For over ten years, the Aspen Institute Forum on Diversity and the Media has convened leaders in the media and related industries, leading academics and thinkers, and leaders from the nonprofit sector to address ways in which the various media in the United States can be more responsive to the needs and interests of minority communities. The goal of the Forum is to advance the development of business rationales for supporting the development, production, and marketing of more diverse news and entertainment programming in a variety of communications media--the Internet and other forms of "new" media, ethnic media, and general market or "mainstream" media--and specifically to promote programming that meets the needs and interests of minority audiences. The Forum is a partnership between the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the Ford Foundation and is funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation as part of its broader Media and Diversity Initiative.

The following is a description of reports available from the Aspen Institute Forum on Diversity and the Media:

Unmassing America: Ethnic Media and the New Advertising Marketplace
Amy Korzick Garmer, The Aspen Institute, 2006

Unmassing America: Ethnic Media and the New Advertising Marketplace, by Amy Korzick Garmer, examines the forces moving the traditional advertising paradigm from predominately mass market "push" models to a new blend of "push and pull." The report examines how trends away from big and toward smaller "niche" audiences, experimentation with more personalized messages and delivery mechanisms, and the search for new ways to re-aggregate audiences may present a golden opportunity for ethnic media to increase their participation in the advertising marketplace. Unmassing America offers a set of suggestions for leaders in the ethnic media to seize this opportunity through establishing a stronger presence in the marketing and media industries, making internal changes to articulate better the business case for spending advertising dollars with ethnic media, and aggregating one ethnic media business with others to create synergy and scale.  This report, published in November 2006, is based on the Aspen Institute conference, "The Future of Advertising and the Attention Economy: Leveraging the Influence of Ethnic Media," that was convened May 11-13, 2005 at the Aspen Wye River Conference Center with the support of the Ford Foundation.

Read the report, Unmassing America: Ethnic Media and the New Advertising Marketplace.

A Matter of Degree: The Role of Journalists as Activists in Journalism Business and Policy
Neil Shister, The Aspen Institute, 2004

The Aspen Institute Forum on Diversity and the Media, with the support of the Ford Foundation, convened a roundtable meeting on The Role of Journalists in Journalism Business and Policy. The forum, held October 29-31, 2003, examined how policy decisions made at business and governmental venues affect the nature, quality, and practice of journalism. Issues of media concentration and diversity, for example, have significant implications not only for the broader public but also for the practice of journalism itself. Yet there appear to be few instances where American journalists and their professional membership organizations are directly involved in policy debates that resolve these issues. Should journalists become more involved in these debates? If so, how? This Forum examined the rationale for involvement or non-involvement, strategies for effectiveness, and movement toward coalition building to achieve desired results, i.e., the better practice and impact of quality journalism.

Read the report, A Matter of Degree: The Role of Journalists as Activists in Journalism Business and Policy.

Mission-Driven Media: Not Just Survival, but Success
Titus Levi, The Aspen Institute, 2002

Mission-driven media can be defined as the group of ethnic, cultural, community and social justice media that have a specific purpose that drives them (e.g., social change, community building, empowerment) beyond the profit motive or general news source for a heterogeneous community. This report explores the current state of mission-driven media, obstacles to success, strategies for sustainability and the critical role played by skills-building and networking.  Report recommendations include strategies for expanding access to much needed capital, supporting research on the diverse populations and markets that mission-driven media seek to serve, and facilitating wider social networks and associations that connect media entrepreneurs with the capital, expertise and communities to help them sustain their mission.  This report is based on a meeting of the Aspen Institute Forum on Diversity and the Media held in Aspen, Colorado on July 11-14, 2001. 

 Read the report, Mission-Driven Media: Not Just Survival But Success.

Reinventing Minority Media for the 21^st Century
América Rodríguez, The Aspen Institute, 2001

Includes the specially commissioned research paper, In the Black: African-American Web Entrepreneurs and Internet Advertising, by Kofi Asiedu Ofori.

Ethnic communications, most notably newspapers, are dominant fixtures in many minority communities. In a world where the ethnic experience is filtered through the mainstream media, if presented at all, ethnic media represent the authentic voice of the community. As important to their constituencies as they are, however, not all of these media will experience continued viability--black newspapers, for example, face a decreasing readership even as Hispanic and Asian papers flourish. The amount of ethnically oriented television and radio programming has also increased and found success, but often cannot generate the same revenues produced by majority programs with the same audience size.  This report examines minority media--print, television, radio and Internet--and the new business models that may allow them to strengthen their role as community information sources. The Aspen Institute conference on which it is based brought together editors of black and Hispanic newspapers, executives from major ethnic web portals, web editors and managers of mainstream newspapers, journalists, and academics researching ethnic communications issues for a dynamic discussion of the future of minority controlled media. 

Read the report, Reinventing Minority Media for the 21st Century, including the paper "In the Black: African-American Web Entrepreneurs and Internet Advertising" by Kofi Asieu Ofori.

Coming Together--Bridging the Gap between Investors and Minority Internet Entrepreneurs
Robert M. Entman, The Aspen Institute, 2000

This report is based on the proceedings of the Aspen Institute Forum on Diversity and the Media held in April 2000.  This conference brought together minority "dotcom" entrepreneurs, minority and majority venture capitalists, researchers in the area of minority and women-owned businesses, and community economic developers from the nonprofit sector to seek solutions to overcoming the funding obstacles encountered by minority Internet enterprises.  Among the obstacles identified in the report are the inability of traditional sources of minority business funding to meet the needs of the digital economy, ignorance of the minority market and the capabilities of minority entrepreneurs, ignorance of the funding process itself and a lack access to high level business advisors to guide them through the venture capital process.  To combat these obstacles, participants recommended creating an online information source for entrepreneurs; funding market research to support the claims of minority venture capital firms and entrepreneurs; creating accelerators-a business incubator providing access to the high level advisors required by venture capital firms; and giving financial support to the efforts of entrepreneurial students and faculty in historically black colleges and universities.

Changing Rules in the Market for Attention: New Strategies for Minority Programming
Richard P. Adler, The Aspen Institute, 2000

This report presents new strategies and business models for producing and distributing news, entertainment, and general programming in traditional and digital media with the goal of increasing minority participation in all levels of the media. It also explores barriers to the full participation of minorities in the media. The report is based on the Aspen Institute Forum on Diversity and the Media convened July 16-18, 1999, that brought together industry leaders from the fields of marketing research, advertising, entertainment, and online media. The message: digital media, with its lower barriers to entry and its suitability for niche audiences, might become a new venue for minority content producers unable to have their voices heard otherwise.

Read the report, Changing Rules In the Market for Attention: New Strategies for Minority Programming.

Investing in Diversity: Advancing Opportunities for Minorities and the Media
Amy Korzick Garmer (editor), The Aspen Institute, 1998

A compendium of specially commissioned research papers and reports of the first two years of the Aspen Institute Forum on Diversity and the Media, it focuses on the difficulties of promoting minority programming in mainstream media, and the concurrent difficulties of minority media competing with their larger counterparts in the mainstream.  This report examines new approaches to marketing diverse programming across traditional and new media platforms. This report includes contributions by experts in the fields of demographics, media economics, advertising and marketing, the Internet, mass media studies and intercultural communication.