The Oscars - The Red Carpet has black version of District 9

Saturday before Oscar Sunday and the 82nd Annual 2010 Academy Awards is setup day on The Red Carpet. Media representing hundreds of outlets are here on The Red Carpet, but what's shocking is that in 2010 - in the 21st Century - The Academy Awards has its own version of District 9. In this case, three African American media outlets are all grouped in one place near the very end of The Red Carpet: BET, TV One, and American Urban Radio.

This came to light during my video interview with Jamal Finkely and Mike Melendy of Blacktree TV. It was Jamal, who's also doing double duty with another media outlet, who brought the issue to my attention. As an aside, Jamal's a YouTube Partner I met at the YouTube Partners Roundtable of last November 2009.

Jamal and his associate Mike Melendy cover entertainment events at Blacktree.tv and at their companion YouTube channel Blacktreemedia. While happy to be on The Red Carpet, the physical placement of the three black media firms together in one remote area was something that had to be mentioned.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), or more accurately someone working for AMPAS and perhaps unchecked, set up the media organization to have what is The Red Carpet's version of the alien ghetto in the 2010 Best Picture nominee movie District 9.

In District 9, aliens from a ship that had become "stuck" in position over Johannesburgh, South Africa, were segregated by the government to one place called "District 9". Hopefully there's not a Latino section or any other kind of racial or ethnic divisions along The Red Carpet for The Oscars. We didn't look from that perspective; the area Jamal pointed to is the one he works in.

AMPAS must end this practice ASAP. It's shocking to think that an organization which has such a large public presence and exists in the 21st Century would segregate media in this way. Moreover, it's terrible that AMPAS' overall media approach is so very antiquated.

If AMPAS is happy with the media coverage it's getting for The Academy Awards, it has no idea of what's possible and what it should expect today. There's no place for bloggers or vloggers and no "Big Tent" for New Media. No collaboration with firms like YouTube, Flickr, or Twitter or Google.

What's going on at AMPAS in this New Media area is the question for this day. If the New Media problem's taken care of, the apparent racial discrimination problem on The Red Carpet will end too. Or it should.

Stay tuned.