[IMC-US] personal reprtback for indy folks abouttheNationalCOnference on Med

[Tribal Scribal]

>>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?<<

no, not "merely", but that along with:

>>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?" <<


Again, i'm not sure it's an either/or, rather it's an all of the above.

d.o.

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"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as 
necessary in the political world as storms in the physical world."

- Thomas Jefferson
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more rebellion here:
http://concertobi.blogspot.com/

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>From: Michael Medow <mmedow at umich.edu>
>Reply-To: "Working Group for IMC-US." <imc-us at lists.ucimc.org>
>To: "Working Group for IMC-US." <imc-us at lists.ucimc.org>
>Subject: Re: [IMC-US] personal reprtback for indy folks 
>abouttheNationalCOnference on Media Reform.
>Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 00:55:31 -0400
>
>>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/
>
>_______________________________________________
>IMC-US mailing list
>IMC-US at lists.ucimc.org
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