<nettime> What About Media?

[Aliza Dichter <liza@mediachannel.org>]

     [MSword doc attachment deleted @ nettime--mod]

Dear Genoa folks,

I've noticed that media and telecommunications issues don't seem to be
addressed in the Genoa Social Forum. One of the goals of
MediaChannel.org (nonprofit, public-interest media and democracy site)
is to help activists and civil society groups and communities understand
that media is a fundamental struggle. Free, diverse accessible media for
the people is something we must fight for, no matter what other
struggles we are working on.

For more information, please visit http://www.mediachannel.org.

I am attaching a document (and pasting unformatted version below) that
is very much a DRAFT. It is unfinished and still in progress but begins
to argue why media issues must become part of the larger struggle. It
was developed for the U.S. and is currently in English and Spanish. We
welcome ideas and suggestions for improving it and hope that you might
find it useful. You are welcome to print it out , post it and pass it
around and use any of the information to help in the effort to make
media one of the rights we are fighting for.

For more information, please visit http://www.mediachannel.org.

For 20 years of documents and declarations about
THE RIGHT TO COMMUNICATE please visit:
http://www.mediachannel.org/manifesto

If you are concerned about media, please visit the site (there is also
an email newsletter). If you have a Web site that addresses media
issues, please sign up as an affiliate.


Aliza Dichter
Senior Editor
MediaChannel
liza@mediachannel.org

www.mediachannel.org
Eye On Global Media
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MediaChannel: the nonprofit, public interest network
of over 700 media-issues groups worldwide.
=================================================

DRAFT


www.mediachannel.org
10 Reasons Media Matters
to Social Justice Organizers

Media strategy is a part of every campaign. But with corporate media
growing more powerful and independent alternatives endangered, getting
the message out is harder than ever. Activists, organizers, educators
and independent journalists worldwide are calling for action in these
media struggles:

1. Media Set The Agenda: Why We Must Monitor The Media And Respond To
Coverage
News often ignores crucial community issues --- and can shape support
for public policies.

2. Consolidation, Corporate Control, Power and Politics: An Anti-Trust
Fight?
Can mega-corporations dominating the media possibly be a legitimate
watchdog on abuse of corporate power?

3. The Battle To Preserve Public Space: Media's Message Is "Shut Up And
Shop!"
Activists are challenging commercials in classrooms and ads that blanket
neighborhoods and public parks.

4. Public Broadcasting: Abandoning Its Noncommercial, Public Service
Mission?
Developed to serve diversity, citizenship and experimentation, now
serving ratings, funders and congress?

5. Independent Media: How Can We Support And Sustain Independent
Alternatives?
Alternative, non-corporate and ethnic media offer a progressive voice
against the Right's well-funded media.

6. Community Radio And Television: The Airwaves Belong To The People
Microradio can be a forum for community issues and voices, and public
access TV is a right. Can they be saved?

7. Broadband Open Access: Will The Information Highway Become A Private
Shopping Mall?
The Internet might be a revolution of free communication and
information, but access for all is at risk.

8. Media Literacy: Teaching Our Children How To Understand And Interpret
The Media Flood
Media contain messages about gender, race and class. Kids will learn
them unless they learn to decode them.

9. New Media Means New Labor Issues
Communities seek training and access to new jobs, while layoffs, mergers
and telecom policy affect thousands.

10. Global Information Equality: Fighting For The Right To Communicate
Poverty also means loss of control over culture, communication and
access to information and technology.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.mediachannel.org
MediaChannel is a nonprofit, public interest network of hundreds of
media-issues groups worldwide.
Dedicated to exploring the political, cultural and social role of media,
MediaChannel.org provides:
News, reports and perspectives; tips and strategies for grassroots pr;
issue guides; access to global and local groups; action alerts;
manifestoes and proposals from activists and advocates; best practices
models for using communication for social change; tools to teach about
media and youth; community media resources and more.

Please visit www.mediachannel.org.  We welcome your participation,
feedback and input.

MediaChannel is produced by Globalvision New Media in partnership with
OneWorld.net.
Globalvision New Media � 1600 Broadway � Suite 700 � NY, NY 10019 �
212-246-0202


www.mediachannel.org
Media Matters

Some Facts And Figures From The MediaChannel Network:


? Since 1996 big media has spent over $111.3 million lobbying congress
and the White House. Media companies are among the biggest donors to
political campaigns and the biggest campaign expense is � advertising in
the media. (Center for Public Integrity)

? Project Censored 2000 finds the most unreported stories are those that
expose abuses of corporate and state power or when corporate interest is
opposed to public interest.

? Global media markets controlled by 7 multi-national corporations
(Monthly Review)

? Of  1700 daily U.S. newspapers, 98% have local monopolies.
(Independent Press Association)

? While over 65% of TV shows feature sexual content, they show risks,
responsibilities and safe sex less than 10% of the time (Kaiser Family
Foundation)

? The number one magic wish of girls 11-17 is to be thinner (Media
Education Foundation)

? Diversity on prime time television is dropping. Latinos are only 2% of
the prime-time population and mostly in minor roles. (Children Now)

? Minorities make up 11.1% of media workers, and 45% of newspapers hire
no minorities at all. Minority journalists are three times as likely to
be unemployed as white ones. (MediaFile)

? The average person is exposed to 3600 advertisements per day. (Media
Education Foundation)

? Violent topics fill 40-50% of all local TV news time. (Rocky Mountain
Media Watch) Says Barbara Eirehrich, "Sensationalized crime coverage�
lays the groundwork for grotesquely punitive criminal justice measures"

? 90% of all Internet users are in industrialized countries, with the
United States and Canada alone accounting for 57% of the total. (ILO)

? Launched just one day before the WTO protests, the activist news site
IndyMedia.org received more than 1.5 million visitors from around the
world during that week The network of IMCs has grown to over 40
locations in more than 10 countries, on four continents. (MediaFile)


FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.mediachannel.org



www.mediachannel.org
DIEZ RAZONES por las cuales los medios de comunicaci�n deben importar a
las organizaciones comuitarias  buscadoras de justicia social.

