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.
On the last day of the National Conference for Media Reform, the final panel of the independent media track was held. Titled “Envisioning the Future of Independent Media,” the four panelists–Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, Wally Bowen of the Mountain Area Information Network, Kathy Spillar of Ms. Magazine, and Roberto Lovato of New American Media–discussed the future of independent media. The session was moderated by Linda Jue of the Independent Press Association (IPA), an organization that until it folded recently had provided a variety of support services to independent print publications. Despite the fact that the IPA had folded less than a month before, the panelists were optimistic about the future of independent media in the United States and outlined a number of ways in which they believed that the movement could be strengthened.
Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy spoke first and addressed many of the issues raised in his article “Digital Media Marketplace: The Next Frontier for Media Reform.” He explained that the progressive and independent media movements need to put their energy into securing a space in the new digital media landscape for independent media. He explained that there is a strong need for the movement to invest resources in producing independent media for broadband computer and mobile phone platforms, arguing that regardless of the outcome of net neutrality legislation the corporate media is going to create an “always on” media system across every possible point of distribution. Chester called for a strategic and organized effort to make a new media network controlled and owned by the people; as such, a network would promote the ideas of equality, equity, and environment rather than the commercialism and narcissism of the corporate media. The stakes are high in this battle, as the corporate media has invested $72 billion on new media systems and are already taking advantage of the fact that many young people think of the online and real world as one in the same. He promoted the idea that progressives need to be “strategic and realistic” about what efforts will succeed and called on them to put “half if not more” of their energy into reforming the corporate media through a sustained “commercial intervention.”
Wally Bowen of the Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN), like Chester, stressed the importance of building and sustaining a progressive media infrastructure. He began by articulating the “progressive paradox” in which progressives send much of their money to big media corporations such as Comcast and Verizon while touting their support for independent media. He encouraged activists to get involved in building a progressively run distribution structure, as MAIN has done with providing Internet connectivity to individuals and a low-power FM radio station serving the local community. He explained that the progressive movement needs to get involved in efforts to secure unused spectrum (airwaves) from corporations as a way of capturing dollars to building a progressive infrastructure. Bowen shared with the audience that if given the right spectrum, progressives could build low-cost community operated broadband networks. He asserted that the public access centers scattered around the country should be offering Internet connectivity as a means of building a progressive network. He mentioned local Linux groups as a resource for progressives wanting to build an independent infrastructure.
Following Walley Bowen, Kathy Spillar from Ms. Magazine discussed how progressives have been able to use independent media outlets like Ms. to impact policy and discussion. Spillar told the audience that the primary role of Ms. is to do advocacy work and impact policy while filling an important role as a women-owned media source, a rarity in the media landscape. She talked about how this has been important, arguing that it is essential to own our media outlets rather than to relying on corporate entities, who are dominated by pecuniary concerns, to operate them. Ms. Magazine has been able to raise issues and get them circulating throughout the larger independent media network where they eventually trickle up to the corporate media. She shared a success story of Ms. covering sweatshops in the Marianas Islands and moving the issue through the independent media network, onto the corporate media, and finally to the government/policy level where a law was passed increasing the minimum wage paid to workers.
Roberto Lavato of New American Media, a network of ethnic media formed in 1996, spoke last and raised some serious issues pertaining to race and independent media. Lavato explained that New American Media formed with the realization that it was necessary to share content or that they risked created the divisions of the corporate or “apartheid” media system. He explained that the independent media should approach itself from a hemispheric perspective and realize that white people are a minority. Lavato charged that the corporate media in the United States distributes racist views across the globe and that it, along with the independent media, often fails to take a global perspective. He also urged the audience to consider dropping the term “reform” from the conference, explaining that it places the movement within the context of the nation-state, a position from which the needed revolutionary changes cannot be made. He said that the stakes are too high to be talking about reform and that the movement has to break out of that paradigm by becoming “radical and revolutionary.” Such a shift necessitates increased militancy, with Lavato suggesting that the movement in the United States should look at the situation in Oaxaca where activists have physically taken control of radio and television outlets that fail to serve the needs of the people.
Related posts:
