INDEPENDENT
MEDIA CONVERGENCE 2000INDEPENDENT
MEDIA CONVERGENCE 2000
Building Independent Media: Strategies
for Change
October 13 - 14, 2000 A Conference in Vermont
Conference Schedule
Friday, October 13
6 p.m. - Registration begins at Trinity College, Burlington
8 p.m. - Opening & Keynote - Media Crimes & Deceptions
with Michael Parenti & Amy Goodman
co-sponsored with the UVM Student Political Awareness and Responsibility
Coalition (SPARC)
Saturday, October 14
8:45 a.m. - Registration begins at Trinity College, Burlington
9:45 a.m. -- Opening Remarks and Welcome
10 a.m. -- Keynote - Njoki Njoroge Njehû (50 Years is Enough Network)
Most workshops will run 80-90 minutes, and are scheduled for 10:30 a.m., 12, and
2:30 p.m. They will be followed by a plenary panel at 4:30 p.m.. Three moderated
roundtable discussions will also be held in the afternoon (2:30-4:30), aimed at
provoking dialogue and reaching conclusions to be shared with other conferees
later in the day.
1 -- 2:30 p.m. -- Lunch
2:30 - 4:30 p.m. -- Workshops & Roundtable Discussions
4:30 - 6 p.m. - Plenary Panel
Getting Media Alternatives off the Ground
Panelists include Celia Alario, David Barsamian,
Amy Goodman, Manse Jacobi, & Danny Schechter. Moderator: Greg Guma
6 - 7:30 p.m. - Dinner and Social Hour
7:30 p.m. - Wrap up, announcements, and roundtable reports
8 p.m. - Entertainment - The George Shrub Comeback Tour, with Dave Lippman
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS AND TIMES
10:30 a.m. - 12 noon
The IMCs and the Movement
This panel discussion will look at how the emergence of Independent Media
Centers (IMCs) around the country and beyond relates to organizing strategies.
Topics will include:
1) The relationship between communication, journalism, and activism;
2) IMCs as a practical instrument for activists to participate in issue organizing and campaign strategy;
3) Can the IMC model be utilized to chart future short term and long term strategy? And,
4) How IMCs can bridge the communication gap between progressive issue organizers/think tanks, and the activist base.
Moderator: Scott Harris
(Between The Lines radio newsmagazine, WPKN); presenters: Njoki Njoroge Njehû
(50 Years is Enough Network), Sheri Herndon (Seattle IMC), Celia Alario
(movement media strategist), Shane Korytko (Vancouver IMC), and Kim Foster
(Rainforest Action Network).
Roadblocks for Indy Media (and How to
Overcome?)
Despite the promise of the "information age," the public remains ill-
or under-informed about almost everything except what to buy. Television has
become sellovision, image overpowers information, and conservative ideologies
are promoted like toothpaste. How can we fight for more coverage of issues that
matter, challenge propaganda posing as news, and sustain our own media companies
and channels? Danny Schechter has been grappling with these questions as a
journalist and producer for 30 years, launching alternatives like Globalvision,
which has produced award-winning human rights TV shows, and, most recently, the
Media Channel, a Website linking more than 500 affiliates. This session is a
wide-open discussion of the problems, as well as some avenues for reforms and
effective alternatives, with Schechter and the Media Channel's senior producer,
Aliza Dichter, who has witnessed firsthand how the entertainment industry
manipulates culture.
Foreign Affairs, Media and Misinformation
This panel will feature several women who have visited and written
extensively on the Middle East and the Balkans. Their presentations will cover
cultural alternatives, media distortions, and the connection between oil, wars,
and US foreign policy. Each panelist will present for 10 minutes, after which we
will hold a discussion with the audience. Papers: "Outside
Alternatives," "Media's Manufactured Massacres," "The Threat
of Global War in the 21st Century," and "Media Lies, Oil, Wars, and US
Foreign Policy. Moderator: Lenora Foerstel; presenters: Michael Parenti, Barbara
Nimri Aziz (WBAI), Sara Flounders (IAC), and Heather Cottin.
Building Community through Independent
Media:
A Case Study -- Burlington, Vt.
What does "community building" mean in the context of media? How
do media outlets successfully build community, if at all? What more could
be done among projects, and between projects and the community? What are the
limits of media as community builders? Media activists from Burlington, Vermont
will discuss the community aspects of their projects, and, with workshop
attendees, brainstorm ways to increase community building. Moderators:
Marc Estrin (Old North End RAG) and Dian Mueller (Green Mountain Circle Works);
Discussion group: Oak LoGalbo (Channel 17), Gene Bergman (Peace & Justice
Newsletter), Don Schramm (The Onionskin), Donna Bister (The Old North End RAG),
Jason Baker (Burlington low-power radio organizer), Manni Lionni (05401), Alison
Calderara (Community Health Center newsletter), Neil Heims (IDCAC), Iren
Smolarsky (Channel 15) and Richard and Jonathan Denby (CrummyIdea.com).