Estrategias para el acceso a los medios de comunicaci�n son generalmente
parte de toda campa�a desarrollada por las organizaciones comunitarias
que buscan justicia social. Debido al poder descomunal alcanzado por las
grandes corporaciones de las telecomunicaciones y a sus crecientes
niveles de influencia en la sociedad global de hoy, el acceso a los
medios y la supervivencia de medios alternativos e independientes son
permanentemente amenazados por el poder totalizante de los grandes
medios. En el panorama actual, lograr que mensajes de inter�s social
provenientes de organizaciones comunitarias se comuniquen a la poblaci�n
es cada m�s dif�cil y complejo. Debido al fen�meno anterior activistas
del �rea de las comunicaciones, l�deres comunitarios y organizaciones
sociales hoy claman para que se tomen medidas en contra del poder
totalizante de los grandes medios de comunicaci�n:

1. Los grandes medios imponen la agenda. Las grandes corporaciones de
las telecomunicacines generalmente deciden la informaci�n que la
poblaci�n recibe, ignorando as� asuntos cruciales y de inter�s
comunitario y acrecentando con ello el nivel de su influencia sobre los
organismos que dise�an las pol�ticas de comunicaciones.

2. Consolidacion del poder de las grandes corporaciones y luchas
antimonopolios. Las organizaciones comunitarias est�n llamadas a vigilar
permanentemente contra los abusos de poder de los grandes medios de
comunicaci�n como una respuesta para aminorar su poder de influencia en
el ambiente pol�tico, social y cultural.

3. El comercialismo de los grandes medios en la educaci�n. Las
organizaciones comunitarias deben  luchar por la preservaci�n de un
espacio p�blico libre del poder del comercio y de los intereses
privados. Toda imagen que incentive la comercializaci�n de principios
debe alejarse de lugares donde se educan ni�os y comunidades.

4. Medios de comunicaci�n verdaderamente p�blicos. Las organizaciones
buscadoras de justicia social deben soportar alternativas no comerciales
de comunicaci�n para crear as� diversidad en el servicio p�blico y
sentido de pertenencia entre medios y poblaci�n.

5. Por unos medios de comunicaci�n independientes. �c�mo organizaciones
e individuos pueden apoyar alternativas de medios independientes?.
Mientras organismos y corporaciones conservadoras gastan recursos para
lograr el control definitivo de los medios, las organizaciones m�s
abiertas y liberales parecen adormilarse en este asunto. Por ello las
organizaciones comunitarias son la alternativa para luchar por unos
medios independientes y alejados del poder totalizante de los grandes
capitales.

6. Radio y televisi�n comunitaria. Las ondas radiales y de televis�n
(espectro electromagn�tico) petenecen a la gente, por ello las
organizaciones comunitarias poseen derechos inalienables de acceso a
dichas ondas. Emisoras de radio y canales de televisi�n comunitarios son
la base para la diseminaci�n de mensajes de importancia comunitaria.

7. Acceso a internet. La autopista de informaci�n virtual, internet, no
puede convertirse en un gigantesco centro comercial con espacios
limitados solamente para el poder de los grandes capitales. Las
organizaciones comuitarias deben buscar acceso a estos canales para
prevenir el control de los mismos por parte de los grandes medios
privados.

8. Educaci�n en medios de comunicaci�n. Los planes educativos deben
incluir propuestas que ense�en a los ni�os sobre el funcionamiento,
operaci�n y derechos de la poblaci�n a accerder a los medios de
comunicaci�n. Comunidades escolares deben aprender a reconocer y
prevenir mensajes portadores de estigmas acerca de raza, g�nero o clase
social.

9. Trabajo, trabajadores y medios de comunicaci�n. Las organizaciones de
trabajadores deben contemplar su acceso permanente a los medios de
comunicaci�n, m�xime cuando las nuevas pol�ticas de telecomunicaciones
afectan a muchos de sus miembros. Medios independientes son sin�nimo de
nuevas oportunidades y acceso a informacion laboral completa. Una
informaci�n objetiva y completa debe incluir nuevas pol�ticas laborales,
derechos, oportunidades de capacitaci�n, nuevos empleos y noticias sobre
empleados  y empleadores.

10. Informaci�n global equitativa. Las organizaciones comunitarias deben
luchar por el derecho a informaci�n objetiva sobre asuntos concernientes
a sus comunidades. Los medios deben estar abiertos a comunicar las
amenazas de la pobreza global de la misma manera como lo hacen con las
cada vez m�s limitadas fantasias de la econom�a global.

Para mayor informaci�n: www.mediachannel.org
Media Channel es una organizaci�n no gubernamental, de inter�s p�blico,
sin �nimo de lucro, interesada en asuntos relacionados con los medios de
comunicaci�n. Mediachannel se dedica a explorar el papel social,
pol�tico y cultural de los medios de comunicaci�n.

MediaChannel is produced by Globalvision New Media in partnership with
OneWorld.net.
Globalvision New Media � 1600 Broadway � Suite 700 � NY, NY 10019 �
212-246-0202

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