This article is part of a series of articles by Media Mouse covering the 2007 National Conference for Media Reform. We believe that these will be of value to those organizing for social change in the Grand Rapids and West Michigan area.

Malkia Cyril with the Youth Media Council moderated this session and set the tone by stating that there is a big difference between Media Reform and Media Justice. She asked the question "do we want to just secure rights and rules in the telecomm world or are we working for civil and human rights?" Malkia then addressed the language of digital or neutral in Internet battles and said it "does not address the power structures...differences in media choices or media power."

The first panelist was Alfredo Lopez with the May 1st/People Link which provides free software for grassroots organizations and is interested in the Internet as primarily a movement building tool. Alfredo said, "almost everything online is an act of collaboration. It proves what I have believed all my life that collaboration is natural. It took so many years in to get the American public to question the war in Vietnam... with Iraq, the swiftness of the opposition was amazing - the Internet was a big part of the catalyst. What does this mean for media reform? The opportunity now is greater to build a media movement. However, there are several challenges: we need to put everything online - blogging news events, more audio, and video as well." He also stated that the World and US Social Forums are the ideal forum to put in place the practical uses of the media movement.

The second panelist was Myoung-Joon Kim with MediaACT in South Korea. He said, "this movement here is important for the globe as well. I hope that the activists in the US learn from the movements around the world. Public Access structure in South Korea is very different than in the US. We fought for broadband access for everyone after the dictatorship. Media has always been key to our social change fabric. Our government is also neo-liberalist, with the push for a FTA with the US." A big part of the media movement was the labor movement, which was demanding better representation. There has also been a push for using the Internet for social justice. Big challenges come from neo-liberalism such as occupation of the Internet by commercialism. Because of that we need new strategies:

1. We need a broader movement for media democracy. Before we didn't kept talking about what we want.
2. We also need a different structure for media - more public space for redistribution of resources.
3. How can we connect these grassroots activism to media policy? We now have 30 minutes a week for a show that is on the national media, not just public access on the margins...the satellite channel is also part of the general broadcasting, so anyone can get it.

But the big questions are how do we connect the grassroots struggle with the policies? How do we frame the public interest and communication rights for the people? We also need to develop clear strategies for public media space for redistribution of resources and for greater public access. It's always about power and empowered people having power if they are organized.

The last panelist was Genevieve Williams with the US Human Rights Network and Radio Diaspora. The group has three priorities: women, African descendents, and the diasporic movement. She addressed 3 main points about their work:

1. Tools we use - The community radio station is in Atlanta, Georgia where voices who are absent from other media can speak. We also provide access to other groups around similar issues.
2. This week in people's history - she shares an example from Jamaican uprising called the Baptist War - part of radio show in English & Spanish to feature history that the power structure doesn't want people to know.
3. Upcoming projects - radio theater in Spanish - first show was about the first woman who died in Nicaragua since abortion was made illegal.

This panel presented many practical applications of media for social change and challenged the Media Reform movement to stop marginalizing their voices in these conferences and make Media Justice the focus.