, releasing the latest statistics this month. "The ethnic media is growing, and it is growing at a very impressive rate," Bendixen told a meeting of media producers.

Spanish-language television giants Telemundo and Univision have captured large shares of the U.S. viewing audience, but smaller Spanish stations are having an impact as well. Channels have popped up to serve Hispanic populations in new locales like Raleigh, North Carolina and Seattle, Washington, Bendixen said. And the majority of African Americans report watching BET or other television channels with African American-oriented programming on a regular basis.

To determine where the 69 million Hispanics and African and Asian Americans in the United States get their information, Bendixen's company conducted a poll in eight languages. They determined that more than four out of every five Americans of those ethnic backgrounds are now being informed on a regular basis by ethnic media. Many consider non-English programming their primary source of information, though most also get information from mainstream, English-language media like CNN, Fox News, and the major networks CBS, NBC, and ABC.

The number of U.S. adults consuming ethnic media is up 16 percent--from 51 million to 57 million--since 2005, when Bendixen conducted the first poll of this sort. New America Media says advertisers, lawmakers, and others would be wise to pay more attention to the sector.

Click here to read the full article.

Click here to see the results of the recently released study on ethnic media.

Behind the Blogs

A recent article by Russell Smith of The Globe and Mail gives an introspective look into how blogs are measuring up in media. Titled "So Many Blogs, So Little Cash," the article details how blogs are being used by newspaper reporters, freelance writers, and book authors in addition to many other types of professionals. Smith says there are several forms of a personal blog, but the main three types are:

1. The compiler or aggregator of information about a specific subject, with links to various news stories and updates, which may have a clear journalistic function.

2. The professional journalist's blog, paid for by a news organization, which reads very much as his or her regular reporting does, and has the same financial resources behind it, but happens to be online.

3. The amateur opinion column, which can often degenerate into a diary.

He also cites an interesting 2008 survey conducted by Technorati.com that included 133 million blogs. The survey found that only 7.4 million of them had been updated in the last four months and concluded that 95 percent of blogs were essentially abandoned.

Click here to read the full article.

Dedrick Russell's NABJ Campaign Video

Online voting began this week for NABJ national elections and Dedrick Russell, a CAABJ member and education reporter for WBTV, is running for Vice President of Broadcast. If you're a member of the national chapter then you're eligible to vote in the elections and we're asking that you support Russell. Voting concludes at the NABJ Convention in Tampa in August.

In the video below, Russell explains why he deserves your vote.