New York City boasts a vibrant, diverse media landscape, with an estimated 350 weekly newspapers and 26 foreign language dailies.
纽约市自诩是一个充满活力、包容万象的媒体之都，有大约350份周报和26份外文日报。
Each year, the best work by reporters, photographers and editors of New York’s ethnic and independent media is honored with awards from the New York Community Media Alliance (NYCMA). Those awards are known as Ippies.
每年，纽约社区媒体联盟会都会表彰少数族裔和独立媒体最优秀的记者、摄影师和编辑。
NYCMA director Juana Ponce de Leon explains that the ethnic press often advocates for its communities, and acts as an intermediary between the audience and mainstream society.
纽约社区媒体联盟主席胡安娜·雷诺指出，少数族裔媒体致力于推动社区事务，同时是他们的受众与主流社会之间的沟通媒介。
She adds that her organization encourages reporters to offer practical guidance to readers, listeners and viewers.
雷诺表示，联盟鼓励记者为他们的读者、听众和观众提供切实可行的指导。
"It helps the communities know where there are resources to address their concerns. It’s not good enough to say ‘We don’t have enough translation services from the DOE [Department of Education]’ and leave it at that. It’s better to say ‘Not only are there those services, but if you don’t find them, you can request them. And if they don’t come to you, then you have a right to get your child to another school, for instance.’"
她说：“这些媒体让社区人们了解在哪里寻找资源来解决他们关切问题。不要只说教育部没有给我们足够的翻译服务，就算了。而是应当说：有这些服务，但是如果你找不到，你可以提出要求。比如说，如果他们没有解决你的问题，你有权让孩子转学。”
The ethnic media often provides immigrants with the tools they need to negotiate everyday life in America, says 2011 Ippie winner Helen Zelon.
2011年得奖人海伦·泽龙表示，事实上，少数族裔媒体能够帮助移民，让他们在美国更好地生活。
"I think the ethnic press does an enormous service when it explains to people, ‘This is what happens when your kid starts school. This is what happens when you rent something. Here’s how you establish yourself here.’"
她说：“我觉得少数族裔媒体在为人们提供了了不起的服务，比如告诉人们，你的孩子开始上学时会是什么情况，你租房子时要处理什么问题，如何在美国建立起自己的生活等等。”
Zelon, a reporter with City Limits Magazine, a public policy journal, often writes about education.
泽龙是公共政策杂志《城市范围》的记者。她经常撰写教育方面的报道。
"Which means you are writing about race and class and money and politics and power and privilege and all of it," she says. "And I write about child welfare, which to me is a hugely important issue that doesn’t get a lot of coverage until there is a very bad disaster and then there is a lot of attention around it and then it goes away. We do investigative reporting."
泽龙说：“这就意味着你写种族、阶级、金钱、政治、权利和优先权等所有这些问题。”
Often, the ethnic press will cover a local story that illuminates a larger issue. For example, Ippie winner Sharon Toomer of BrownandBlackNews.com reported on a public playground with a jungle gym modeled to look like a jail. Local residents felt that associating prison with fun and play was the wrong message to send to children in their largely African-American community.
少数族裔媒体经常报道折射出重大问题的本地事件。比如说，获奖记者沙伦·图默曾经报道过一个在公共游乐场中被设计成监狱模样的小型游戏场。当地居民认为，把玩乐和监狱联系在一起会给这个以非裔为主的社区的孩子传达一个错误的信息。
"This might not be something that a mainstream news outlet would find as a story or find relevant, for whatever reason. So that's why we pick up the slack. And we wrote a story and there was big media firestorm in the city," says Toomer. "And eventually the housing department, within less than 30 days took down the jungle gym that was jail themed and put in a more appropriate one, which was an outer space design."
图默说：“对主流媒体来说，他们可能觉得这件事没有新闻价值。所以我们要报道这个事情，结果在纽约市掀起了巨大的媒体风暴。最终纽约市房屋管理部在30天内拆除了那个监狱式的小游戏场，换上了一个比较合适的太空造型的游戏场。”
Sometimes, the ethnic press connects immigrant stories to another issue of national interest. Annie Correal is a reporter for "Feet in 2 Worlds," an immigration news project of the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs. She won an Ippie for her audio piece about Latinos in Louisiana helping to clean up after BP’s offshore oil spill.
有时候，少数族裔媒体把移民的故事和有关国家利益的其他问题联系起来。安妮·科雷亚是纽约城市事务中心一个移民新闻项目的网络记者。她得奖的作品是一个音频报道，讲述路易斯安娜州的拉美裔人在英国石油公司的漏油事件后帮助清理的故事。
"And I broke the story that Homeland Security had actually come and done a roundup to make sure everyone was a documented worker," says Correal. "And that story went national because it was, like, ‘Where are our priorities? Do we care about more about who these people are or whether the oil is getting cleaned up?’ It was a controversial story."
科雷亚说：“后来国土安全部找到我，和我一一确定每个参加清理的拉美裔人都是合法移民。我把这件事报出来了，结果引起全国的注意，因为它点出了一个问题：我们最关心的到底是什么？是关心参加清污的都是些什么人？还是关心漏油是否已经被清理了？那是一篇非常有争议的报道。”
From their unique vantage point, editorials in the ethnic press can highlight common experiences of different immigrant groups. Peter McDermott of the Irish Echo, won an Ippie for an editorial that compared last year’s controversy over a proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero with 19th century riots against the Irish community which wanted to build a church in that same downtown neighborhood.
少数族裔媒体的社论往往能够从非常独特的角度来凸显不同移民群体的共同经历。彼德·迈克德莫特是《爱尔兰回声报》的编辑，他获奖的作品是一篇社论。社论把去年准备在世贸遗址建造一座清真寺所引起的争论，和19世纪由于爱尔兰社区要在同一处闹市区建教堂而引发的暴乱进行了比较。
"There was really no difference between the hostility against Catholics and other minorities in the 19th century and hostility toward the Muslims today," says McDermott. "People say, 'There is a big difference.' And I say there is no big difference. It was essentially the same bigotry, actually."
迈克德莫特说：“19世纪人们对天主教和其它少数族裔所持有的敌意和今天人们对穆斯林的敌意没有什么不同。人们会说，这非常不同。但是我说，没有任何大区别。事实上，这种顽固意识都是一样的。”
The ethnic press has a vital role to play in America, according to independent progressive journalist Amy Goodman.
独立记者艾米·古德曼认为，少数族裔媒体在美国社会中扮演着重要角色。
"In order to ensure a democratic society, we need to cover every community, people from their own communities covering their own communities and other communities. I think the media can be the greatest force of peace on earth because it’s a forum for people to speak to each other, and to learn about each other. And there is no better place than in the diverse communities of New York and the presses that represent them."
她说：“为了保证一个民主社会，我们需要覆盖所有的社区，由来自社区的人报道自己的社区，也报道其它社区。我觉得媒体可以成为世界上最有效的和平力量，因为这是一个人们相互沟通、互相学习的平台。从这点来看，再也没有象纽约的多种族社区和那些代表他们的媒体更适合做这些事情了。”
As the foreign-born population continues to swell, New York's ethnic press will continue to tell the stories of the city's diverse communities.
随着在外国出生的纽约人日益增多，纽约的少数族裔媒体将继续报道多种族社区中发生的故事。 |