For the past few weeks I have been on a quest to educate myself on the acceptance and participation in the new media by Erie’s minority community. Sorry to say, I have not been very successful in getting information on how connected African-American, Hispanic and other ethnic minority members are to the various outlets of new media.

Let me preface in saying that it seems like we have at least adequate participation in the mainstream media by minorities. In addition to newspaper and television reporters and production staffs, you can hear minority voices on community access television and on the radio. In fact 90.5 WERG does a great service to our community in providing media balance through the highly regarded Super Soul Weekend programming, as well as the Sunday ethnic shows.

However, I can’t find any evidence of significant use of the new media by Erie’s minority community. For example, inquiries regarding leads on black and Hispanic bloggers originating in Erie have come up short. That’s not to discount the very well informed and often entertaining comments posted by local entrepreneur Julio Reyes on Outside Erie.

This apparent lack of blogging comes in spite of some important minority blog directories on the net. Two that came to the forefront during my investigation include blackvoices.com and blackblogwatch.com.

All of this makes me wonder about how many African and Hispanic American Erieites are affording themselves of the joys of the new social media in Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter.

My point in all of this is not an indictment or suggestion of a lack of fairness or injustice. Rather I would like to be educated on the perceptions of new media by all of our neighbors here in Erie, and to find out if there are barriers that could be keeping segments of our community from realizing all of the rewards that come from embracing this new and diverse media.

Care to enlighten me?