[Imc] imc in residence @ allen hall

[Danielle Chynoweth]

folks, as i stated in sunday's meeting, i submitted a proposal for the imc
to be in residence as a collective in allen hall either for the fall or
spring of the next academic year.  below is the text i submitted
yesterday.  please remember that this is just a proposal.  what we actual
offer needs to be worked out in more detail with allen hall staff and
students.  also, if you don't see your name in here, you are still more
than welcome to help out.  i was putting this together on a tight dealine.
please feel invited.
-danielle

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Independent Media @ Allen Hall
Contact: Danielle Chynoweth, danielle at onthejob.net, 344-0183

The Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center is applying to be a
guest-in-residence program at Allen Hall.

Who We Are:
The Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (IMC) is a grassroots
collective that provides a forum for community members to voice issues,
ideas, and opinions that are underrepresented in the dominant media.  The
IMC offers tools, training, and support for the production and
distribution of these underrepresented perspectives.  While the corporate
controlled media oligopoly has limited participation in public discourse
and has a vested interest in quelling social conflict, the IMC seeks to
democratize public space and use media to promote social and economic
justice.

The United States has a long history of independent media, powerful
broadsides, and muckraking journalism.  The most recent explosion of the
Independent Media movement was prompted by the convergence of inexpensive
means of media production and a strong global justice movement as
manifested in the November 1999 protests against the World Trade
Organization in Seattle.  At these protests, the global Independent Media
Center (www.indymedia.org) was established to provide grassroots coverage
of the WTO protests.  Hundreds of people provided material for daily news
broadcasts showing an on-the-ground, non-corporate point of view of
events.

Members of the local IMC worked with the global IMC at these and other
global justice protests throughout last year.  Since then, the local IMC
has produced hundreds of news pieces in print, audio, and video for its
local web site (urbana.indymedia.org) and many local news venues, most
notably WEFT and WILL, local community and public radio stations.  The IMC
has opened a storefront space in downtown Urbana which houses media
production facilities, a newsstand, a library and media archive, meeting
facilities, and an art gallery.


Proposed Structure and Programs:
This proposal is for a two week residency at Allen Hall.  During this
time, the guest room will be converted into a media production facility.
The IMC collective members will offer both theory and practice --
discussing the current media situation and providing hands-on
opportunities to learn how to produce media.  Additionally, the IMC will
bring in guests to speak on particular topics (e.g. David Barsamian of
Alternative Radio, Robert McChesney, a media activist and scholar, or
someone from the global IMC).  Students will work over the course of two
weeks on media projects with IMC collective members.  This will culminate
in a final showing of student work at the end of the two weeks.

The structure of each day in residence will be a discussion-oriented piece
in the early evening followed by a hands-on activity in the late evening.
For example, the two week schedule could look like the following:

Monday
1.
"This is What Democracy Looks Like" an introduction to Independent
Media and the UC-IMC
(IMC collective)

2.
A tour of the production facility in residence

Tuesday
1.
"The History of Radical and Passionate Tellings of Truth"
a historical overview of independent media from Thomas Payne, to Ida
Tarbell and Indymedia
(Mike Lehman, History student and IMC collective member)

2.
"How-Tos of Investigative Journalism: a Workshop"
(Jerry Landay, Professor Emeritus of College of Journalism, UI and
IMC member)

Wednesday
1.
"Media Concentration and the Need for Independents" overview of the
political and economic structure of the mass media (Robert McChesney and
Paul Riismandel, a/v technician and IMC collective member)

2.
Audio Workshop
(Paul Kotheimer, singer/songwriter and IMC collective member)

Thursday
1.
"How to Be Informed Without Being Duped"
lessons in reading between the lines, biases to watch out for, and
alternative news sources
(Molly Stentz and Pauline Bartolone, IMC collective members)

2.
Video Workshop
(Paul Riismandel)

Friday
1.
"Showdown in Seattle"
a video documentary produced by Seattle IMC about the WTO protests

Monday
1.
"If you¹re Monsanto, let¹s talk; if you¹re the AFL-CIO get outta here"
the media bias against labor reporting
(Peter Miller, labor organizer, IMC collective member)

2.
Web Design and Publishing Workshop
(Danielle Chynoweth, IMC collective member)

Tuesday
1.
"Performance, Politics, Newspoetry, Newspainting: the Arts as
Independent Media"
(Sarah Kanouse and Susan Parenti, IMC collective members)

2.
Print Workshop
desktop publishing
(Ellen Kunutson, Library Graduate student and IMC Collective Member)

Wednesday
1.
"Starting a UI-IMC"
discussion of creating a student IMC on campus
(Sascha Meinrath, Community Psychology Graduate student and IMC collective member)

2.
"Visions for Independent Media"
(IMC collective)

Thursday
1.
Showing student work from the last two weeks