[Imc-midwest-regional] Media Democracy Day -- a good time for a gathering?

Tue Jul 9 12:20:00 CDT 2002

Hi all,

Media Democracy Day is on Friday October 18, 2002 (more info is below).
How does that weekend (Friday the 18th-Sunday the 20th) look for folks in
terms of holding the Second Annual UCIMC Indymedia Gathering?

I mean, how perfect would that be???  If we can nail down the date, it'll
allow us to start planning, doing outreach, and getting the word out.

All thoughts welcome and encouraged,

--Sascha
UCIMC

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2002 10:10:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: alien8 <alien8 at ziplip.com>
Subject: [Imc-info] Media Democracy Day -- Indymedia participation

CALL FOR INDYMEDIA PARTICIPATION IN MEDIA DEMOCRACY DAY (MDD) - 18 OCTOBER 2002

This is a discussion document for circulation around local IMC's.

MEDIA DEMOCRACY DAY: BACKGROUND AND VISION

Media Democracy Day is an occasion to push for and promote a media system that informs and empowers all members of society. It offers an opportunity to create and link grassroots media and build alternatives to the present media monopolies. It will connect existing pockets of critical and creative media projects with broader social movements.

The rapid concentration of ownership in and commercialisation of the mass media is making them less and less a space to freely exchange information, and more a channel to distribute the news and views of political and economic elites. The products and processes of print, broadcasting and mass online media are addicted to advertising. Mainly owned by a handful of national and international corporations, they are unable to communicate the broad range of perspectives in our communities. Instead, they are a crucial force for shaping people's perceptions of the world in accordance with the views of society's elites.

Media Democracy Day may be called Media Freedom Day by some, Reclaim The Media Day by others, Media Action Day by others... The names are interchangeable, the issues are the same all over the world. The day will focus on:

* Promotion - of alternative, independent and community media
* Education - how the corporate media shapes our world, and how it limits democracy and autonomy
* Protest - against a corporate media system based on commercialisation and exclusiveness
* Change - for a more accountable, accessible and community-led media

It could include public events to promote grassroots alternative media, debates, workshops, conferences, film screenings, skill sharing, joint print publications, internet/fm radio, street theatre, subvertising, pickets, poster parties, media stunts, spoofs and pranks...

It could be a perfect occasion for grassroots media groups to gettogether, meet each other, plan longer-term campaigns, create strategies to promote non-corporate media, and work on building a network to enable a collaborative response to the World Summit on the Information Society in 2003 (see www.itu.int/wsis/index.html and www.crisinfo.org).

INDYMEDIA PARTICIPATION

Media Democracy Day could mobilise....
local radio, pirate radio, art collectives, small newsletters, media monitoring groups, academic groups, the whole bunch of alternative media groups, journalist unions, protest and direct action groups, online campaign groups, community initiatives, etc etc
... and IMC'istas everywhere!

Indymedia is a global network with a large reach into different social movements, campaigns and media projects.  By supporting Media Democracy Day Indymedia as a global network can have a huge impact on the spread of ideas and debates around media issues on a worldwide level. As such, Indymedia is ideally placed to act to promote and network the idea of Media Democracy Day. In addition, Indymedia could benefit from the increased networking and collaboration with other media initiatives around Media Democracy Day.

We would like to propose that Indymedia groups consider to..
- discuss Media Democracy Day within their groups
- promote the day on their sites (features, upcoming events list, etc.)
- plan actions for the day
- organise conferences and gatherings of alternative media

GLOBAL COLLABORATION

We propose to revive the global imc mediapolitics email list to discuss and work on this project:
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/mediapolitics

At present there is no website that is collecting information from around the world about MDD (although there are a couple of small sites up now). Indymedia people may want to
- set up a non imc site to collect global info and call for participation – or feed their info into existing pages
- create a special Indymedia site just for this issue which would need to be administered by a global working group
- create a separate section within Indymedia.org as a place to collect info and updates, also to be adminsitered by a global team of imc people

For more background on the issues:
http://www.americanresurrection.com/Media.htm
http://www.mediatank.org
http://www.mediageek.org/
http://www.reclaimthemedia.org
http://www.mediawatch.ca
http://www.IMPACS.org
http://www.democraticmedia.org
http://www.mediachannel.org/news/indepth/fcc
http://www.fair.org/media-woes/policy.html
http://www.iwantmedia.com/consolidation.html

In solidarity,
a few people in IMC UK

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