COMMENTARY
We need a revitalized media council to address tough topics

By John Griffin

It's ironic that the Honolulu Community-Media Council is struggling to survive at a time when journalism issues are mounting.

Or, to put it more hopefully, the 31-year-old volunteer organization is seeking to become more involved and relevant in a changing media world.

First a disclosure: This column is my opinion. But I am an eight-year member of the council, and so as responsible as anyone for its decline into what too often has been viewed as just a monthly luncheon meeting that sometime has interesting speakers.

Don't get me wrong: The council has done many good things over the years since it was founded by a group of civic-minded leaders and editors after Honolulu's then-Mayor Frank Fasi refused to talk with the Star-Bulletin city hall reporter, Richard Borreca.

The media council was a leader in the "Sunshine Co-alition" that successfully pushed for the state's open meeting and records law. It sponsored some memorable day-or-two forums on what I call frontier issues, including last year's on new media. Every year, it celebrates a Freedom of Information Day in honor of the Bill of Rights, and it gives out the Fletcher Knebel Award for journalistic excellence.

Over the years, the council often has lobbied at the Legislature on openness and access issues. Some of its senior members were in the group that went to court to save the Star-Bulletin.

And yet the council also has declined in influence and in internal energy. The membership (75 percent are 70 or older and 95 percent haole, by one estimate) has aged and often lost its old drive. Other groups, such as the Society of Professional Journalists with its younger downtown and UH campus members, have often seemed more dynamic.

Also, there have always been some in the mass media here who don't believe in media councils, a reflection of national feelings since the local council is one of only two in the United States (the other is in Minnesota), although there are dozens of such groups in other countries.

Opponents in the media sometimes feel they can better handle complaints and issues than a self-appointed council of about 50 members. "Who elected you to tell us what to do?" some have asked.

But there should be plenty of room for everybody — working media people, retired old pros and interested citizen leaders — in dealing with issues that are growing more complex.

So it's a good thing that some of the younger and older members of the media council have been talking about revitalization rather than letting it die of old age and apathy.

This group is led by new council chairwoman Moya Gray, who has fought her own battles as director of the state Office of Information Practices.

Some planned or potential matters for the council include:

• Old and new freedom of information and freedom of the press issues. This is both an ongoing struggle and one with new frontiers posed by the long war on terrorism and over-harsh attitudes in the Bush administration that threaten civil rights in the name of security.
• Concentration of media ownership, nationally and here, is a growing issue. Locally, the media council has asked the Federal Communications Commission to force Emmis Communications to end its "duopoly" by selling one of the two leading broadcast stations it owns in the Hawai'i market, KHON and KGMB. The FCC is inclined toward easing current restrictions against such ownership and allowing other media mergers. But the battle is not over yet.
• Media freedom in the Pacific islands, not to mention parts of Asia, is a growing issue that should be of concern in a Hawai'i that is part of the region and should be a leader. Taking a stand against abuses in places such as Tonga and nearby Kiribati has some priority in the "new" media council.
• Among programs planned by the media council are luncheon talks by notable figures brought in by the University of Hawai'i. The first is this week, a speech by Helen Thomas, the memorable senior White House reporter and columnist. Next month will see a council program on candidates for governor and their views on media issues. More joint programs with other groups are envisioned.
• New technology and new economics are changing not just the media but our society and how we perceive information. Says council chairwoman Gray: "The area I work in — information practices — is being re-created daily by the impact of electronic technology and globalization. ... And this affects almost every industry I know."

Changing — which means declining — reading and viewing habits by younger people is a problem. At the same time we have growing "infotainment," the increasingly blurred lines between objective news reporting and gossip, public relations and lightweight features in the same TV program or print publications.

Throw in the rise of talk radio, the presence and potential of the Internet, and Hawai'i's position between East and West and South Pacific — then you get more frontiers that call for explanation and exploration.

• Handling complaints against the media and individuals has always been a role of the media council, although sometimes it has fallen short of a satisfactory — or even speedy — conclusion. That process is being streamlined under former UH law school dean Richard Miller, a longtime council leader.
• My own agenda of what is desirable would include the media council paying more attention to the UH School of Communications, and especially its journalism program, which provides perhaps half the reporters and editors in local media.

One old issue getting new attention — including in the prestigious Columbia University program — is the argument about finding a balance between students learning basic journalistic skills and spending more time gaining broader education and perspective. (In a recent UH-Manoa journalism class, only one in 16 students could identify Ari Fleischer. Some thought he is an action movie star.)

There you are, then: The Honolulu Community-Media Council was born of a real need as seen by some visionary people. It's had its ups and downs, including in a membership that is supposed to be only one-third active media people but hasn't hit that level.

It has both some promising younger members and needs more new blood and activist volunteers. That's a goal for its new membership committee under venerable Jim Becker, whose career has ranged from war correspondent to opera expert.

So there's plenty to do for this volunteer group (among other such groups in Hawai'i) that has no inherent clout beyond its powers of persuasion, past record, new surge of vigor — and, it is hoped, community realization that somebody should be calling more unbiased attention to media and information issues in our society.

John Griffin, former editor of The Advertiser's editorial pages, is a frequent contributor.