Over the past two weeks, Mediamouse.org--Grand Rapids' first and largest independent news and media website--has been redesigned. While we are continuing to work on the site and make small tweaks here and there, this work is for the most part completed. Over the past eight years, we believe that Mediamouse.org has served an important role in providing news, analysis, and networking for those interested in social change, those looking for an anecdote to the local corporate media, and for progressive and left groups organizing in Grand Rapids and West Michigan.
Some of the recent changes that will help us grow and continue to serve in this capacity include:
Improved Searching - With several years of articles covering a wide variety of events and issues that have happened in Grand Rapids, we have made some changes to make it easier to find old articles.
Improved Interaction - We have added the capacity to rate articles and make comments. We hope that this will help us solicit feedback and become more responsive to the movements that we support. Additionally, we hope that it invites further discussion and interaction between readers.
Email Subscriptions - We are starting a bi-weekly email newsletter and have also implemented a service that allows folks to subscribe to daily email summaries containing all of the articles that have been posted on any given day.
We will be making additional changes in the coming weeks and continuing to refine some of the functionality. However, our primary goal over the next several months is going to be increasing the readership and relevancy of Mediamouse.org. While a lot of folks know about Mediamouse.org--primarily in the context of being a place to find out about protests--we have generally not done any advertising or outreach over the past several years. We're going to work on this--consider this email a start.
That said, we continue to invite participation from those visiting Mediamouse.org. Submit events, submit articles, suggest stories, or let us know your thoughts on the work we are doing. We appreciate comments, suggestions, criticism, and the opportunity to dialog. While Mediamouse.org is only a website, we believe it is a tool--one of many--that can be used effectively to promote radical social change.
Love and Rage,
- Mediamouse.org
PS - As we move forward, we appreciate any help that folks can offer us in advertising. For some ideas--including posters and links to our profiles on various social networking websites--visit:
http://www.mediamouse.org/contribute/promote.php
PPS - Please pass this announcement along to folks that might be interested. Thanks!
