page 2 fathom
cultural dimensions
friday, february 24, 1978
Despite our good intentions to be fair
and open in this Fathom issue by giving
equal coverage to groups traditionally
labeled as minorities, we found that even
with in-depth interviews and lengthy re
search, we only skimmed the top of many
people's concerns.
We started by talking to informed lead
ers of minority groups to get ideas for
stories that usually are not covered. Then
we assigned stories to cover black, Mexican-American,
homosexual, and Native
American cultural dimensions. We also in
cluded an interview with Geraldo Rivera,
UPC Talks and Topics Committee's final
guest speaker.
Our combined efforts produced articles
by Ray Walden and Charlie Krig on the
subject of bilingual education. Kate Gaul
looked at the problem of existing myths
about gay people. Ron Rockenbach re
searched racial problems and the effects of
those problems on Native Americans. Tarn
Lee did a personal interview with Sen.
Ernie Chambers and Jim Williams spoke
with broadcast journalist Geraldo Rivera.
Carol Lincoln, the model for the
Fathom cover, spoke about the problems a
Native American who comes from a re
servation environment faces at UNL.
Lincoln's family lives on the Navajo
Indian Reservation near Window Rock,
Ariz. She has been attending UNL for a
year and one semester.
Concerning the university, Lincoln said,
"Its enlightenment on any minority is so
limited. I'd like to see more culture taught
and have programs set up where anyone
could have their own culture center. We do
have a culture center but it's not equipped
with the type of things that Native Ameri
cans have a knack for. Indian poetry is so
artistic and the paintings are so colorful."
"It'd be nice to have more minority
teachers than we do," Lincoln said. She
also talked about cultural shocks she en
countered when she took an anthropology
class and learned about the scientific terms
which were applied to Native Americans.
She mentioned that she hesitates to say
a lot of things because on the reservation
she was always in the majority and that her
social iife here was also a cultural shock.
"I'm not used to going to bars and I
never knew what jazz was or sounded like
until Icame here."
When people leave the reservation most
leave to get an education and then come
back and help, Lincoln said.
The 21 -year-old undeclared major, said
she plans to go back io Window Rock and
be a silversmith apprentice.
"Many people ask me if I think Native
Americans will die out, but they will never
die out as long as they still have their
mythology and ceremonials that have gone
on for thousands of years."
carla engstrom
fathom editor
puerto rican heritage gives bundle of experiences'
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By Jim Williams
Geraldo Rivera
Photo by Ted Kirk
G
eraldo Rivera, star of ABC's "Good
Morning America" news program, said his
journalism career was helped by the fact
that his father was bom in Puerto Rico.
"It had a profound effect on my ca
reer," Rivera said of his Puerto Rican
background. "First of all, it started it.
Second of all, it gave me a bundle of ex
periences ... a whole different base from
which to start."
Rivera, a 34-year-old, New York-born
lawyer, said ABC's New York television
station asked him to do a news show after
he defended members of the Young Lords
gang on trial for taking over a church.
Rivera said that the Federal Communi
cations Commission, which regulates tele
vision stations, had just handed down
guidelines requiring stations to hire more
minority-group members. Rivera said he
got the job because he was a Puerto Rican
who didn't "talk funny" or have frizzy
hair.
Rivera said his familiarity with condi
tions in New York's poor sections helps
him get unusual stories. He said that often
television news crews usually go only for
easy stories on minority groups.
"How they cover minorities, period,
is terrible," Rivera said. "Ill give you an
example drug stories. The most access
ible drug users are minorities . . . whites
are hip enough to know not to talk.
"It's so easy to go into a ghetto and
show people in a horrible state, because
there are so many of them there."
R
ivera said another examDle of reoort-
ers taking the easiest path was news cover
age of Israeli-Arab relations. He said the
Israeli viewpoint is often the only one covei
ed because until recently it was much
easier for news crews to get into Israel than
into Arab countries.
Rivera said he thinks the best way to
assure good coverage of minority stories is
the total integration of the news media.
He said he thought television is already
fairly well integrated at the reporter
level. But most of the management staffs
are still middle -class whites, he said.
Rivera said that minority coverage is
getting better for economic reasons.
Television and newspapers are discovering
that minority readers and viewers are a
significant part of the market, he said.
Rivera said he thinks Americans of
Mexican and Puerto Rican background arc
gaining more media attention.
"I think more coverage ... is being
given to that now than ever before," he
said. "I would say that the movement of
Mexican-Americans for a distinctive
cultural identity that is recognized by the
majority as something distinctive and uni
que is growing." He said that examples
include bilingual education in New York
and the California practice of changing
street names back to the original Spanish
titles, but that the movement as a whole is
under-represented in the media.
"Change takes time, takes effort, takes
a lot of things," Rivera said.
Rivera said he became interested in
broadcasting because he wanted to use it
as a means of social change. He said he
thought he was accomplishing it in some
ways whether showing ordinary Ameri
cans that in Spanish the G in Geraldo is
pronounced as an H, or in uncovering
wrongdoing in his investigative reports.
But he said he tries to be careful.
"I'm extremely conscious of my own
power," he said. "I'm aware of my power
and I'm aware of my responsibilities."
Fathom Editor: Carta Engstrom. Managing Editor: Janet
Lliteras. Cover Dt . i arK, Layout: Liz Beard.
Fathom is a magazine published by the Daily Nebras
kan. Edrtor in Chief. Ron Ruggless. Advertising Manager:
oregg Wurdeman. Production Manager: Kitty Policky.
Business Manager: Jerri Haussler.
Unless covered by another copyright, material may be
reprinted without permission if attributed to Fathom, mafr
azine of the Daily Nebraskan.
Fathom is distributed tn-weekly on Fridays with the
Daily Nebraskan.
Cover photo by Ted Kirk
Fathom accepts liction and poetry. Please send material
th name, address and telephone number to Fathom.
iiV Nebraskan. Nebraska Un.on 34, Lincoln, Ne. 68508.