[IMC-US] personal reprtback for indy folks about theNationalCOnference on Media Reform.

[Michael Medow]

> can you all who were at the meetings/conference try to write up some 
> kind of distinction that then perhaps with multiple voices and our 
> community collective intelligence, we'll all start to understand it 
> more.

I thought I'd throw out some of how I understand the distinction 
between Media Justice and Media Democracy, at least in the sense of how 
we seem to be using those terms. I'm not going to bother talking about 
Media Reform since that concept, its uses, limitations and drawbacks, 
has already been talked about a lot, especially in Kat's last email. 
This understanding of Media Justice v. Media Democracy is born out of 
my experience listening to the words of Media Justice activists and my 
personal attempts to work in solidarity with Media Justice movement:

1. Media Justice is a concept born from a critique of the current media 
propaganda system that centers race, gender, class and sexuality as 
lenses through which we can understand who is privileged by the current 
system and who is oppressed by this system. This critique reveals the 
racist, sexist, homophobic, colonialist and imperialist origins and 
logics of the current media propaganda system. The Media Justice 
critique reveals how people of color, women, poor people, queer people, 
trans people, and those laying at the intersection of these identities 
are targeted, exploited, misrepresented and silenced by the current 
media system.

The Media Justice critique mandates that the people most damaged by the 
current media propaganda system must take leadership and set the terms 
for how we will abolish the current media system and construct Media 
Justice in its place. The tactics and strategies of the Media Justice 
movement are many and are born from the political, social, cultural and 
spiritual practices of peoples under assault by the current media 
propaganda system.  These tactics and and strategies include youth and 
adult media literacy organizing, building community information sharing 
networks, activist networks for responding to the activities of the 
dominant media propaganda system, art and cultural organizing, etc.  
Because Media Justice mandates the abolition of white supremacy, 
patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism and imperialism, the practice of 
Media Justice organizing intersects with and is in solidarity with all 
movements in pursuit of these goals.

2. Media Democracy is the idea that all people should have democratic 
and equal access to the media. Indymedia is a strategy of the Media 
Democracy movement insofar as it expands democratic access to the means 
of media production.

Media Democracy, as a concept and activist practice, can fall short of 
the revolutionary goal of Media Justice insofar as it fails to confront 
white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism and imperialism. 
Creating "Media Democracy" while these systems of oppression remain 
intact and non-confronted, merely provides a mask and a means for the 
continuance of these systems of oppression. Insofar as Indymedia, as a 
Media Democracy strategy, has failed to confront these systems of 
oppression, has failed to center an analysis of those systems and has 
failed to center the leadership of those most affected by those systems 
of oppression, it has contributed to the perpetuation of systems of 
oppression.
---

How do we respond the NCMR? Do we merely insist that a Media Democracy 
perspective be inserted into the Media Reform agenda? That we should 
not only talk about FCC rulemaking but also the uses of open publishing 
newswires?

Or do we, as the US Indymedia Network, demand that a Media Justice 
perspective, with all its lenses, be at the forefront of the Media 
Reform agenda?

I think we'd all benefit from the latter.

those are my thoughts. thanx for reading.

Mike
michiganIMC / Critical Moment

.. .  .   .    .     .      .       .        .         .          .     
       .            .             .              .
Michigan Independent Media Center: http://michiganIMC.org
Critical Moment: http://criticalmoment.org/