[IMC-US] VISIONING: rambles of what i would like the site to be...

[bht]

I was looking at US IMC this morning and thinking about the irc meeting 
the other day.  One thing that was talked about but never addressed was 
what the content for US IMC should be.  Nick from Houston repeatedly 
bought up how a local imc could choose which features from its site were 
syndicated to US IMC.  And which syndicated features were promoted, and 
what the process for that was.

I responded to it a few times and what came out of it was really the 
vision that I have had for US IMC that I may have never said succinctly 
and perhaps I can offer this as an email of vision that I would like to 
be responded to not contending anything stated, but with what other 
folks consider their vision for the site is.
 --
bht's vision for us imc :-)

I have always wanted a site where we as folks in the us could find out 
what is going on around the us.  I know that many folks care about 
issues and report on issues outside of the us and we all have different 
ideas of what constitutes being us relevant.  I was looking down the 
feature wire and there is the feature:  Guatemala Responds to CAFTA.  I 
like this feature and think that it is grreat.

However, I think this story belongs on indymedia.org.  That is another 
thing that has been eating away since the beginning, what is the 
relationship of us imc to indy.org?  Anyway, I would like to see all 
features from us based imc's syndicated to the wire so we as media 
activists and folks looking for whats going on in this country can find 
out whats going on where in this country.  Even if it is a benefit in 
Rochester for a local group there.

I dont look at us imc as a means to be a national media that reports of 
world issues.  I like the idea of local imc's because I can get intimate 
information about a place that I am not from.  If i look at the 
Oregonian (major portland newspaper) or the New York Times, the both 
have the same stories, regardless of them being on opposite sides of the 
country.  As people, and as media activists, we should be able to note 
that this is a brainwashing, that corporate media is trying to tell 
everyone what is important.  and with that trying to keep people 
unfocused on things that are probably more important like local issues. 

i think that local imc's should be local imc's.  and i think a local 
imc's focus should be the locale that it is in.  i think that reporting 
from areas that are not local are great as well.  for example, portland 
imc gets some great original writing from a person haiti, and it is 
featured every time a new story comes out.  i like to think oftentimes 
of how things were before telecommunications and national news and 
such.  when people learned about what happened elsewhere from travellers 
and friends bringing news from other places.

i do not follow major media at all.  it is funny, because i have no idea 
what is going on in the world even though as a 'media activist' some 
assume that i would have a better grasp than most on what is happening 
int he world.  but some friends came up from san francisco the other day 
and we sat in my living room and one of them mentioned the schiavo 
case.  i knew nothing about it, only that as i passed the newspaper 
boxes on the street it has been the headline for days.  she mentioned it 
and i asked what that meant because, admittedly, i had no clue 
whatsoever.  then after that discussion we went on to talk about other 
things, news from folks int he room that had been travelling recently.  
and even though it was all 'old' news or of things past, it was great to 
hear about them.

i dont think that we should go back to that type of media dissemination 
just yet.  but i do think that we should recognize the importnat things 
that occur where we live, the small battles that happen every day and 
tell people about that through our websites.  instead of trying to tell 
people about what happens in other parts of the world through these 
websites.  (i have been told that many imc's and imcista have editorial 
colletives that collectively write the center column features for their 
site as news, and this part is based directly on that.)

okay, wrapping it up.  i think we should be local imc's more.  and 
really find out for ourselves what it means to be a local imc.  and that 
us imc should conglomerate the local things happening around the country 
and not try to be a national media that offers global coverage.  and 
this is just how i feel about things, not necessarily representative of 
anyone else in portland. 

--

now, back to parts of emails that open comment can be on.  thanks to 
emily for doing the work on the outreach page, now it would be great if 
other folks went ahead and did the outreach to imc's that necessitated 
it.  i would also really appreciate (if other folks have the time) some 
more visioning from different people of what they would like this us imc 
site to be.  okay, now i will stop as this is too long.
bht
portland imc volunteer