Vermont Media Roundtable
Picket lines and nursing strikes. Civil unions and same-gender adoption rights.
Environmental protection and labeling laws regarding hormones in dairy products.
Vermont is known as a progressive state. How does the media treat that
progressive sensibility in news stories and commentary? Some of Vermont's
leading journalists will talk about how they rate the media's effectiveness, and
discuss issues of balance, objectivity and putting Vermont's politics in
perspective with national concerns. We'll also talk about investigative reports
into major topics, a journalistic practice that seems on the wane these days,
but one that remains alive at both the Rutland Herald and WCAX. Questions from
the audience will be included. Moderator: Shay Totten; presenters: Jack Hoffman
(Vermont Press Bureau/Rutland Herald), Sera Congi (WCAX-TV), and Joy
Hopkins (former talk-show host).
16 Tons and What Do You Get:
Integrating Labor Issues into Progressive Media
Mention labor to just about any mainstream journalist and watch his or her eyes
roll back in their head. It's immediately assumed that labor, with its strong
historical agenda, is a tainted source or unworthy of coverage. Yet these same
reporters seem to have no problem with the consolidation of ownership and
inherit corporate slant of their own networks and newspapers. In this workshop
we'll cover the history and re-emergence of labor and trade unions as a force in
politics and the media; how to cultivate sources amongst conventional union
leadership and the rank and file and the burgeoning social action/progressive
labor movement; and the importance of labor related concerns to progressive
media makers and their audiences. The format will be open discussion with plenty
of time to discuss real world challenges. Examples of radio/audio programs will
be presented.
Presenters: David Goodman (Independent Broadcast Information Service/WMBR) and
Jason Winston (NEA/Livable Wage Coalition).
Low Power and Short Wave Radio
Corporate ownership of America's AM, FM and broadcast television airwaves has
created a virtual blackout of progressive voices on the air in most communities.
Purchasing and running their own conventional radio or TV station is impossibly
expensive for grassroots groups. So, what's an activist to do? Low
power, pirate, and short wave radio offer ways to reach large audiences at
relatively low cost. But starting and running a radio station isn't for
the faint of heart. This workshop will explore the legal, organizational,
financial, and technical hurdles inherent in radio broadcasting. Special
attention will be given to the FCC's new LPFM licensing scheme.
Moderator: Steve Hingtgen (Burlington Low Power project/State Representative);
Panelists: David Diamond (New Hampshire Peace Action), Pete triDish (Prometheus
Radio), and Roger Leisner (Radio Free Maine).
12 -- 1:30 p.m.
Internet & Television Forum
As the boundaries between text, radio, and TV break down, alternative
information and news becomes available to large audiences at a relatively low
cost. Yet the ability to reach people is increasingly overshadowed by
conglomerates investing heavily in Internet enterprises, while disparities grow
between classes and regions. This forum will explore the practical challenges of
creating Internet-based alternative networks, and topics such as the history of
free speech television, how people can participate in building a national
television network, IMC and other Internet coverage of the conventions this
summer, plus future plans. Manse Jacobi (IMC/Freespeech TV), Jay Moore (Internet
activist), Aliza Dichter (Media Channel), Sheri Herndon (IMC-Seattle), Michael
Eisenmenger (Paper Tiger TV), Sue Harris (Peoples' Video Network), Arthur
Foelsche, and others.
Breaking through Censorship
This panel will draw on experiences of investigative journalists and
historians to explain how censorship and secrecy by the powerful can be fought
using alternative media, federal courts, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA),
public access TV, and the Internet's emerging technologies. Moderator: Gerry
Colby (National Writers Union); presenters: Blanche Wiesen Cook (author/WILPF),
Ken Wachsberger (author/NWU -Central Region), and Charlotte Dennett
(lawyer/author/NWU National Vice President).
Connecting with Audiences and the World
A conversation with David Barsamian (Alternative Radio) and Barbara Nimri Aziz (WBAI/Toward
Freedom). It will take some creativity, and some courage to break away from our
small but comfy bases. This workshop will be a broad and open discussion of a
critical issue for alternatives-- how to reach new, and larger audiences.
Barsamian will talk about getting beyond the choir, getting to the congregation,
overcoming sectarianism, building electronic solidarity, and exploring
strategies for multiple impact -- radio to video to print to CD. Aziz will
spotlight our education system as a whole in order to help identify new targets
for alternatives.
Constructive ideas and dialogue about extending our reach will be welcome.
Activism, the Movement, and Its Media
A forum on the building of the movement by its media, and its media by the
movement. A panel of local and regional activists will present and moderate a
discussion on the role of alternative and independent media in building the
movement by informing and encouraging the community, and how that community can
support and make possible its own media. What is it to be the movement's media?
Moderator: Will Miller (UVM/Green Mountain Fund); presenters: S'ra DeSantis
(Vermont Action Network), Rona Fernandez (Independent Press Association), and
Orin Langelle (Action for Community & Ecology in the Regions of Central
America).
