Change the media, change the world

by Heather Buchheim

“The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It’s not our job to cozy up to power. We’re supposed to be the check and balance on government.” –Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! (www.democracynow.org)

A free and independent media is not just a central tenet of democracy, but potentially one of the most powerful resources of the peace and justice movement. The success of both hinge on the ability to effectively raise public awareness of injustice embedded within the current economic and political systems. People first must be given an understanding of the need for change, along with alternatives to the prevailing systems before they have the strength and impetus to take action.

If in the right hands, the media can provide information that will engage the public and encourage civic participation, and an informed public will be more likely to advocate sound policy choices. But as long as mass media are operated in the interest of rich corporate investors, progress towards a more equitable, peaceful, and just society will stagnate and the public will remain misled and in silence.

So logically one of the first steps in challenging institutionalized oppression and igniting positive social change is to change the media. You’ll find out what you can do in the next couple pages. First, here’s where the fourth estate has gone wrong.

Concentrated media = diluted objectivity
Pro-business conservatives bolster media consolidation by passing deregulation bills, giving big conglomerates free reign to tighten their grip on the airwaves through mergers, further narrowing the broadcasted range of perspectives. Permissive legislation allows companies to vertically integrate, meaning the Viacoms and Time Warners of the industry will own the means of production along with the distribution channels to guarantee their content gets an audience.
As news outlets are concentrated in the hands of corporations with holdings in multiple industries, conflicts of interest inevitably arise and disturb proper newsgathering. Media moguls have
the power to refuse to broadcast information if it goes against their own self interest or the interests of those with whom they have financial or political ties.

Beholden to “free market” advocates for their monopoly status, vertically integrated conglomerates shelter politicians from bad publicity, acting as a sounding board for conservative special interests. But of course when it comes to diagnosing political bias on the airwaves, you’ll only hear about that darn “liberal media,” and its fear of the liberal label and loss of republican funding that keeps media outlets desperate to remain in the right’s favor.

Sacrificing diversity
In hawking propaganda-for-profit, the commercial media must appeal to the affluent elite if they are to stay in business, thereby shuttering the viewpoints of the less than ultra rich and powerful. Gearing information towards such a narrow audience inherently promotes class and racial bias, along with the misrepresentation and disenfranchisement of those voices that don’t fit the corporate media
consumer profile. By decentralizing the power to produce and distribute the news, more people with a greater variety of perspectives find the encouragement to participate as newsmakers.

One of the greatest benefits of noncommercial media is the ability to bypass the need to sell in favor of having the freedom to choose our audience. Community media outlets generally make it their mission to ensure that marginalized voices are given the opportunity to make their viewpoints heard. That’s why you’ll get more diversity of opinion on public airwaves.

The death of journalistic integrity
The goal of maximizing profit is often in conflict with the practice of responsible journalism. The mainstream media is sorely lacking when it comes to honest, hard-hitting investigative reporting—because it’s expensive and time-consuming. But ultimately, is the public better served by shameless 24 hour coverage of celebrity court cases, or probing analysis of political rationalization for wholly unsanctioned military occupation?

If the public continues to be distracted from government wrongdoing by Washington shills and lulled into a false sense of security by hours of mind-numbing infotainment, few will have the impetus to perform their civic duty and resist the status quo. And there won’t be much room for dissent if we allow ourselves to be intimidated and distracted from real issues by color-coded alerts fabricated by fear-mongering conservative leadership in cahoots with media alarmists. It’s time we demand objectivity in news and resist being browbeaten by the ideological extremism of unscrupulous talking heads—sultans of spin like Faux “Fair and Balanced” News anchor Bill O’Reilly and hate-mongering talk radio tyrant Rush Limbaugh.

...there are alternatives
Educate yourself Advocate good journalism

Recommended reading/watching:

Rich Media, Poor Democracy by Robert McChesney
The Republican Noise Machine by David Brock
What Liberal Media by Eric Alterman
Independent Media in a Time of War,
A film featuring Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman
OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism
A documentary by Robert Greenwald

Alternative news online

Common Dreams—www.commondreams.org
AlterNet—www.alternet.org
Truthout—www.truthout.org
Buzzflash—www.buzzflash.com
Raw Story—www.rawstory.com

Free Press
http://www.freepress.net
A media reform network providing the latest information on FCC rulings and a beginner’s guide to the complex issues surrounding media diversity.

Media Matters
http://www.mediamatters.org
Web-based non-profit progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.

Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
http://www.fair.org
A national media watch group that offers well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship.

Be the media—be the change you want to see

KCSB—radio that thinks for itself
http://www.kcsb.org
New audio technology has made it much easier for grassroots reporters to create broadcast-quality sound. If you’d like to do some sound recording at an event, voice a story, record an interview, etc., drop by KCSB’s newsroom beneath Storke Tower—we’ve got user-friendly MiniDisc recorders that students and community members can borrow, along with staff who can help you write a script, and voice and edit sound. The newsroom has everything you need to get your story on the air to thousands of listeners all over Santa Barbara County. Plus if you’re interested in a career in journalism (or just need some units), you can get an internship for credit through the newsroom.

Free Speech Radio News—Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship
http://www.fsrn.org
Report on local issues of national interest for Free Speech—the only independent daily progressive newscast in the U.S. Born of a strike in defiance of network attempts to mainstream Pacifica news, FSRN is run by a grassroots collective of freelance reporters across the globe, and is broadcast on 100 stations nationwide. Anyone can be a reporter, and if your story is broadcast, you’ll be compensated—always welcome, especially when you’re living on a student’s budget. For tips on pitching, reporting, and technical assistance, see http://www.fsrn.org/guidelines.html or drop by KCSB’s newsroom.

Santa Barbara Independent Media Center
http://www.sbindymedia.org
Post articles and upload pictures, sound, and video to the Santa Barbara branch of the global IMC network. SB Indymedia is a community collective that offers those of us who don’t have access to corporate media’s resources the training and channels to be news makers, along with the means to link local and global struggles.