Meeting Mar 25, Current Projects, OPIRG AGM, Adbusters & Rabble March 21, 2008
Posted by mediamattersottawa in Challenging Mainstream Media, Events, Independent Media, Media Matters Projects, Media Reform.add a comment
Happy Spring!
In this email:
- next meeting: March 25
- current projects
- OPIRG AGM: March 25
- call for April events
- Adbusters update
- Rabble.ca: RabbleTV, plus two articles
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Next Media Matters meeting:
Tuesday March 25 at 6:30pm at the OPIRG office, 631 King Edward, 3rd floor
Please email us if you’d like to attend but can’t and/or you have some input for any of the projects described below! mediamatters@canada.com
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Current projects
Postering campaign – we’d like to make some posters to raise attention about indy media as well as critical thinking issues regarding main stream media. This means coming up with some creative marketing messages that will capture peoples’ imagination. If you have any ideas, please let us know! We’ll be working on this at our next meeting on Tuesday
Also:
- Setting up a blog to archive these updates, more
- Local independent media directory
- Long-term planning and consulation process
And:
The Dominion is looking to set up an Ottawa edition, which will basically be The Dominion plus four pages of local content. Envisioned distribution between 5000 and 20000. Visit http://www.dominionpaper.ca to find out more about the Dominion, or contact janescharf@rogers.com for info about this Ottawa project
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OPIRG-Ottawa update
On Tuesday March 25, OPIRG’s Annual General Meeting will be taking place. It will be held from 1:30 to 3:00pm at room 205 of the University Centre, University of Ottawa. You are all invited to come on out!
At this time, voting will be held for next year’s board of directors. Voting will also be taking place beforehand, from 9am to 1pm, at the OPIRG-Ottawa office, at 631 King Edward, 3rd floor.
For more info, contact OPIRG at 613-230-3076.
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Call for April events
Common Cause Ottawa has started a monthly PDF events calendar for Ottawa’s activist community. You can see the March edition at http://ottawa.indymedia.ca/media/2008/03//7059.pdf
They are asking for any April events to be submitted to a_ottawa@mutualaid.org by noon on Wednesday, March 26. Include date, time, location, brief description and contact info.
We will send you the finished PDF of April events as part of our next email sendout.
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Update from Adbusters:
On Monday, February 18, Adbusters lost its court battle against two of Canada’s television networks that refused to sell airtime for its commercials. Adbusters claimed the CBC and Canwest Global had violated its right to free speech under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by refusing to sell air time, but the court decided that the Charter does not apply to private corporations.
“It’s outrageous that the fast food, oil and automobile industries can buy as much TV time as they want in order to promote their agendas, but citizens are not allowed to talk back,” said Adbusters Editor-in-Chief Kalle Lasn in response to the ruling. “Canadian democracy will not work properly until we the people have the same right to buy airtime as corporations do.”
The rejected Adbusters ads pointed out that over 50 percent of the calories in a Big Mac come from fat; called for an end to the age of the automobile; and promoted Buy Nothing Day. While Court Justice William Ehrcke ruled that private broadcasters have the right to run whatever ads they like, Adbusters feels the case raises some troubling questions.
…
see the full release at http://adbusters.org/blogs/Adbusters_Demands_Access_to_Airwaves.html
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Update from Rabble.ca
On March 15, in conjuction with the anti-war protests, Rabble.ca launched RabbleTV, which included live interviews from Ottawa. For more see http://rabble.ca http://tv.rabble.anarres.ca/ and http://rabble.ca/news_full_story.shtml?x=68742
Also from Rabble
- commentary on the recent CRTC policy: http://rabble.ca/arts_media.shtml?x=69049
- a review of the movie, A Little Bit of So Much Truth: http://rabble.ca/arts_media.shtml?x=68682 ** remember this movie is available in OPIRG’s resource centre **
New projects: postering, a media directory, and speaker/planning event March 1, 2008
Posted by mediamattersottawa in Challenging Mainstream Media, Independent Media, Media Matters Projects.add a comment
In this update:
1) next meeting
2) current projects
3) media resources
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Please pass this email on to anyone who might be interested in media activism!
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1) Next Meeeting …
… is Thursday, March 13 at 6:30pm
OPIRG-Ottawa office, 631 King Edward, 3rd floor
email us if you’re interested but can’t make it
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2) Current Projects
At our last meeting we decided we’d get started on a couple new things: postering, a local media directory, and a speaker event combined with community consulation towards long-term planning.
Postering:
Here are links to a couple posters that you can print off, (copy) and post up – DIY!
Dominion Paper event March 6 – http://ottawa.indymedia.org/media/2008/02//7014.pdf
March event listings – http://ottawa.indymedia.org/media/2008/03//7030.pdf
Common Cause / Linchpin – http://ottawa.indymedia.org/media/2008/03//7028.pdf
We are also thinking of putting together a Media Matters poster, possibly to promote the mentioned speaker / long-term planning event. And maybe we could get a ‘postering squad’ together, maybe link forces with other local activists. If you’re interested in that kind of thing, contact us and we’ll see if we can organize something.
Local Media Directory
The starting point for this directory is a list from the Ottawa Public Library (compiled by the city?) of local print media. But it is maybe 5 years old, so we have some work to do. If you have any thoughts on this project, please contact us.
Speaker event / Long-term planning
The idea for this is to have an event, similar to our Nov20 Becoming a Citizen-Journalist, on a weeknight, and then on a following weekend afternoon have a strategy session where we do the work necessary to build a long-term strategic vision and plan. The speaker event might be about ‘Getting Media Coverage for your Cause’, and the planning session would involve outreach to local community groups and initiatives, also to other media activist groups in other cities, and could also include creating a survey or questionaire. Again, if you have any input or would like to help out, contact us!
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3) More media resources
After mentioning two magazines featuring media-focused editions (BriarPatch and Canadian Dimension) available in OPIRG-Ottawa’s resource centre, we received some feedback on additional resources also available here.
Magazines: Adbusters magazine also has features on media quite regularly, but they don’t have a full issue on the subject.
Books: Culture Jam, by Adbusters founder Kalle Lasn, as well as Manufacturing Consent, by Noam Chomsky, are both on the shelves. Also, there is the Project Censored series, an annual complition of important stories that didn’t get much attention in the mass media. And recently acquired is Gaining a Voice: Media Relations for Canadian Ethnic Minorities.
Movies: Manufacturing Consent is a resource centre holding, but is often out on loan. OutFoxed is also available. And so is Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad (A Little Bit of So Much Truth), the movie we hosted at Ottawa Cinema Politica about the role of media in the popular uprising in Oaxaco Mexico in 2006.
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY – if you have any ideas on magazines, books or movies that OPIRG should acquire for it’s resource centre, we urge you to contact Sarah, the resource centre coordinator, at opirgrc@gmail.com or 613-230-3076. She is always looking for good ideas!
