[Imc] media d-day
Paul Riismandel
p-riism at uiuc.edu
Tue Oct 9 16:06:53 UTC 2001
Adbusters is promoting this campaign
(http://adbusters.org/magazine/38/d-day.html):
Media D-Day
PARTY IN THE MEDIA BLIND SPOT
It is 10:23 a.m. on October 19, 2001, and a TV editor pulls another press
release off the wire. What's this? "Media Democracy Day." A teach-in is
planned, a debate (ho-hum) - but wait-just-a-New-York-minute. There's also
a protest newspaper being illegally dropped in to the vending boxes of the
local daily. And two dozen people angry about media mergers plan to risk
arrest by locking themselves to the front doors . . . of a certain TV
station . . . today, at 10:30 . . .
This is the beauty of Media Democracy Day, an international brainstorm
launched this year by Canadian activists: it's a media event that puts the
media's feet to the fire. So who will cover it? And how?
For too long, activists have been the trained tiger in the mass-media
circus. Told that only the media-savvy make the primetime, we fine-tune our
performances and amp up our stunts; in return, we get a few column-inches
of ink or a glimpse of our banners on the evening news. Meanwhile, the
gatekeepers let slide a tidal wave of entertainment, advertisement,
jingles, journalism and pop analysis that props up consumerism, boosts the
"progress" economy, cheerleads corporate culture, cranks up the spectacle,
and never fails to remind us that oil company CEOs care about the
environment, too.
The mainstream media has rested on its mythical claim "to comfort the
afflicted and afflict the comfortable." But it is the comfortable, while
the list of the afflicted includes every bench-warmer in consumer
democracy's elimination dance: all those troubled by media convergence; any
reporter who believes in "change from the inside"; advocates of independent
and public journalism; all small presses; every subvertiser; all those with
media-violence fatigue; anyone who believes airwaves and bandwidth are a
public trust; every activist demanding "the right to communicate"; and each
man, woman and child who can't find a damn thing worth watching on the tube.
It's quite a mob, and on October 19, it will begin to come together - the
first global party ever held in a media blind spot. Expect pranks and jams,
debates entitled "Should we still be talking to the mainstream media?", and
anxious reporters calling HQ for advice. The question that day won't be
whether the dog is wagging the tail or the tail is wagging the dog. No, the
question this time is whether we can get the dog to bite itself on the ass.
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