New Directions in Asian American Media Activism

• In Event: Locating Asian American Agents and Audiences

Abstract

Asian American media activists have long been in the business of protesting discriminatory images and promoting Asian American artists and professionals in the hopes that diverse participation in the media industry will lead to social change. In this paper I explore the question of who is included within the category of Asian America used by activists, and how these definitions are informed by a discourse on citizenship and national identity.
Given that Asian Americans have historically been denied the basic tenets of American citizenship, it makes sense for activists to strive for Asian Americans to be viewed as “just like everyone else.” Yet we can also see these impulses as evidence that assimilation is necessary, and further of a desire for the national boundaries of the US to fully enclose Asian American identities—both of which can be seen as problematic and limiting. In this presentation I examine the specific case of the advocacy group called Media Action Network for Asian Americans, or MANAA, to see how struggles for citizenship are problematically reified in the concrete actions taken by activists concerned with media representation.

Author

• Lori Kido Lopez, University of Southern California