Media Reclamation update! May 27, 2009
Posted by mediamattersottawa in Uncategorized.Tags: 2-cent, 2010 olympics, bloggers, canada, countdown to copenhagen, environment, financial crash, isuma tv, left-wing, local, media, media activism, media matters, media reclamation project, mediacology, military attacks on media, models of journalism, moveon, new orleans, open internet, ottawa, re-imagining change, salvia divinorum, story-based strategy, strategy, tamil protests, training
trackback
Greetings,
We have a bunch of stuff for you this time round:
- input on direction for Media Reclamation Project
- events
- resources
- online course
- news and analysis
Happy reading!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
INPUT
last update we asked for your input. we had a number of responses; the two Media Democracy Day T-shirt winners are Mahdi and Carol. here are the ideas for what we might want to focus on – it may be a good idea to have a meeting sometime soon too. if you’ve got any more thoughts please do not hesitate to contact us!
.1. Push against the myth of humanitarian intervention that the media is being used to disseminate. For example, Sudan is in the cross-hairs. There is a humanitarian problem there, but the claims of genocide are totally false. The “usually characters” that are crying foul about Darfur are actually the ones funding and arming the fighting.
.2. Work to educate the public about “the Ottawa Declaration on Haiti” which is a matter of public record that our government helped coordinate the ousting of Haiti’s democratically-elected government. ALmost the entire Haitian community knows this. If we work to debunk media misinformation in regards to Haiti we will get a lot of support from a wide coalition of people. The Haitian community is very active and it would probably build us a lot of bridges. It is well documented too.
.3. Setup some sort of study or forum on the cuts for public broadcasting and the push towards privatization. Why is it being done? Privately owned media has always been very good at filtering the news and much better at doing it than state owned media. In fact in most countries the TV channels are affiliated exclusively by a political party or elite group. This is a very important topic. We could set up a study, fact finding mission, work with the CBC (not for them), then compile are practical findings into an analyses — some of it will be boring and some of it wont — and then based on this set up a strategy to warn the general public, setup protests, and build an information campaign. It might sound removed from reclaiming media space, independent media and activism, but its the building blocks for complete activism! Making CBC and Radio-Canada truly independent too are also important.
.4. Looking at ways at not only developing alternative media, but pushing the alternative media and views in the mainstream media. Bringing anarchy to them!
.5. Working on studying underground media, like the type the French Resistance use to secretly print or the African Congress Party use to print during the Apartheid-era in South Africa. This is very important, cause you never know what tomorrow will bring. The civil liberties we take for granted can disappear any minute. No one thought that Trudeau would send the military into Quebec during the FLQ Crisis, but it happened.
.6. Public talks, panel debates and films (e.g. I loved “a little bit of so much truth” through Cinema Politica).
.7. I’m less interested these days in the idea of independent media as giving everyone their own microphone (the internet does a good job of that through blogs etc) than I am in finding and making high quality independent media that’s well researched and communicated. It can still include personal stories, absolutely. But they should be framed in a way that shows real engagement with and understanding of the issues involved. There’s a lot of unsubstantiated ranting on both left and right; both undermine the messages they’re trying to promote.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
UPCOMING EVENTS
- May 29 (online) and June 10 (Ottawa)
MAY 29, 7:45-9:45pm
Countdown to Copenhagen: Live from the Floe Edge
on Isuma TV
http://www.isuma.tv
>> Countdown to Copenhagen is Isuma’s six-month internet campaign to promote the importance of Inuit knowledge and human rights in the global discussion of Climate Change. Monthly webcasts on IsumaTV from May to November will culminate in Live From the Floe Edge, ten days of daily internet streaming hosted by Zacharias Kunuk live from his arctic wilderness hunting camp during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, December 7-17.
>> The series will launch with a live webcast on Friday May 29, featuring Siila Watt-Cloutier, Inuit climate activist and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, speaking on Inuit, Human Rights and Climate Change live from Iqaluit, Nunavut to a worldwide audience.. The program leads off at 7:45 pm EST with the World Premiere of Tungijuq, Isuma’s new 6-minute video starring Inuit jazz and throat-singing sensation, Tanya Tagaq. At 8 pm Siila Watt-Cloutier delivers the 9th annual LaFontaine-Baldwin Lecture, introduced by John Ralston Saul, The Right Honorable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, Isuma’s Zacharias Kunuk and The Honourable Ann Meekitjuk Hanson, Commissioner of Nunavut.
JUNE 10, 7-9pm
***Open Internet Town Hall Meeting (OTTAWA)
Michael Geist (law professor at the University of Ottawa where, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, blogger)
Charlie Angus (NDP MP, Heritage and Culture)
Rocky Gaudrault (CEO of Teksavvy Solutions Inc.)
Bill St. Arnaud (Chief Research Officer for CANARIE Inc.)
Steve Anderson (Co-founder of SaveourNet.ca)
REGISTER TO RESERVE A SEAT:
http://ottawanet.eventbrite.com/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
RESOURCES
The New Strategy + Training Manual from smartMeme
Re:Imagining Change – An Introduction to Story-based Strategy
By: Doyle Canning & Patrick Reinsborough
http://smartmeme.org/change
Re:Imagining Change is an interactive and accessible resource guide to smartMeme’s story-based strategy tools and methods. Download 60 pages of ideas, analysis, case studies, and strategies to change your campaign, your community and your world.
The Dominion / Media Co-op is looking to coordinate coverage on the 2010 Olympics. To add your ideas for critical Olympics coverage and read what others have written, visit: http://mediacoop.ca/olympics/coverage
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ONLINE COURSE
“Mediacology: Media networks, deep ecology and the dream of the planet”
$120, July 20 – August 30
http://evolveracademy.com/
Instructor: Antonio Lopex, author of Mediacology – http://mediacology.com/the-book/
>> New theories of ecological cognition and the rapid evolution of the social Web are combining to fulfill the dream of a “noosphere”: globally interconnected human consciousness. Fulfilling this reality requires tools and practical understanding so that we can consciously evolve and fulfill humanity’s ecological potential to synchronize the human dream with that of Gaia. This course combines theory and practice through a unique combination of ecoliteracy and media literacy techniques that enable us to harness tools of media technology to fulfill our evolutionary potential and build a sustainable society.
>> See videos of Antonio Lopez speaking, at http://www.ecoversity.org/tv/tv-antonio_lopez.html
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Tamil protests: Media rears its racist head
http://rabble.ca/columnists/2009/05/sunday-morning-10-am
Neocon group calls for military strikes on media
http://www.truthout.org/052309Y?n
How we talk about the environment …
http://www.alternet.org/environment/140138/how_we_talk_about_the_environment_has_everything_to_do_with_whether_we%27ll_save_it_
Wall St and the media are trying to make us forget who started the financial crash
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/140123/wall_st._and_the_media_are_trying_to_make_us_forget_who_started_the_financial_crash/
The myth of parasitical bloggers
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/18-7
The left-wing media fallacy
http://www.zmag.org/zspace/commentaries/3872
The new cost of news: different models of journalism
http://rabble.ca/columnists/2009/04/new-cost-news
Beyond MoveOn: Using the Internet for real change
http://counterpunch.org/stauber04282009.html
Cyber command and cyber dissent
http://counterpunch.org/elizalde05082009.html
The Salvia Divinorum phenomenon on YouTube
http://www.realitysandwich.com/divine_voyeurs_salvia_youtube
Profile of 2-Cent, media group from New Orleans
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21545
or see the actual 2-Cent website at http://2-cent.com
[...] Media Reclamation update! « Media Reclamation Project [...]