Update: June edition of We, The Media has been posted.
Update: May edition of We, The Media has been posted.
Green Mass Group is proud and humbled to have entered the emerging arena of people-powered media. We have big designs on a grassroots, decentralized, and democratized truth-telling apparatus working in synergy and solidarity with other institutions of the same nature. We see a variety of important institutions in existence that need to be supported and nourished, and we dream of a slew of other institutions that do not yet exist. We hope to play a small part in organizing the voices of the people of the Commonwealth and beyond into a beautiful and powerful chorus that reflects and articulates our deepest desires so that they may become reality.
We are thus launching a campaign called We, The Media, where we will ask our readers to support the critical independent media institutions we believe warrant our support. From community newspapers, radio, and public access to key blogs, international satellite networks and vital television journalism, we will select one institution a month for 12 months, and ask our readers to make timely donations. By pooling together the precious few dollars we have at our disposal, we hope to begin to change the media landscape so that We, The People have a voice amidst the profit-driven madness that rules the airwaves.
We are kicking off our drive with a request for donations to Open Media Boston, just as they celebrate their 2nd anniversary. OMB’s exemplary pursuit of truth and justice represents a wonderful model for how we can run-around corporate media and get our stories out there. We hope that by the time we’re picking our 12th choice for We, The Media to support, that there’s an Open Media Massachusetts alive and kicking.
Here’s a note from OMB that captures why we’ll be using the month of April to throw support their way:
We certainly have not given up on the idea that good media work should be paid work – and that everyone who works for OMB should be able to make a living wage. If we’re going to survive and thrive over the long-term, and become the major news outlet we aspire to be, then we need the communities we serve to help us get bigger, better and more relevant by helping us raise the kind of budget that would make us a going concern for years to come.
They are trying to form a media cooperative, which would allow for democratic decision-making and complete accountability to its membership. Please visit OMB today, and donate. Then write to greengroupmass@gmail.com to let us know how much you contributed.
Be sure to let us know how much you contributed so we can tally results, and please make recommendations for other institutions you think we should support. Comments bolstering your suggestion are appreciated.
And beyond financial contributions, we hope you will participate in these forums and support them in changing the larger conversation, in getting the truth out, and developing a new song for all of us to sing together.
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Hmmm. How about, “…and that everyone who works for GMG should be able to make a living wage?”
Only joking. We’re opinion-spouters, and if we weren’t on here some of us would be opinionizing on streetcorners, barstools, and you-name it. The folks at OpenMedia Boston are the real deal, and the model–street-level reporting, editorial comment that’s sane, non-partisan, yet missing from the MSM, and open comment threads along with invitations to post front-page material–really is, or should be, the future, as mainstream print media goes down. (And they’re not just a “chorus,” of course–just like GMG, dissent is welcome). If you want cooperative, relocalized, and grassroots–there ya go. We all can’t write, but we be can be part of a cooperative effort by donating what we can.
Because as ad-driven print does go down, too many of us out here expect to get our media for free, forgetting that somewhere along the line somebody else has to eat. There are plenty of solo-bloggers–god bless us–who fund our editorial efforts with the occasional pitch for a donation via a paypal link, but if you want quality coverage, that’s no way to run it.
Some you probably donate to NPR etc. With all due respect to WBUR and other affiliates, what OpenMedia Boston is doing is infinitely more critical (and I’ll be the first to admit that I find NPR stodgy, cute, and dull–Ira Glass, Terri Gross and more than a few others bore me to death). OMB doesn’t rely on syndicated content, they can get much much closer to home, and it’s damn doubtful they’re going to get any corporate or government funding (so far as I’m concerned,NPR/PBS IS mainstream media (e.g., Juan Williams, etc). And, too, consider that little matter of the close-knit debate-consortia that NPR/PBS is part of–I have no doubt that OMB will continue to provide the kind of excellent coverage they’ve already given to “outlier” campaigns, Grace Ross’ as well as Jill Stein’s–and I expect to see that same treatment accorded other third-party, independent, and rebellious candidates within the mainstream parties.
So when you make your regular donation to “alternative” media sources–consider the REAL alternative!