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By Arin McKenna
February 22, 2024
ESPAÑOLA, N.M. — The television industry has received its fair share of criticism about its lack of diversity, according to David Lindblom, associate professor in Northern New Mexico College’s (NNMC) Film & Media Arts program. However efforts to address that were evident at the Television Academy Foundation’s 2023 Media Educators Conference he recently attended.
“One of the first things you notice is that the TV industry has been paying attention to bringing forth women, minorities and all people that have been marginalized,” Lindblom said. “At every conference event there was some indication of this effort.”
Lindblom was awarded an Alex Trebek Legacy Fellowship to attend the event, which also provided a complimentary one-year Television Academy academic membership. The fellowship application gave preference to attendees from minority-serving institutions and asked applicants to describe the diversity of their student body. Lindblom wrote:“Our students are overwhelmingly Hispanic and Native American, some Anglo, some Black and recent immigrants from Mexico. The campus sits near the confluence of the Rio Grande and Chama rivers, the site of the first capital of the "New World," surrounded by eight Native American Pueblos. It is a rural, underserved college cradled by history and beauty, aspiring to serve students from the nearby towns, reservations and mountain villages.”
The Media Educators Conference is a multi-day event designed to keep educators on the cutting edge of the entertainment business so they can provide their students – the next generation of television leaders – with a state-of-the-art education.
“Movers and shakers of the TV industry were there, and it was invigorating and affirming, to see that our own college's attention to issues of equity were very in line with what I saw. We have support, even in such a mainstream, corporate operation.”
Panels featured experienced people working in key industry positions talking about their jobs, how they got there, the state of TV today and industry trends. One thing that jumped out for Lindblom was a heavy reliance on data and analytics to determine what stories to tell and how to approach those stories.
“And I’m always thinking, what data are you collecting and why and how are you interpreting it?” Lindblom said. “Some people are just really mechanically wedded to data, but when you get into cultural realms, it gets pretty uncertain as to what things mean.”
Despite the commitment to diversity, Lindblom noticed a gap in the programming.
“There were no Native people represented at this event. Black people, Hispanics, women and LGBTQ people were represented, but I didn’t notice Native people being mentioned,” Lindblom said. He found that surprising considering the success of AMC’s “Dark Winds,” FX’s “Reservation Dogs” and Martin Scorsese’s new movie, “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Other attendees and industry professionals Lindblom networked with at the event were very interested in Northern New Mexico, giving him a chance to share what NNMC has to offer. He felt that Northern's efforts and history would be of great interest to the conference and could have contributed to the panels.
“I think that our school has a lot to offer. A place like ours is a workshop for creating pathways for students who have been marginalized and who don’t come as prepared as some students. There are colleges with well-funded TV studio classes, with industry experts just minutes away and pathways for jobs. Their students can more easily make their way into the TV world, but it is harder for us,” Lindblom said.
Lindblom shared his experience at Northern and found Northern's efforts raised provocative ideas for other people engaged in the same issues at other colleges “…because we deal with gender, race, poverty, pedagogy. We deal with all the big issues here at Northern, intensely.”
Lindblom came away from the conference ready to explore three options to benefit Northern’s Film & Digital Media Arts students.
One possibility is the Television Academy’s internship program. He especially sees an opportunity for Native American students to help fill the void in Indigenous representation he noticed at the conference.
Lindblom also learned that the Fox TV Sports Division will advise and support sports broadcasting on college campuses. He hopes to get some assistance with broadcasting the Eagle’s basketball games.
The third possibility is the Handy Foundation, which is committed to creating diversity for below-the-line workers such as film editors, camera operators, make-up artists, grips and lighting crews. The Handy Foundation offers training that goes beyond what students receive in film school programs, mentorship, advocacy for diversity in hiring and financial support for internships and union initiation fees and dues.
Lindblom sees real potential for Northern and its students to get assistance from the Academy.
“I felt that if you were in a college in Los Angeles, this organization would be hugely impactful to your college career. The well-endowed colleges from far away send people for a semester in LA,” Lindblom said. “Nothing like that’s going to happen to us, and they are aware of that. They know they have to reach out. So we need to leverage the fact that we are an important key candidate for their activism.”
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Cutline: Northern New Mexico College Associate Professor David Lindblom (center) working with his Advanced Digital Video Production class on the Northern New Mexico College campus.