Over 1500 Media activists/ workers Converge to Plan and Discuss Media Democracy

First National Conference on Media Reform in Madison a Turning Point

Several Rochester, NY area media activists traveled to Madison, Wisconsin for the First National Conference on Media Reform, spearheaded by the organization Free Press . The conference organizers had anticipated roughly 400 participants and were extremely pleased and surprised when over 1500 people attended, filling university lecture halls to maximum capacity, even being forced to close participants out of some panels. As a representation of the wider public, the unprecedented popularity of the conference validated, Free Press founder, Robert McChensey’s words; “This Issue [of Media Reform] has exploded into the National Consciousness, it’s the number two issue on Capital Hill after the war on Iraq.” The reason that it is being given so much attention on Capital Hill is because of the grassroots efforts to take back media from the monopolies, such as the unprecedented 2.5 million calls and emails that flooded the FCC last June. Two of the current FCC commissioners, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps, who opposed the recent FCC decision to allow for further consolidation by big media corporations, spoke and participated at the event. The speakers, presenters, participants, and organizers at the conference represented the very broad nature of the media democracy movement. Elected representatives, Pirate radio operators, Liberal think tanks, and IMCistas, all participated and shared ideas on the varying strategies of how to fight for a public communication infrastructure that will truly facilitate a healthy democracy.
Running concurrent with the official media reform conference, was the “Be the Media, conference”. Many media activists felt their work represented a struggle beyond “reforming” the current media infrastructure. To facilitate this, Madison Infoshop, Madison Indymedia, and other groups organized the concurrent “Be the Media” sessions as an opportunity to network with others who are doing similar work in a separate and supportive space . In the spirit of DIY (do it yourself media), organizers of “Be the Media” held many discussions and panels dealing with how to make our own media and not simply to wait for an invitation to sit at the table of with corporate media outlets. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now spoke at the event and other DN! Staff filmed and participated in both aspects of the gathering. They supported, participated and represented both the media reform work and the work of the grass roots media activists to build our own media. Amy and other speakers mentioned several times the importance of Indymedia centers around the world. Articulating the importance of Media Democracy work in the context of Bush’s War on the World, Amy said “Millions of People are fighting, and if we don’t take back the media, then the rest of the world is in very serious jeopardy. Not to mention all of us here at home. Lies take Lives. We must decode those lies together this weekend and through this year. We have to make a decision and that is whether to be the sword of the shield” Truly, individuals with cameras and a consciousness, networking for media democracy, can be in more places reporting on the power imbalance then any one media organization alone.
The days' events were jammed packed with panels ranging from the fight with the FCC, media literacy, media funding, internet organizing, alternative media, global trade agreements and communications control as well as plenty of opportunities to view films made from the Media Education Foundation and Indymedia centers.
Both Friday and Saturday evening events were held in the 1800 seat Orpheum theater, which was filled to capacity both nights. Among the speakers and entertainment in the evening events were Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein, Studs Terkel, Bill Moyers, Al Franken, and Rochester’s own Congressional rep. Louise Slaughter, just to name a few. Music was performed by Billy Bragg, Boots Riley, Lester Chambers, plus the “Night Watchman”, Tom Morello (better know as the guitarist for rage against the machine). The evening was hosted by theTell Us the Truth Tour which will be heading down to Miami for the FTAA demonstrations and will be addressing media democracy issues through music, art, and education along the way. Many people were heard talking about the big tent revival feel of the evening entertainment. Studs Terkel even said “being here makes me want to preach. It brings out the preacher in me.” The enthusiasm that evening was tangible, bringing together new contingents for the hard work ahead.

One of the main criticisms articulated by media activists about the conference itself was that the media reform model doesn’t address the existing power relationships and is in danger of reproducing them, one symptom being lack of diversity among the conference participants. Few people of color spoke at the large evening events and it wasn’t until the last ten minutes of the closing panel that as an afterthought, activists from Media Justice were brought on stage to speak. Many had already left the conference and there was audible groan from the audience when this spontaneous addition was extending the time frame. Due to the overwhelming size and scope of the conference many events throughout the weekend began late and ended late, by Sunday, people were clearly exhausted. However, once Malkia Cyril, from Media Justice and Youth Media Council , began speaking about the need for a transformation of power relationships within media democracy work, the audience responded to her words with high enthusiasm and appreciation for articulating what was on many peoples minds all weekend. Malkia said “We’re interested in an idea called ‘media justice. Media Justice recognizes that there’s a structural problem in America. That structural problem is being globalized, that structural problem is white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy. That structural problem will not end, just because we reform the media. We’re not seeking to reclaim the media, because we never owned the media. We’re not trying to restore democracy, we’re trying to bring it about”.
The conference had many strong points, but there is much we need to improve as we move forward at this critical time for media reform and we must remember that media reform without true media democracy, representing the broadest perspectives of people we can, is not reform at all, it merely reflects a homogeneous alternative middle ground.
The group that went from Rochester Indymedia will continue to make available video, audio and transcripts from the weekend conference. Watch the TV Dinner schedule on the R-IMC Calender for video of many of the speakers, and a general edited synopsis to appear in December and January.