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Building Independent Media: Strategies for Change
October 13 - 14, 2000 A Conference in Vermont
Conference Schedule
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here for printable version of 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)
10:30 - 1:30 - Workshops
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 |
