“I never knew there were so many multicultural news outlets in Houston!”
This was the comment most widely shared among some 200+ attendees at Houston Community Media’s first ever Expo, Conference and Awards held on July 8 at the United Way Conference Center in downtown Houston. Speakers included elected officials, city representatives, business leaders, communications specialists, community influencers, and social media innovators who came to validate the role of 45 multicultural news outlets in Greater Houston’s media ecosphere.
And for the media representatives – whether media giants like Televisa-Univision or Telemundo-Houston, the regional leaders like Houston Defender, Southern News Express, the Vietnam Post, Que Onda, Pakistan Chronicle, or outlets serving niche audiences like Radio Naya Andaz, Korea Journal, La Esquina, OutSmart Magazine – there was the exhilaration of being recognized as an indispensable bridge for news and information serving all of Houston.
“This is our coming out party,” said HCoM Communications Director Nakia Cooper. “Long invisible or ignored because we’re so fragmented, we’ve forged ourselves into a collective voice to expand our access to the public sphere and better inform our communities.”
“This is what inclusive communications looks like,” said Dr. Laura Murillo, head of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce who also hosts her own show on Univision. “Look around you – diversity is not a bad word, it’s who we are becoming and these are the bridges we need to build for our future.”
“As CEO of Harris Health, I’ve seen first-hand how the stories we tell – and who gets to tell them – can shape the health of entire communities,” said Dr. Esmaeil Porsa. “When we bring together multicultural media, health systems and community voices, as we do today, we don’t just close information gaps, we build a foundation for trust, civic engagement and health equity.”
Bridging the generation gap, 26-year-old Carlos Espina shared how he started out at 19 using Facebook and Instagram to teach students about how to become a citizen and now reaches an audience of 12 million on Tik Tok alone– all while attending college and then law school. This is the technology all media have to embrace to remain relevant, Espina emphasized, “but if I can do it with no formal training so can you.”
Today he calls himself a communication activist who shares information in 12 daily “mi gente” feeds about, among other issues, how to deal with mass deportations. While he graduated from law school, the demands of his audience mean he has yet to make time to take the bar.
“This is an historic event,” said Jay Malhotra, who has run Indo American News for more than four decades, “coming together to pitch the importance of the audiences we serve. But visibility is a means to a more urgent end – sustaining our outlets when the whole industry is close to collapse. For that we need the decision makers to include us in their ads. And that hasn’t happened yet.”
Malhotra spoke in an afternoon plenary session where a dozen communications specialists shared ideas with reporters about how to diversify communications and expand access to advertising dollars.
Kenneth Li, a prominent Asian American community leader and realtor, dubbed the “Mayor of Chinatown,” echoed Malholtra when he called out the Houston Housing Authority for which he serves as a commissioner for placing notices about its planning meetings only in English language media. Then, he added, they wonder why– despite having interpreters in three languages – no one from Asian or Spanish speaking audiences attend.
“The key is building relationships, rediscovering the art of conversation and meeting in person, as we’re doing today,” said Stuart Rosenberg, a PR veteran.
The event concluded with a celebration of the winners of the first Houston Community Media Awards selected from over 80 entries in seven languages. Co-emcee Telemundo news anchor Antonio Hernandez applauded the winners for telling the stories of their communities. “This is how we shape the narrative about who we are,” he said.