Bill Text: CA AB1511 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: State government: diverse, ethnic, and community media.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: (Passed) 2024-09-22 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 352, Statutes of 2024. [AB1511 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB1511-Chaptered.html
Assembly Bill
No. 1511
CHAPTER 352
An act to add and repeal Article 5.7 (commencing with Section 65054) of Chapter 1.5 of Division 1 of Title 7 of the Government Code, relating to state government.
[
Approved by
Governor
September 22, 2024.
Filed with
Secretary of State
September 22, 2024.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1511, Santiago.
State government: diverse, ethnic, and community media.
Existing law establishes the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications, within the Office of Planning and Research in the office of the Governor, to serve as the manager of the state’s highest priority public awareness and community outreach efforts.
This bill would require the office to assist state agencies
and departments in marketing, advertising, and outreach to certain priority populations, as defined.
The bill would require a state agency or department that expends funds on marketing, advertising, or outreach to
develop a plan for increasing expenditures directed to ethnic and community media outlets serving priority populations and to annually report via its internet website on its progress in implementing the plan, as specified. The bill would require the Department of General Services to develop a template for this report no later than December 1, 2025.
This bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2028, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2029.
This bill would also make related legislative findings and declarations.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) California is the most diverse state in the nation and it spends considerable resources seeking to communicate messages of public interest to its residents. It is imperative that the state’s communication reach all of its residents, including, but not limited to, People of Color, rural communities, non-English speakers, working class neighborhoods, and other hard-to-reach communities. Those communication efforts will require new strategies and approaches that reflect the state’s demographics, take into account the changing media landscape, and put equity at the center of these efforts.
(b) California’s ethnic media sector consists of roughly 300 media outlets that publish and broadcast in California, serving at least 38 different ethnic, racial, and cultural communities with trusted, community-specific information and news coverage. Community media outlets often serve small communities that are not served by larger sources of news and culture. These outlets are the ideal medium through which to reach underserved communities, but have been underutilized in the deployment of state outreach and advertising campaigns.
(c) This act will remedy that disparity by directing
state agencies to develop a plan for increasing, and annually report on progress toward increasing, outreach to
and investment in ethnic and community media, including small businesses, to help them remain viable platforms for their communities to learn of news of interest to them and to have access to state communications of importance to them and their families.
SEC. 2.
Article 5.7 (commencing with Section 65054) is added to Chapter 1.5 of Division 1 of Title 7 of the Government Code, to read:Article 5.7. Diverse, Ethnic, and Community Media
65054.
For the purposes of this article, the following definitions apply:(a) (1) “Ethnic media” means any
organization that produces news or culturally relevant media that serves ethnic, racial, or cultural communities residing in California, including priority populations, racial and linguistic minorities, immigrant communities, indigenous groups, and other historically underserved and underrepresented groups.
(2) For purposes of paragraph (1), “priority populations” for purposes of this article, mean
members of underserved, disadvantaged, and hard-to-reach communities, including, but not limited to, people who are any of the following:
(A) Asian American.
(B) Black or African American.
(C) Immigrants or refugees.
(D) Native American or members of Tribal communities.
(E) Latinx.
(F) LGBTQ+.
(G) Limited English proficiency (LEP).
(H) Middle Eastern or North African.
(I) Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
(J) People with disabilities.
(K) Religious minorities.
(L) Low-income communities.
(b) “Ethnic media outlet” means an entity that provides a substantial
amount of ethnic media content through broadcast, print, or digital means, including television, radio, or online outlets on a daily, weekly, or other regular interval, and that has continuously produced that content for at least one year.
(c) “Community media outlet” means a nonprofit organization, small business, or microbusiness, as defined in paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (d) of Section 14837, in which at least one-half of the content is originally produced community news and cultural content of specific interest to a community, city, neighborhood, or region in the state through
broadcast, print, or digital means, including television, radio, or online outlets on a daily, weekly, or other regular interval, and that has continuously produced that content for at least one year.
(d) “Office” means the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications.
65054.1.
The office shall assist state agencies and departments in marketing, advertising, and outreach to priority populations identified in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 65054.65054.2.
(a) A state agency or department that expends funds on marketing, advertising, or outreach shall, no later than July 1, 2025, develop a plan for increasing expenditures directed to ethnic media outlets and community media outlets serving the populations identified in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 65054 to improve outreach to and engagement of members of populations served by those outlets, particularly when the target audience for the campaign aligns with populations served by such media outlets.(b) Each state agency or department that is required to develop a plan pursuant to subdivision (a) shall report annually on its progress in implementing the plan, including total expenditures directed to ethnic media outlets and community media outlets serving the populations identified in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 65054 during the preceding fiscal year. The report shall be posted on the agency’s or department’s internet website no later than September 1 each year.
(c) The Department of General Services shall develop a template for the report required pursuant to subdivision (b) and make it available to all state agencies and departments no later than December 1, 2025.
