Black storytellers helped shape America. Her book explains why.

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ATLANTA (ABNN) - Dr. Sarah J. Jackson says Black media makers have never simply told stories. They have helped America understand itself.

Jackson, a media scholar and professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, is the author of "A Second Sight: How the Wonder and Vision of Black Mediamakers Push America Toward Freedom."

In an interview with The American Black News Network, Jackson said the book is an alternative media history of the United States that places Black media makers at the center of the nation's story.

She said Black journalists, storytellers, filmmakers, podcasters and other media makers have long forced the country to confront the gap between its stated values and its reality.

"The stories we tell about our nation, about ourselves in the public sphere, are either democratic or anti-democratic," Jackson said.

Jackson said she wanted to tell the story of how Black media makers have held the nation accountable to its founding values.

Those values, she said, have been "critiqued, honed, and imagined by Black thinkers, Black storytellers and the Black media makers who have documented our country."

For Jackson, the issue is not just representation. It is control, context and whether Black stories are being told fully.

"Simply having a Black face or a Black story on a platform or on your television doesn't mean that the stories that arise from the community are being honored and told in their fullest," Jackson said.

She said Black stories can be used without honoring the history, politics and meaning behind them.

"It's not just about representation," Jackson said. "It's also about whether or not there is editorial control."

Jackson said many of the fights facing media and democracy today are not new.

She said the country has repeatedly gone through moments where some stories are allowed to be told, followed by backlash and attempts to close those openings.

"Many of these crises are not new," Jackson said. "We have been here before."

That history matters now, Jackson said, because the media system is being reshaped by billionaires, technology companies, social media platforms, artificial intelligence and algorithms.

She said AI cannot replace Black storytelling.

"There's nothing that can replace the collective second sight of African American storytelling," Jackson said.

Jackson said Black communities have had to preserve their stories even when their voices were silenced or censored.

"You go quiet or underground when you need to, but you archive those stories, you tell those stories for each other, and we'll always be there," Jackson said.

She said the future of media should include stronger public media, more minority ownership and more support for local Black media institutions.

Jackson also warned that Black media makers are often the first to face censorship, firings and threats when democracy is under attack.

"Black folks and Black folks in media are often the canaries in the coal mine," Jackson said. "They get censored first, they get fired first, you know, they get threatened with death threats first."

Jackson said ignoring those warnings puts the entire country at risk.

"When you don't listen to the canaries, everyone suffocates," Jackson said. "In this metaphor, democracy suffocates."

Jackson said she hopes readers walk away from the book informed and inspired.

"It's an alternative media history of the United States that really places Black media makers for their first time in the central role of technological advancement, media innovation, and narrating and expanding the boundaries of this country," Jackson said.

For Jackson, the message is clear: Black media is not a side story in American history. It is central to the fight over democracy, freedom and who gets to tell the truth about America.