Sample Letter to the FCC on Race, Gender & Class Representation

Dear FCC Commissioners,

I am a resident of ___________, Michigan and I am concerned about how the local TV news represents the community along race, gender and class lines. I watch channel ____ and I have observed that the news often perpetuates stereotypes in how they do news coverage or they limit the diversity of voices in dealing with important issues such as the economy, health care, education, the environment, and public safety.

I understand that our local TV stations are currently under a License Renewal Process with your office. I wanted to communicate with you in the hopes that you can help us get our TV stations to better serve the public interest. The Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy has been monitoring the TV news in the Greater Grand Rapids area and has documented some clear biases with race, gender, and class representation. African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately represented as crime suspects and minority voices are rarely heard in stories involving issues other than racism.

Women's voices in news coverage have also been limited to "traditional" women's opinion areas - as parents and consumers, but disproportionately lacking in business, government and larger community issues. Another area where area TV news coverage has been problematic has been around sexual assault. Most coverage of sexual assault tends to perpetuate the myth that women are most at risk from strangers, when the opposite is true. Also, rarely do news stories let viewers know about services for victims, nor do they focus on the perpetrators of sexual assault.

Lastly, when it comes to economic coverage the news primarily relies on the business perspective but not that of workers. This is particularly disturbing since many jobs have been lost in our area in recent years, job loss that could be attributed in part to trade policy. I want my local TV news stations to provide adequate coverage of these crucial issues.

Respectfully
NAME - printed and signed
Address

 

Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy (GRIID)
711 Bridge St. NW
Grand Rapids, MI
49504

616-459-4788x122 (phone)
616-459-3970 (fax)

www.griid.org

The contents of this page are also available in a PDF version: Sample Letter to FCC.

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