Change the media, change the world? Really? Is it that simple? Well, I went to the National Conference for Media Reform this past weekend to find out.
Kudos to Free Press, based in the Pioneer Valley, for putting on such a great event — their fifth national conference (starting in 2003). The major theme banged home during the weekend was that no matter what your issue focus is, you’ve got to make media your second issue. Whether we’re talking about media policy or media making, it is imperative to transform the way we communicate to each other and to larger and larger audiences of concerned citizens. From message to medium, from media justice to media literacy, this conference brought together a few thousand people who are remaking the media from the bottom up.
From the incredible accounts of on-the-ground reporting from Tahrir Square during the internet and cell phone blackout by Democracy Now’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous, to inspiring victories like an expansion of Low Power FM radio stations over the course of the next year, the conference was packed with individuals and institutions breaking through what Amy Goodman calls “the static.”
Some conference video is available here and here. Below are some of the things from the conference that stood out to me.
Free Press co-founder Bob McChesney calling for significant public funding for independent public interest media:
Professor Lawrence Lessig presenting on his new RootStrikers initiative on money and politics:
The Prometheus Radio Project’s Radio Summer campaign to maximize the number of Low Power FM community radio station applications that get filed in the coming year.
Jason Pramas of Open Media Boston and Libby Reinish of Free Press organizing a session for a Boston media reform network.
This was a very promising roundtable discussion, and there are plans in the works for a May meeting to kick things off.
All in all, if we can’t communicate, we can’t challenge the dominant narratives that bind us to destructive systems. We will be swept aside as the prevailing forces for greed and self-interest out-organize us and keep us on the defensive, consistently divided and conquered. The time for complaints is over. “The media” is us now. If we accept the challenge, we can indeed change the world.
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As a member of the press, I agree entirely. Big media is a corrupt waste of time, but we also need to be sure the smaller, more personal media is honest and there’s a strong push for Web sources that do their homework. The web today is where print was in the 19th C — 90% “yellow journalism” (and I use the latter word VERY loosely. Most bloggers wouldn’t know ethical journalism if it bit them, and that’s true even of some sites I basically agree with). The other 10% are good, with representatives of various political views but a common interest in genuinely informing the people and debating the issues.
A good example is David Brin’s “Contrary Brin” — he’s a strong proponent of the possibilities today’s communications tech has to promote transparency when used widely… (I don’t always agree with his almost cornucopian belief in tech’s ability to save us in other areas, though.)
Gus