In her piece “The Minority Press: Pleading Our Own Cause,” Pamela Newkirk quotes the inaugural editorial of the Freedom Journal from almost two centuries ago: “… From the press and the pulpit we have suffered much by being incorrectly represented.  Our vices and our degradation are ever arrayed against us, but our virtues are passed by unnoticed” (81).  Thus, this journal, among other African American newspapers, aimed to provide a platform through which black people could “plead our own cause,” as was not possible through mainstream media. The Minneapolis-based news outlet Insight News is a modern version of the minority press, with the following mission, as described by Founder and CEO Al McFarlane: “Editorial Mission: Information, Instruction, Inspiration in a user-friendly, culturally relevant communications vehicle. Business Mission: Providing preferred access to Black consumers for businesses, agencies, and organizations.” Insight News, which was founded in 1974 as a color-cover magazine, began printing as a community newspaper in 1976.

This picture illustrates the format of the Insight News site with today’s headlines.  Although minority news outlets are not necessarily as radical or politicized as in the past, publications such as this one demonstrate that “the continuing desire for an alternative minority press reveals both the unmet promise of media diversity trumpeted in the 1960s and the ever present yearning by distinct groups to assert their unfiltered voices in the marketplace of ideas” (Newkirk, 89).  The Minneapolis College Preparatory School advertisement featured above indicates that the source is not intended just to provide news to minority readers, but also direct advertisements to black consumers and spotlight African American businesses and organizations, as indicated in McFarlane’s mission.  The headline for the reelection of President Obama is particularly interesting in that more mainstream media sources, such as the Minneapolis Star Tribune, featured such headlines as “Re-elected, Obama heads back to a divided government.”  Insight News, however, another Minneapolis-based publication, features the title “Justspeak: Presidential slam dunk – Obama wins electoral landslide re-election.”  While the Star Tribune takes a much more neutral stance on the President’s re-election, instead focusing on the challenges he will face with a divided government, the title of the Insight News has an overtly celebratory tone, which many would view as more acceptable coming from an African American media source, especially being that Obama garnered 93% of the African American vote.  In the subtitle, the word “Black” is also bolded, illustrating the emphasis on his shared heritage with the readers of the publication.  While mainstream media outlets are often criticized for the lack of diversity they include, such niche publications as Insight News are able to address issues of specific interest to readers of their cultural, racial, or ethnic group.

http://www.insightnews.com/

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/11/types-people-who-voted-obama/58794/