[IMC-US] personal reprtback for indy folks about the National
COnference on Media Reform.
Joshua Breitbart
breitbart at indymedia.org
Mon May 16 00:34:45 CDT 2005
I need to write something more general breaking down the media reform
movement and how I think Indymedia related to it, but for now I'll
just describe the independent media caucus that bht wasn't at.
I agree with bht that day two, Saturday, was the big day. A lot of
people were starting to get pretty fed up not just with Indymedia not
being discussed at the conference but with the absence of space for
horizontal networking. bht, Betsy, and everyone who staffed the table
and Jessica from AZ and others who stood up and spoke during various
sessions did great work, but they were going against the grain.
I had been thinking we should boycott the independent media caucus
because it was at the same time as the caucuses for women, youth,
people of color, and journalists. What a farce. But Jessica, Carly
from SD and Sofia from Boston wanted to use the caucus to discuss our
frustrations. So we rollled on the caucus.
Eric Galatas from Free Speech TV had been asked by Free Press to
coordinate the independent media caucus. We talked about it a while
ago when he asked for suggestions on possible facilitators of
breakout sessions. But he went ahead and derived an entire agenda on
using independent media to spread the message of media reform. Since
a good third of the people in the room were Indymedia people, that
immediately raised hackles.
Then Alice Myatt, a well-respected media consultant, solicited input
from the room on what people wanted to get out of the discussion and
the conference. That was a little better.
But then Eric brought up Craig Aaron, Communications Director from
Free Press, and Harold Feld, a lawyer and senior vice president of
Media Access Project <www.mediaaccess.org>, which argued the case,
known as Prometheus Radio Project v. the FCC, that halted the 2003
deregulation. They started by talking about their suits and how
important they were for talking to politicians. Then they talked
about their media policy victories and what independent media could
do to amplify their messages. For at least 10, maybe 15 minutes.
Emily from Michigan finally spoke out, saying she felt we had been
duped because what was billed as a caucus was in fact a presentation.
She expressed gratitude for the work of the suit-wearers, but said we
had been listening to those types of discussions all weekend and
should not have to give up any of the hour and a half devoted to
actual discussion for more of the same. At that point, the room broke
up into smaller groups by medium. We removed ourselves and began to
discuss what to do.
We decided to meet back in the room an hour later, after the
so-called independent media caucus was over.
Notes and possibly media from the meeting will be available soon, but
it basically went like this:
+ what do we want to discuss? (half the suggestions were about the
conference, half were about other Indymedia issues; we prioritized
the immediate issues and did not get to the other items)
+ bitch session on the conference and reformism
+ proposals for action, which boiled down to: publicize Indymedia
through flyers and setting up terminals in a public area for people
to post
+ concerns about the action: other people at the conference, in
particular people of color working on issues of media justice, were
also marginalized at the conference; the real problem was not that
media reform didn't prioritize Indymedia, but that it did not
prioritize issues of oppression inherent in our media system and any
action we might take should address that issue and be done in
consultation with and leadership from those activists.
==== this was a fundamental disagreement so take note ====
+ at this point, people who wanted to make connections with media
justice activists and consult on Indymedia plans of action left the
room to do so
+ the remaining people in the room consensed on the action and began
to move towards implementation
As it turned out, although the disagreement on how to proceed was
(and remains) really deep, our separate actions turned out to be
complementary. Some of us covered a little ground with media justice
activists while others showed people attending the closing plenary
how Indymedia works, helped people publish their comments to the St.
Louis IMC site, and engaged people in discussion on some of the
problems with the conference.
That's what I love about Indymedia. In the same amount of time
allotted for a "caucus," we went from critique to action, overcoming
serious disagreement by respecting a diversity of tactics. That's one
of the things Free Press could learn from Indymedia.
There is a lot more to report on, including the criticisms of
Indymedia within the conference - particularly on issues of diversity
and representation - and how people responded to them, the bags with
Indy papers that bht alluded to, plus the whole CAPCR fiasco (which
is featured on stlimc and us.imc).
Overall, I would say that we acted appropriately and within our
capabilities. We have a clearer conception of the media reform
movement and how to approach it. And we had a good time.
Josh
At 3:30 PM -0700 5/15/05, bht wrote:
>So, I arrived in St. Louis about four days prior to the beginning of
>the conference. I caught up with frinds that I hadnt seen for
>months and started to get more involved/interested with what was
>happening in the Lou. I think this started right when I pulled up
>to CAMP (Community Arts and Media Project, stlcamp.org) and a bunch
>of little kids from the neighbourhood ran up to me, hugged me, and
>called me daddy. (Then they dug a big hole in the backyard.)
>
>By Thursday, I had a decent grasp of what was going on in the Lou
>and had met folks from here. Josh Breitbart came into town and we
>started working on Wednesday. We stuffed bags for the Allied Media
>Conference.
>
>By Thursday night many of the Indymedia folks had arrived, and many
>of the reformers arrived and we converged at City Museum
>(citymuseum.org) in the Lou for the conference pre-party. And I
>think we partied. I made some real good connections there and had a
>very fun time, leaving with only a few scrapes and a lot of sweat.
>We danced two out of three floors, and we danced hard.
>
>The next day the reforming began and it mostly included sitting at a
>table, poking my head into a few places having conversations with
>many different people about indymedia and about St Louis, and
>basically just working the idea into peoples heads that by coming to
>this conference you are affecting the local community and you have
>to have respect for where you are and awareness for the issues at
>hand. THings went over well, many folks thought I was from the Lou,
>although my name badge clearly repped pdx imc.
