The biggest problem LGBT media seems to have is a lack of staying power. I think that after marriage became legal in the US, it seemed that mainstream media stopped caring about LGBT issues, which...
The biggest problem LGBT media seems to have is a lack of staying power. I think that after marriage became legal in the US, it seemed that mainstream media stopped caring about LGBT issues, which took down corporate interest in LGBT Media.
Logo TV is the perfect example. It started off extremely strong, with programming you would never see anywhere else. I look on their website today and see they are still promoting Noah's Arc. The show is a personal favorite of mine, but it ended in 2006! And if you look at the TV schedule for today, you will see they have nothing but reruns of "Married... With Children" and "Three's Company". TV Land, a network dedicated to airing nostalgic reruns, is at the very least showing newer programming than this.
Someone made a similar observation about the situation here in Australia, in the context of a regional Pride March closing down. The outgoing President of that Pride organisation said that, after...
I think that after marriage became legal in the US, it seemed that mainstream media stopped caring about LGBT issues
Someone made a similar observation about the situation here in Australia, in the context of a regional Pride March closing down. The outgoing President of that Pride organisation said that, after we achieved same-sex marriage 15 months ago, LGBT people's interest in fighting seems to have fallen away.
I was at an exhibition commemorating the past few decades of LGBTQ+ struggles in the Netherlands, including recent developments. One of the sentiments I saw expressed a lot by community organizers...
I was at an exhibition commemorating the past few decades of LGBTQ+ struggles in the Netherlands, including recent developments. One of the sentiments I saw expressed a lot by community organizers of the modern era is that, while discrimination is far from resolved, the fighting spirit has waned lacking a clear opposition. Currently it seems the focus is shifting from "fighting" to "reconciliation" and normalisation of LGBTQ+ people in the public sphere, as well as still pressing but less visible issues like soft discrimination or legal hurdles. Not that hostility towards LGBTQ+ people has ceased, but it's taking on a different less direct shape. And LGBTQ+ oriented media will likely have to reconcile with this new reality if it is to stay relevant.
It's not just LGBT interest that is the problem, it's mainstream interest. Logo TV was always a kind of a bad idea, honestly. If LGBT people are making more money on average than straight cis...
It's not just LGBT interest that is the problem, it's mainstream interest. Logo TV was always a kind of a bad idea, honestly. If LGBT people are making more money on average than straight cis people, that would be a good reason to market to them, but you have to understand that there really aren't that many of us. That's why print media seems to be working better than nationwide media. Local print media is concentrated where LGBT people are concentrated.
Even if LGBT people make more money than straight people, that limits the type of commercial support we will get. Imagine being a marketer working on selling Coca-Cola. It's a cheap commodity drink, so it makes much more sense to try to target as many people as possible. Targeting any specific community would likely be a waste. What's left is luxury goods and services. That's why you'll often see banks with their own floats in pride parades.
(As a side note, some commodity brands spent money supporting the LGBT community in the US specifically after the polls started showing that the majority of Americans supported gay rights, and that basically disappeared after mainstream interest went away)
Personally speaking, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. I would much rather have LGBT voices represented in mainstream media than have them relegated to small sources only other gay people will read. An article arguing for gay rights in The Advocate is worth nowhere near as much as the same article published in The New York Times. The most beneficial thing that can happen is to have more LGBT people in editor's desks, as that will change the tone with which people speak.
The biggest problem LGBT media seems to have is a lack of staying power. I think that after marriage became legal in the US, it seemed that mainstream media stopped caring about LGBT issues, which took down corporate interest in LGBT Media.
Logo TV is the perfect example. It started off extremely strong, with programming you would never see anywhere else. I look on their website today and see they are still promoting Noah's Arc. The show is a personal favorite of mine, but it ended in 2006! And if you look at the TV schedule for today, you will see they have nothing but reruns of "Married... With Children" and "Three's Company". TV Land, a network dedicated to airing nostalgic reruns, is at the very least showing newer programming than this.
Someone made a similar observation about the situation here in Australia, in the context of a regional Pride March closing down. The outgoing President of that Pride organisation said that, after we achieved same-sex marriage 15 months ago, LGBT people's interest in fighting seems to have fallen away.
I was at an exhibition commemorating the past few decades of LGBTQ+ struggles in the Netherlands, including recent developments. One of the sentiments I saw expressed a lot by community organizers of the modern era is that, while discrimination is far from resolved, the fighting spirit has waned lacking a clear opposition. Currently it seems the focus is shifting from "fighting" to "reconciliation" and normalisation of LGBTQ+ people in the public sphere, as well as still pressing but less visible issues like soft discrimination or legal hurdles. Not that hostility towards LGBTQ+ people has ceased, but it's taking on a different less direct shape. And LGBTQ+ oriented media will likely have to reconcile with this new reality if it is to stay relevant.
It's not just LGBT interest that is the problem, it's mainstream interest. Logo TV was always a kind of a bad idea, honestly. If LGBT people are making more money on average than straight cis people, that would be a good reason to market to them, but you have to understand that there really aren't that many of us. That's why print media seems to be working better than nationwide media. Local print media is concentrated where LGBT people are concentrated.
Even if LGBT people make more money than straight people, that limits the type of commercial support we will get. Imagine being a marketer working on selling Coca-Cola. It's a cheap commodity drink, so it makes much more sense to try to target as many people as possible. Targeting any specific community would likely be a waste. What's left is luxury goods and services. That's why you'll often see banks with their own floats in pride parades.
(As a side note, some commodity brands spent money supporting the LGBT community in the US specifically after the polls started showing that the majority of Americans supported gay rights, and that basically disappeared after mainstream interest went away)
Personally speaking, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. I would much rather have LGBT voices represented in mainstream media than have them relegated to small sources only other gay people will read. An article arguing for gay rights in The Advocate is worth nowhere near as much as the same article published in The New York Times. The most beneficial thing that can happen is to have more LGBT people in editor's desks, as that will change the tone with which people speak.