June 2005 - We are delighted to announce that most of the audio recorded at the conference has been posted at radio.indymedia.org and is now available for free download.  Follow the links below to download mp3 files of keynote speeches and most panels & workshops.  We also encourage you to sign up for Reclaim the Media's listserve at http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/rtm if you are interested in following media reform and media justice issues regionally.

LINKS TO CONFERENCE AUDIO ONLINE:

Keynote Speech by Patrick Reinsborough of the smartMeme project "Winning the Battle of the Story: Creating a Culture of Change": http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/5381.php

Keynote Speech by Bert Sacks "Sanctions, War, Occupation and other Failures of the Media" : http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/5382.php

Keynote Speech by filmmaker James Longley, "Iraq in Fragments": http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/5380.php 

Counter-recruiting workshop with Patrick Reinsborough: http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/5394.php

Building Online Community Networks workshop: http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/5393.php

Grassroots Organizing for Media Reform; Lessons from the National Conference for Media Reform workshop: http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/5392.php

Making the News panel discussion: http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/5390.php

Making Community Radio panel discussion: http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/5389.php

Blogging in the Pacific Northwest panel discussion: http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/5383.php

Note: We still have more material to edit and post, so please check back for more

Change the Media.  Become the Media.  Reclaim the Media

The Whatcom Peace & Justice Center is excited to announce our newest community project: the Bellingham Grassroots and Independent Media Conference.  On Saturday May 21^st, 2005 YOU are invited to the Garden St. Family Center (1231 N. Garden) in Bellingham, WA to celebrate the growing local and regional culture of media production, to build awareness of innovative community radio, video, and web-based media projects, and to mobilize support for grassroots powered media reform.  We also seek to understand how the independent media movement can more effectively challenge the assumptions perpetuated in the mass media that justify war and social injustice.

The conference is an all-day event from 8:30 AM to 6 PM and will feature workshops, skills trainings, and panel discussions by local media makers and media activists from throughout the region. These include a workshop by John Sinno of Arab Film Distribution on the demonizing and stereotyping of Arabs in the media and popular culture, panel discussions on the indymedia movement, community radio, documentary film & video, public access TV, online community media projects, reports from the National Conference on Media Reform, and more.

Keynote speaker Patrick Reinsborough of the smartMeme project  will kick off the conference at 9 a.m. speaking on: “Winning the Battle of the Story: Creating a Culture of Change.”(audio) Patrick is dynamic a grassroots organizer, campaigner, and media strategist who spent four year as the organizing director of the Rainforest Action Network where he mobilized thousands of people to confront corporations who destroy the environment and violate human rights. The smartMeme project is a collective of organizers, trainers and media activists who help grassroots groups magnify their impact by linking traditional movement-building skills with cutting-edge media campaigning.

Keynote Speaker Bert Sacks will speak on “Sanctions, War, Occupation, and other Failures of the Media.” (audio) Bert Sacks has traveled to Iraq nine times since 1996 with Voices in the Wilderness and Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, and has extensive experience lobbying the media for greater and more accurate coverage of the situation in Iraq and the Middle East.

Background

On March 24th, veteran TV talkshow host, Phil Donahue, now banished from MSNBC for airing the views of millions of Americans who opposed the Iraq invasion, told Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman: “We have an emergency in the media, and we have to fix it.” This sentiment resonates with the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Americans and citizens around the world who are standing up to challenge the growing power of the giant media corporations. Everyday these corporations shirk more of the public interest, slash more of their news budgets, and fail to deliver information vital to the health of our communities and our democracy. 

The movement to challenge these giant corporations is much more than a media reform movement, it is a grassroots media production movement: a movement of independent journalists, radio producers, filmmakers, and online community builders, a movement of storytellers constantly seeking better ways to make and distribute the stories the big corporations can’t or won’t produce for our communities. This is a movement for everyone that likes a good story, that wants to tell one or hear one, whether they’re a veteran media-maker or someone whose only just thought of picking up a camera or imagined seeing their story in print. This is a movement that believes the more we democratize the media by growing the pool of storytellers and distributing their stories, the better off our communities, and our democracy will be.

Information

If you have any additional questions about the conference, please call our conference coordinator at (360) 510-4833 or e-mail norwesty@gmail.com.