Propaganda, Persuasion, and Journalistic
Objectivity
in Independent Media
This workshop will be an open-ended discussion of the following questions and
perhaps others. 1) Where do you draw the line between journalism and propaganda?
2) What can journalistic objectivity mean when you must protect the interests of
your employer or your customers? 3) Aren't some issues a matter of right and
wrong and shouldn't journalistic integrity include some kind recognition of
right and wrong? 4) Shouldn't a journalist or media worker feel some sort of
obligation to make the world a better place by means of their professional
skills? Moderator: Michael Badamo (The Woodchuck); presenters: Chris Braithwaite
(Barton Chronicle) and David Gram (Associated Press), and Neal Rodar (Woodbury
College).
What Would a Sustainable Newspaper Look
Like?
Launching and maintaining a viable local paper requires more than commitment and
talent. It's also a matter of understanding what readers want and need,
providing decent working conditions for staff and writers, and building both a
solid economic and community base. This workshop will offer participants a
chance to share their ideas on creating a progressive newspaper, its editorial
mission, and how to make it economically viable. Greg Guma (editor, Toward
Freedom/VT), Rob Ramer (National Writers Union-Minnesota, and community media
activist), and Jeremy Smith (Independent Press Association).
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants:
Video Access/Public Access
The "unlimited bandwidth" now promised by the Internet has been
available for decades in the form of public, educational and governmental access
television channels. Yet relatively few cabled communities have taken full
advantage of them. If bandwidth isn't the key to building community-based media,
what is? And, since local cable television franchises provide the only
opportunity for citizens to directly influence their own telecommunications
environment, how is that done? This panel explores the successes and failures of
the first half century of community media organizing with an eye to joining the
energy and vitality of the IndyMedia movement with hard-won resources in the
world of community media and technology centers. Moderator: Steve Pierce (WRPI/
public access TV organizer, Troy, NY); Presenters: Lauren Glen Davitian (CCTV,
Burlington, VT), and Greg Epler Wood (CAT-TV, Bennington, VT).
2:30 - 4 p.m.
Behind the Lines: Taking a Story from Conception to Publication, Radio, &
Film
Professional journalists from different media will dissect stories and topics
they worked on in radio, film, books, and magazines. An anecdotal, practical,
informative, and,hopefully, entertaining look at how projects get from concept
to fruition. Expect good nuts and bolts information. Moderator: David L. Goodman
(Mother Jones); presenters: Terry Allen (In These Times), Danny Schechter (Globalvision),
and Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!).
Future of Free Speech Radio: WBAI and
Pacifica
Listener-sponsors at WBAI in New York and members of the New York Chapter of the
Coalition for a Democratic Pacifica will discuss the station's history and the
struggle to ensure Pacifica's continued independent survival. Topics will
include the future of free speech radio, the Pacifica Foundation and its
stations, and the role of this unique enterprise today and tomorrow. Moderator:
Carolyn Birden (Community College of Philadelphia); presenters: Patty Heffley
(Coalition for a Democratic Pacifica-New York), and John Biello
(plaintiff, Pacifica lawsuit).
Media & Electoral Politics
A candid conversation between candidates in Vermont's leading statewide races --
Progressive candidate for Governor Anthony Pollina & Democratic candidate
for US Senate Ed Flanagan -- and Vermont media TBA. Moderator: Robin Lloyd (TF/filmmaker/WILPF).
Building Bridges with Alternative Media:
A College-Community Connection
The adventure of starting up and sustaining a progressive publication will be
discussed, with a focus on networking and bridge-building in New Hampshire. The
Community Research and Action Center at New England College in Henniker, NH
publishes the New Hampshire Social Justice Monthly. Students and faculty
are the staff; the Advisory Board includes 17 activists from across the state
who are involved in a wide range of social issues. The publication brings
activists and issues together, building bridges between causes and
organizations. But the project is also building a bridge between a college and
the wider community. Dennis Kalob, Betsy Schneider, Jennifer Fitzsimmons, and
Chris Dale. (New England College).
Telling Your Stories: How young adults can
add their voices to the media onslaught through video storytelling
This workshop will discuss the mass media's portrayal of young adults, and will
offer instruction to teens so that they can tell their own stories in their own
way. The art of video, hands-on technical training and real world barriers will
be explored. Jim Olinger (Regional Educational Television Network).
2:30 - 4:30 p.m.
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS
1) Creating Effective, Alternative Enterprises
2) Using Media to Promote Peace, Democracy and Social Change
3) Improving Access and Promoting Change in Mainstream Media
These moderated, open discussions will be an opportunity for all participants to
offer ideas, proposals, and recommendations for action. Moderators will pose key
questions, encourage brainstorming, and attempt to move the groups toward areas
of general agreement. We encourage each roundtable to record its conclusions for
later presentation and follow up by the Independent Media Convergence Project.
Moderators: Joe Gainza, Jason Baker, and Neal Rodar.
FEES:
Conference: Friday -- $15; Saturday -- $30
Saturday Meals: Lunch -- $8; Dinner -- $10