Organic Arab American ethnic community journalism vanishing
By Ray Hanania
In October 1999 when the fledgling National Arab American Journalist Association (NAAJA) hosted its first national Writer’s Conference in Chicago, nearly 300 journalists, writers and students attended in the hopes of creating a broader network that pushed the Arab community’s interests in writing into breaking the glass ceiling against Arabs in American journalism.
Several conferences later, including in Detroit and in Washington D.C., NAAJA compiled data on the organic Arab American news media documenting the early history of the first publications to rise in New York and spread throughout the country. NAAJA began publishing a National Arab American Media Directory to help mainstream businesses and news media to “see” our community and use the Arab American ethnic news media as a resource for factual information from Arab American sources.
Prior to the escalation of anti-Arab racism that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 in New York City, there were more than 120 independent Arab American newspapers, plus several Arab American radio and cable TV programs that focused on documenting news in the Arab American community.
We didn’t know it but NAAJA’s continued work to document and identify organic Arab journalism in America provided a benchmark for the damage that the rise in hatred against Arabs would have on our communication networking and our ethnic journalism presence in this country.
A study in 2007 showed that the number of Arab media publications, radio stations and cable TV programs had dropped significantly after Sept. 11, 2001 to only 79 publications. Click here to view the NAAJA report.
This week, the successor to NAAJA, the International Arab American Journalists Association (INAAJA at INAAJA.org) completed a study that has shown an even more disturbing trend in which the organic ethnic Arab American news media continues to vanish, documenting only 15 surviving newspapers, although the U.S. Arab Radio Network launched by Laila Alhusini, a Syrian Immigrant, has grown in Greater Detroit where the Arab community has a substantial presence and its only weekly newspaper, The Arab American News published by veteran journalist Osama Siblani.
In contrast, we are seeing a growth in the number of Arabs who are entering mainstream journalism, as reflected by the growth of the membership in AMEJA – the American Middle East Journalism Association based in New York City. While NAAJA was focused on the ethnic Arab media, AMJEA has been focused on the Arabs in the mainstream American news media.
But what has been the price of shifting from the Arab American ethnic media to assimilation into the mainstream American news media?
The community continues to lose its presence. An ethnic media plays a significant role in the presence of an ethnic community. It documents the day-to-day activities and news of that community. The mainstream news media only really focuses on news of interest to the broader American audience and occasionally writes about the interests of Arab Americans locally.
Although in reality, the mainstream American news media is driven by one primary rule: “if it bleeds it leads” which means the drama, tragedy and conflict dominant news reporting, not the everyday good news that is sometimes considered uneventful to the interests of a larger public.
The result is we have less stories about the Arab American community itself. Who are its leaders? What are their organizations? What are they doing? What are their challenges? What are their successes?
Every community needs a “newspaper of record,” which is ironically a mainstream American journalism term that identifies the fundamental essence of existence and answers this core question: “If a tree falls in the forest but no one sees it, did the tree really fall?”
In other words, if no one notices it, the falling of the tree is irrelevant and the tree itself becomes irrelevant.
The Arab American community does not have a “newspaper of record.” Therefore, does it exist? Is the Arab American community important? Or, are we just a negative news headline to entertain the rest of America?
This is not a criticism of AMEJA. AMEJA and NAAJA were not “rivals” but never became partners. NAAJA is an effort to address a serious problem, an affliction that is not being addressed. What is the state of the Arab American community? Are we only fodder for negative stories published in the mainstream news media?
Although we see a growth in the number of Arab Americans in “professional” mainstream American journalism, in a vast majority of those cases, the journalists do not have the same freedom as do other ethnic and religious groups to spotlight their own culture.
And, when that spotlighting includes the contentious politics of the Middle East, it because even less attractive to the mainstream news media desperate to avoid any entanglements over the “Israel-Palestine” conflict and tensions between Arabs and Jews or being denounced as “anti-Semitic” for promoting the Palestinian flag or suggesting that Palestinians have rights that are being discriminated against by Israel’s government.
There are several Arab American Organizations that should be working with iNAAJA to explore this issue including the Arab American Institute and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee which has its conference soon in Washington D.C.
It’s not that these organizations are deficient. They are not. They explore many important topics and their activism is so important. But the truth is that the Arab American community itself has no real awareness of the importance of an organic ethnic Arab American news media. There is no discussion about it so why would they think it was important.
The deterioration of the organic ethnic Arab American news media is a significant trend that is undermining the presence and influence of Arabs in America.
If one Arab community in Chicago doesn’t know what another Arab community is doing in Los Angeles, New York or Texas, how can we ever expect to have a strong voice to advocate for our rights? To share our experiences and what we have learned from overcoming our challenges?
The organic ethnic Arab American media is so important to the health of the Arab American community. And you can evaluate an ethnic community’s health by the state of its organic ethnic media.
Those ethnic communities with a vibrant and strong ethnic media are more visible, more impactful and more effective in advocacy and command a strong presence in American society.
Those that don’t have a strong ethnic media, like the Arab American community, continue to face discrimination, challenges and continued marginalization.
Resources:
2007 SPJ supports NAAJA membership subgroup
2017 Arab American journalists under Siege
2012 Profile of Laila Alhusini radio
Profile of Laila Alhusini 2019
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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