FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 2000. All Rights Reserved

City by FFWD Staff A Calgary man’s desire to see blacks portrayed in the media as more than just athletes and criminals has led him to take matters into his own hands. Wayne Malcolm, who has hosted a local radio show focused on the black community for more than four years, recently started a newspaper to allow people within the community to speak for themselves. However, he hopes it’s not just blacks who are listening. "It’s not just about putting out a black newspaper," he says. "I’m dealing with issues that I think everyone should be concerned about." Malcolm first turned to alternative media after seeing how events like the Somalia incident played out in the news coverage and in the House of Commons. He recalls hearing the defence minister at the time saying that Canadians didn’t believe racism was involved. "And I thought, ‘Who does he think he’s speaking for? I certainly don’t agree with him.’" Looking back, Malcolm says he can’t point to a concrete response from the black community regarding that incident – perhaps nobody asked. In fact, one of his criticisms of the mainstream newspapers is that, for the most part, the only blacks that make the front page are either entertainers, athletes or criminals. "There’s no balance. I get tired of seeing that." To try and combat that image, Malcolm and Ben Gabriel, who he met at an Arusha film festival, started The Black Voice on CJSW 90.9 FM, Calgary’s campus radio station. One of the first issues they picked up on was imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu-Jabal, who is still fighting for his freedom. "CJSW was my introduction into alternative media and that really expanded my thinking about alternative issues and social justice." His experiences in radio inspired Malcolm to start the Other press, a newspaper which debuted in December. His written message in the first issue explains the paper’s intentions: "the Other press is a marketplace of ideas, and – in being a true marketplace – we want people to speak for themselves. So we welcome all the voices of the oppressed and marginalized. This means black as well as white, native, immigrants, elderly voices, disabled voices, gay and lesbian and others." He says the newspaper is an extension of the radio show, but now he wants to reach beyond the black community to include other groups as well. "I think we all share a lot of the same issues and struggles. The one think I want to do is to let people speak in their own voices, unfiltered." Malcolm brings both personal and professional experience to his efforts. He was born in Manchester and raised in Winnipeg, and has now lived in Calgary since 1981. He’s also just one year short of a degree in journalism – he plans to eventually return to Mount Royal College to complete it – and previously worked for Newsworld. But he’s putting more than his experience behind the Other press – expenses for the first issue came out of his own pocket. He hopes advertising will help fund future copies, and has already had some success with the second issue, which came out this month and featured complete Black History Month listings. Malcolm says the response from readers has been positive, and he plans to increase the paper’s circulation and cut distribution costs by inserting the the Other press in the Alberta Free Press, another alternative newspaper. He says both publications share a similar purpose – putting a different face on journalism and reaching an alternative community. However, he doesn’t want to compromise his interest in serving the local black community, which he estimates to be about 16,000 people, so the Other press will remain a separate publication. Eventually, he wants to publish the newspaper nationally and have it come out at least twice per month, but for now he’s concentrating on covering Alberta and maintaining good content. Malcolm says newspapers such as Alberta Free Press and his own project are very important at this time because people are often defined in the media based on their religion, colour, ability, etc., which creates a distorted image. Having worked at Newsworld he knows there are good people in the mainstream media, but he also acknowledges the observations of Malcolm X about its power and believes it must be challenged. "That’s one thing the alternative press can do – it can show you that there are other ways of looking at things."

| Back To This Issue Table of Contents | Back To Main Index |