Reclaim the Media focuses on media policy reform, media reform and support for independent media. Susan Gleason and Daniel Hannah speak to us about the specific activities of the organization.
Sue Supriano's Steppin' Out of Babylon is a radio interview series covering a broad range of important issues in today's world: peace and war, human and civil rights, communication, the media, the environment, food security, racism, globalization, immigration and matters of the spirit.
http://www.suesupriano.com/
Susan Gleason and Daniel Hannah Reclaim the Media: Reform, policy and education to promote critical thinking about media and a bio-regional community radio conference in Sept. 2006
Reclaim the Media is based in Seattle, Washington. It focuses on media policy reform, media reform and support for independent media. Susan Gleason and Daniel Hannah are the co-founders and co-directors and they speak to us about the specific activities of the organization. Hannah focuses on media monitoring, media literacy and education and media analysis. Reclaim the Media TV focuses on the coverage of news and can be seen on the public access channel in Seattle. It looks at how media works -- the impact of the corporate media, where the inherent biases are, the independent media and it's perspectives, advocacy media and the effects of advertising so that we can understand how we're affected by media. The goal is to get people to think critically. We can ask, for example, why there are stories about certain things and not others and learn, not surprisingly, that it is often because of who is sponsoring the particular media. Reclaim the Media also teaches about media and racism, media and body image and other such connections. They ask how does the media represent issues. Gleason focuses on the coming Northwest Community Radio Summit and media literacy conference September 15-17, 2006. The purpose is for folks from Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska and Idaho to network and to share content throughout this bio-region. These areas share many things in common locally but often don't get to hear news from other places. They need more exchange about about their local issues. Community radio/media offers media that is of, by and for the local community. The new PICUN ( Union of Farmworkers and Treecutters) low power FM station is a wonderful example of community radio because it can create radio content about issues that are relevant to it's community. Most information is disconnected from community and from its central source. Reclaim the Media hopes to build a bio-regional infrastructure and share content over the internet. New stations are coming on, doing skill sharing, etc. so the stations with more resources train and help less resourced stations train people locally. Democracy needs the free flow of information so we can know what's being done to us and in our name. We need to know in order to be good citizens and have a democracy. They also mention that the issues of media ownership rules with regard to low power FM, cable franchize agreements, etc. are still up and that these issues impact our lives so it's important to take an interest. nwcommunityradio.org Link: http://www.reclaimthemedia.org Date: 2006-08-01