Legat de subiect -- in engleza -- din Public i (publicatie a Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, dec./ian. 03/04, v3 #10):

"Media Reform Explodes onto American Political Scene"
by Ben Scott and Sascha Meinrath

Ben Scott (dbscott@uiuc.edu) & Sascha Meinrath (meinrath@uiuc.edu) are graduate
students in the Institute for Communications Research at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign. Since June 2003, Ben has been a legislative fellow handling
media policy in the office of Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Sascha is a core
organizer and treasurer of the Global Indymedia Network and has been coordinating
the establishment of a national Independent Media Center. Ben helped organize
the Media Reform Conference, Sascha helped with the Be the Media Conference
and Indymedia Summit.

There is no longer any doubt that the fall of 2003 was a watershed moment for the media reform movement. The campaign to reverse the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) disastrously anti-democratic relaxation of ownership regulations has catalyzed a set of deeply felt but unarticulated public concerns into a full-fledged, citizen-driven, social movement. This is not just about ownership structures in the media system – our fight against corporate media monopolies has revealed a deep crisis in the media system at a number of levels: poor quality journalism, standardized cultural fare, declining diversity and localism in our community news coverage, and the near total absence in the media of many public voices. The severity of these problems has energized the national movement to democratize media policy debates and spurred a growing awareness of the need to find ways to help people learn about the media system. By any standard, this is an historic moment.

The pace of growth in the media reform movement has been exceptional, building from a principled but marginalized set of public advocacy groups in Washington, to a coordinated movement of nationwide civic organizations with specific goals and unified strategies. We have translated the enormous public response to the problems in the media system into action on Capitol Hill. This is a remarkable development – it often takes years for a new issue to incubate and grow into a political force strong enough to get Congressional attention and move lawmakers to pass legislation. Media reform jumped to the front of the line in the course of a single summer – catching everyone by surprise and awakening Congress to the urgency of the matter in unprecedented fashion.

So what happened? We accomplished something that few issues in recent memory have managed – we went from totally off the political radar to the floor of the US House and Senate in a matter of months.What is more, we did it in the teeth of opposition from the Republican Party leadership in the Congress and the White House.

How? We successfully insisted that media reform is not a partisan issue. If you do not have a free, fair, diverse, and locally attentive media system . it is bad for democracy. Conservatives, liberals, moderates, and progressives have all joined together to form a coalition of strange bedfellows to demand reform. In a series of letters, bills, resolutions, and votes, in both the House and the Senate, we demonstrated that a clear majority of Members of Congress support media reform. In the Senate, our efforts aided the passage of a Congressional resolution of disapproval of the FCC's ownership rules on September 16th by a wide bipartisan margin, 55-40. In the House, we encouraged a strong vote on an amendment to a spending bill in July in which 174 Members voted to block the FCC rules. Although that vote failed, we have since scored a higher watermark – 205 House Members have signed a letter asking the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert (R-IL) to permit a House vote on the September Senate resolution. At least three dozen more are known to support the principle and would vote with reformers. Even the staunch defenders of Rupert Murdoch and monopoly media have grudgingly conceded that there is majority support for reform in both houses of Congress.

Were it not for an aggressive political blockade by the GOP leadership turning against both Democrat and Republican supporters of media reform, Congress would have reversed the FCC's rules months ago. Media has joined a short list of issues that have shaken up the Bush party line and divided conservatives. Media reform stands out primarily for the rapidity of its climb – the speed and authority with which we captured the high ground in the politics of the US Congress can hardly be understated. A wedge has been driven between the value conservatives and the business conservatives, opening up possibilities for legislative coalitions on public interest media policy for the future that have tremendous political capital behind them.

But why have we still not passed any significant reform legislation in this Congressional session? The US government is not a transparently democratic system. If you have been following this legislative battle all summer and fall, you are likely bewildered as to how we could win over and over again on so many different fronts (votes in the House and Senate) and still fail to capture final victory (a bill signed into law at the White House). Since the 2002 elections, NOT ONE single reform measure on ANY issue has passed out of the Congress that was not approved by the Republican Leadership.

What does that mean? It means we have not won yet. It means we stormed the castle walls and got turned back. But it also means that we have captured all the surrounding political territory. The national media reform movement has settled in for a siege. It is only a matter of time now before the issue of democratizing media policymaking will have its day. We need only be vigilant and keep the pressure on. We should be very enthusiastic. We have done a decade of political spadework in just under 6 months. And next year is an election year and the political situation will be volatile. Media reform will be waiting to strike at the first available opportunity in 2004. And it will not just be ownership this time; it will be community radio, protecting our media system from destructive global trade agreements, and reforming the FCC so that the public is never again excluded from important policy debates.

All of these issues and our experiences in the last half-year were discussed and debated November 7-9, at the biggest events in the history of media reform in America – the National Media Reform and Be The Media conferences in Madison, Wisconsin. Between the two conferences, attendance topped 1700, including six Members of Congress, a pair of FCC Commissioners, activists from all over the country, artists, journalists, independent media producers, scores of other interested parties from organized labor (including AFLCIO President John Sweeney), civil rights organizations, and social justice groups, as well as musicians (including Billy Bragg, Lester Chambers and the Tell Us the Truth Tour). It was a unique event that catalyzed a great deal of hopeful energy into concrete plans and networks of citizens committed to changing the media. Perhaps most importantly, it confirmed emphatically that the national media reform movement is not just a flash in the pan. It is a thriving, expanding social movement with far-reaching goals, incredible intensity, and broad public appeal. We are at the cusp of a turning joint in the development of the media system – a bellwether moment in one of the most high-stakes political battles in modern American history. For more information about the conferences, point your browser to the following websites...
Coverage of Individual Panels and Workshops from the Conferences: Indymedia Summit:
http://www.tnimc.org/feature/display/958/index.php
Independent Media:
http://www.tnimc.org/feature/display/956/index.php
Organizing Alternative Media Centers:
http://www.tnimc.org/feature/display/954/index.php
Resisting Globalization of the Media:
http://www.tnimc.org/feature/display/957/index.php
Overview of the Issues:
http://www.tnimc.org/feature/display/960/index.php
Challenging Local Corporate Media:
http://www.tnimc.org/feature/display/955/index.php
Conference Critiques:
http://arkansasdada.devel.indypgh.org/feature/display/2364/index.php
http://www.guerrillanews.com/media/doc3358.html
Media Justice Manifesto:
http://www.media-alliance.org/mediajustice.html
National Conference on Media Reform audio/video
recordings, photos, press coverage, etc.:
http://www.mediareform.net/conference.php
Be the Media Conference Participants. Blog:
http://www.bethemediablog.net/

Posted by: ruxi at December 28, 2003 01:22 AM

Where can I find someone to email?

Posted by: Jonathan at November 4, 2004 10:14 AM