>
>That was the first day of the conference and it was mostly low
>energy networking catching up with folks feeling things out. It was
>a good day and we went back to CAMP that night and made friends.
>
>The next day, day two of the conference, was the big day in my book.
>We had seen that media reform was ignoring or missing the
>independant media network and the idea that people can be the media
>nd do away with the industry that they are trying to reform. The
>disgust was thick. Indy activists were moving about the conference
>and promoting the indymedia movement. I was working the table most
>of the day where we had a much better setup with three laptops and a
>few people engaging people walking by and pointing them to their
>nearest local imc.
>
>One person asked how much it cost to post to the site. I got to
>explain to this person that indymedia is not about the money it is
>not about haveing a hold on the media, it is about media justice and
>putting the tools of media production back in the hands of the
>people. I think it was tough to grasp because the conference was
>very academic.
>
>I got to talk to quite a few people and then the 4 o clock caucus'
>came. Inclusing the one that was going to have two indy folks as
>moderators and called independant media producers and the one for
>folks from the northwest. I went to indymedia one first and there
>was another white guy standing in front of everyone telling them how
>it was and that media is a big issue and that reform is working.
>And i got disgusted, partly because it wasnt a caucus but mostly
>because the two indymedia folks that were also supposed to moderate
>were women...and this was just another guy.
>
>So I went to the northwest one and it was much smaller I got to
>inject some of the more radical aims of media justice to people like
>the director of cable access in oregon, and someone similar from
>washington. I talked to media proiducers working for reform through
>legislation and when i asked them if they had a contingency plan
>like what would they do to attain media justice if legislation fell
>through, they had nothing.
>
>I stuck that out to the end, because I felt it was important to let
>northwest folks know that someone from cascadia was there. Then I
>went back to the INdependant Media Producers one, where apparently
>all hell broke loose once the indy folks realized that they were
>being taken for a ride.
>
>SOmeone else can explain what i mean because I wasnt there.
>
>So the indymedia folks planned an indymedia caucus to start in a
>half hour, and there we would discuss how to make amends for this
>washing over by free press. 40-50 people gathered in that room,
>from all across the country, philly, la, portland, seattle, arizona,
>michigan, san diego, nyc, tallahassee, idaho, chicago, bay area,
>houston, austin, tennessee, urbana, carbondale, and others. One
>person from Canada in the room. Alot of passion. Alot of
>resentment.
>
>WE had a bitch session for awhile and then talked about what we
>could do. WE decided that we could take action and create a media
>center in the most travelled place of the conference, right in front
>of the doors to the keynote speech that was happening in a half an
>hour. Just a bit away from where pacifica was streaming. And right
>where Left Bank Books was selling.
>
>One person volunteered a free printing connection. Two people made
>the flier. A few people donated laptops. Others started gathered
>power strips and making signs. We were reclaiming the media. In
>about a halg hour we had a bank of about ten laptops all opened to
>stlimc.org where articles about the conference had been posted and
>people were encourage to post their feelings and their ideas about
>the conference, how it was going, good, bad or otherwise. We put
>the tools in peoples hands and let them know that some people werent
>necessarily happy with what was happening.
>
>Then the people slowed as the conference room filled. The flyer
>returned after about 45 minutes, Left Bank Books asked us to leave
>their space, so we moved across the hall. We re set up the laptops
>and started flyering people and continued to encourage people to
>make media. Quite a few did. The conference staff were trying to
>stop us and move our things, they didnt know what to do. THis
>conference was about reform and we were just taking action.
>Something reformists may or may not do, I have never been one.
>
>Then, a funny things happened. The internet network went away. The
>wireless didnt work, the stream of the keynote died, people making
>media were franctically trying to get it back up. Dru from IMC
>Maritimes whipped up a word document and opened it on each computer.
>people were still writing comments and they would be posted later.
>The media production on the indymedia side didnt stop. Becuase we
>are agile and think on our feet, because we move with the happenings
>and work with our environment.
>Pacifica asked to interview someone from the imc becuase they had
>heard about the discontent and the action and the breakout caucus.
>People were talking about media. People were making media, nd
>apparently David Martinez was rocking out to Patti Smith behind the
>doors we were in front of. Eventually though we had to leave. We
>had also planned a networking party at CAMP for that night and indy
>folks were tired.
>
>We packed up, statement made, and went to CAMP. At CAMP various
>independant media folks from around the world, but mostly int he US
>were shortly milling about. Maybe 60 or more folks showed up to
>relax and talk network and have fun. Some very serious
>conversations happened, but mostly people were letting their hair
>down and Josh Breitbart couldnt stop talking about how great
>indymedia is.
>Anyway, I think that is it in a nutshell. Sadly, I didnt make it to
>anything the next day. Other folks, please fill in more or
>different, make your own, whatever. This is just from my eyes.
>And, oh yeah, there is documentation in video audio and photo of the
>indy action and hopefully more reports of it from people that were
>there.
>--
>"Having a feeling is not illegitemate, unprofessional etc. Being
>emotionally unbiased is living a life with no passion." --Laila
>Imc-Sweden
>
>_______________________________________________
>IMC-US mailing list
>IMC-US at lists.ucimc.org
>http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/imc-us
More information about the IMC-US
mailing list