By Bill Densmore
Academic researchers studying ways to reform U.S. media say one of their biggest needs is better communication among each other. The second National Conference on Media Reform is underway this weekend at a St. Louis hotel and organizers say at least 2,000 people are expected. The Northampton, Mass.-based non-profit organization FreePress.net organized the event, following a similar gathering two years ago in Madison, Wis. In a warm-up session Thursday, about 150 academics broke into focus roundtables for an hour and then made these points (among others):
- Definitions are need for such things as the “bad values” which result from concentration of media ownership; for the value of local, public and non-commercial programming; and for what constitutes “good journalism”. Should this be defined through something like a citizens’ media bill of rights?
- There’s a need to offer sustainable organizational models and to share information about community media outside of institutions through websites such as OurMedia.org.
- “Media literacy toolkits” should be made available to elementary and high-school teachers around the nation, and groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association should be consulted on the effect of advertising on children.
- Community-wireless installations should be supported and studied in order prove the viability of public-sponsored Internet access. This would then encourage public-policy makers to block efforts by telecommunications carriers to restrict it.
- It’s time to add an additional interpretation to the First Amendment besides as a guarantor of free-speech rights. In addition, it should guarantee the right of the public to receive information.
- Government policies have always affected the practice of journalism, dating from early postal subsidies. What does government need to do now to create conditions, which foster good journalism, and how can this be done without fears of censorship?
Here are some other topics covered during the "academic braintrust session" with summarizes excerpted from the writer's and other's observations:
COPYRIGHT -- A lot of discussion about policy solutions. Research goals -- a lot of IP research is too anecdotal. Need functional, empirical policy research. What are incentives of copyright law? Get some real examples of legal peer-to-peer uses. Do a study of enforcing copyright law on developing countries. Effects of copyright law on teaching, research and scholarship.
PROPAGANDA -- Go to propaganda sites. We are reinventing the wheel. We are all doing similar work but are not talking to each other. Need to work across boundaries. Need to work at grass roots level, not academic. Need to support in forming community literacy projects. Need to spend time writing for the community not just the academy.
ADVERTISING – Get access to information of how much money different corporations spend on advertising. Media literacy toolkits should be made available to elementary and high-school teachers. Need a website or listserv to see each other’s research. Get space on TV as a platform for discussing concerns. Children’s TV should be a commercial-free zone. Consult American Academy of Pediatrics and American Psychological Assn.
WIRELESS – Need to promote community wireless to prove its viability, otherwise it won’t be on the radar-screen of policy folks.
FIRST AMENDMENT – Talking about First Amendment good vehicle for talking about all these issues. Why is money equated with speech rights. Conceive First Amendment as a public construct rather than marketplace. Bring back right to receive information as a public right rather than as a right to speak.
JOURNALISM – Chad Rafael, Santa Clara University – Needed a vision of what good journalism would look like together. Debated form – a citizen bill of rights? Regardless needs to be developed with citizen organizations and activists, unlike Hutchins Commission. Need to be product of something other than a liberal academic elite. Should academics be conveners or facilitators or play a leadership role. How to reach out beyond usual suspects. Use such a statement to evaluate media in communities, especially partnering with community-based organizations to evaluate their media. Use evaluations to engage in direct action to reward or punish based on those actions. Needed to be specific enough to articulate:
GOVERNMENT – What does government needs to do to create conditions for good journalism?
(But this would scare journalists). Explain how government already underpins. Question is what role should it play.
MEDIA OWNERSHIP -- Harold Feld of the Media Access Project: It is really important to have better ways to communicate with each other. A great need for work in this area -- to address FCC proceedings, also longer term issues. Tremendous need for activists to define "what we mean by concentration is bad -- for what values we mean when we say bad." There are some clearly defined bads in the communications act and there is lots of scope to define bad. Complex world.
PUBLIC BROADCASTING -- Bill Hoynes, Vassar College professor: No recommendations. Thought about things to try to do -- try to communicate better. Think about relationship between all the various media. Talked about needing to identify in research what the value of local programming is. How to articulate that. that's principal difference between public and commerce. Need to articulate and show the value of non-commercial forms of content. Need to articulate clearly why we need public, non-commercial broadcasting.
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA -- Major themes -- what is this word alternative media mean? Preference to use” independent media.” Need to offer sustainable organization models. Try to get national organizations to facilitate local collaboration among local organizations. Who are academics in dialog with? Dialogue with community not just with institutional figures. Need to start a listserv -- but OurMedia.org already exists.
MORE COVERAGE: From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. . . .
From MediaChannel's Danny Schecter . . .
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