Media Activism & Reform:

Are you Listening Canwest Global?

Media activism, in all its disparate strains, is slowly but surely
becoming a movement. In part, it's being spurred by the rise of
information insecurity. But also by the growing realization that our
corporate media system has a profound effect on nearly every other
social and political issue we face. People, desperate for change, are
organizing around media like never before. There's a feeling that
media reform is truly the issue of issues, and that the wind is finally
in our sails.

What's still missing though is a larger narrative that describes and
explains our common cause. What's our "frame"? What's the story-
line that can gel our currently disparate threads of activism into a
real, global media movement -- a movement that parallels other
great social movements of our time, like environmentalism,
feminism and civil rights? Mental environmentalism is one such
powerfully simple idea.

Learn more, weigh in, and help this movement gel:
Adbusters
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Big Ideas: The Future of Media Activism
(03 June 2005).

Much ink has been spilled in recent years about the failings
of our corporate media system. And about the real, life-and-
death consequences of these failings—the war in Iraq being
only the most obvious example. What is just now becoming
clear, however, is how profoundly this situation has affected
the public’s trust of the media, as well as how it’s beginning
to pull together existing strains of media activism into a
movement that parallels other great social movements of
our time, like environmentalism, feminism and civil rights.

The mainstream media is no longer providing us
with the information we need when it matters most.
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Media Reformers Prepare for “The Perfect Storm”
Article By Steve Anderson, (May 19 2005).
Currents of Awareness.

Over 2,500 participants gathered for the sold out conference
organized by the media reform group Free Press. Conference
presenters included Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein, Al Franken,
Outfoxed director Robert Greenwald, Jim Hightower, George
Lakoff, Robert McChesney, Bill Moyers, Phil Donahue, Patti
Smith and many more well known figures. Major themes of
the conference include the problem with corporate media,
celebrating the media reform victories, and gearing up for
what many call “the perfect storm."
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Senate Comes to Scrutinize Big Media in B.C.:
What's it like to live in Canada's media concentration
capital? Just fine, a senate committee has already been
told. They'll hear other views next week.
Donald Gutstein, (January 28, 2005). The Tyee: A Feisty One.
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Standing Senate Committee on Transport and
Communications. Government of Canada.
Interim Report on the Canadian News Media, tabled in
the Senate on April 1, 2004
The Senate has authorised the Committee to resume its
broad examination of Canada's media industries. During
its study the Committee will be asking what, given changes
in the media in recent years - including globalisation,
technological change, convergence and concentration of
ownership -is the appropriate role of public policy in helping
to ensure that Canadian news media remain healthy,
independent and diverse. The Committee expects to address
various issues including:

• the current state of Canadian media industries;
• emerging trends and developments in these industries;
• the media's role, rights, and responsibilities in Canadian society; and
• current and appropriate future policies relating thereto.

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How CanWest Helped Elect Campbell and Company:
Unlike the dubious 'strike vote' story, a report bad for Libs lay
buried until after election day.
Donald Gutstein, (June 6, 2005). The Tyee Online.