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Fighting the Media’s Plantation Mentality

By Jessica Clark and Tracy Van Slyke

During the first day of the third National Conference for Media Reform, 300 people packed the chairs and lined the walls of the In These Times-moderated panel Building and Sustaining Independent Media. The excitement around the topic was surprising: after all, the panel was going head-to-head with a panel on net neutrality across the hall, an issue at the core… return to article

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    I have commented on these topics in other locations, but they are worth repeating.

    Net neutrality is already an oxymoronic demand. People who have dial-up connections can waste considerable time waiting for newspapers or other sites with heavy graphics to download. In addition, having to click on each article title to see what is written is a big hassle and one that leaves me ignoring much of news content online.  (I timed my effort to read the local daily online today. After half an hour, I was not even 1/4 way through the paper. Each article or letter to the editor took at least 30 seconds to access. In that amount of time, I could have scanned the entire printed edition and known a bit about each topic being covered.)

    Mainstream media, to me, means reporting on City Hall, printing the school lunch menu, informing citizens on the latest proposals for roads and sidewalks, as well as the more glamorous investigative piece or in-depth report on a cultural change. Alternative media can offer a different take on larger issues and cover items that do not make it into the mainstream press, such as topics of homosexuality that might make some editors and publishers of mainstream publications worry about really offending some of their readers.

    Who is reporting, editing and owning news media can determine what details of a news report are highlighted. For that reason, diversity is important.  In addition, different backgrounds (including education level, economic background, geographic background, and race and gender) will bring in different story ideas. This is why diversity is important to the economic survival of mainstream media.

    If women and minorities want to control media, then they need to start buying newspapers, radio stations, and other outlets. Even if it is just a county paper, it is a start - big newspaper chains have started with a single paper. Also large metropolises are witnessing their papers sold cheaply. The Minneapolis Star Tribune sold for $160 million lately. Some of the wealthier people attending the Media Reform conference could have pooled their money, pulled in other investors and ended up owning a newspaper that will be at the center of covering the Republican convention in 2008 and is a swing state even without the convention.

    I started a newsletter-style newspaper in the state where I live. Trying to get attention for it is difficult; trying to get people to buy it instead of take it for free is difficult, despite a cost amount clearly visible. I have also been reminded that most people do not want to write; they want to tell their story to a reporter who will write it for them. Also, people do not want to go on record, even with something as simple as a letter to the editor. Moreover, writing, especially when having to research, interview, and gather general background takes quite a bit of time. The most powerful people will not send ‘off-record’ quotes via e-mail, which means reporters have to move away from the computer. Thus, we are never going to have a world of entrepreneurial reporters, with every citizen a Tom Paine. There just is not enough time to raise funds, gather news, and distribute the news (even if it is electronic printing) for any one person. And if people don’t get back into the habit of buying newspapers and periodicals, there never will be a free media again.

    United States Posted by SillyLeftist on Jan 20, 2007 at 8:36 AM

    You must have a hell of a local paper. Out here in the Bay Area I can read the actual news content in a few minutes, on or offline.

    United States Posted by blondemike on Jan 31, 2007 at 7:36 PM
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