Women's Institute for
Freedom of the Press
Communication News
Last Updated: June, 2008 Contents:
2. Highlights of Media Democracy Organizations
3. Links for Alternative Media and Media Democracy Concerns -- Organizations & Resources 4. Book Notes
UNIFEM/USA and Peace X Peace Present The Women's Global Roundtable Peace X Peace and UNIFEM/USA is hosting a 6-month series of live weekly conference calls with women from around the world. Listen to their stories, learn about their challenges and triumphs, create new friendships and connect across cultures. Join in to celebrate the unsung "ordinary" women of the world and their extraordinary actions, whose lives have been touch by UNIFEM (the United Nations Womens Fund). Women know that if there is to be peace in the world we need to connect directly with women from other cultures. The Women's Global Roundtable is designed to guide your curiosity, open your heart, and expand your life within a global community. Nepal gets its first all women private radio Kathmandu (PTI): A private FM radio fully operated by women has been established in the industrial town of Biratnagar in eastern Nepal. Purvanchal FM station is the first community-run radio in Nepal that has started broadcasting an eight-hour daily transmission with all women employees, officials said. UNESCO Women Make the News 2008 is a global action which promotes gender equality in the media. It is now in it's eight year. We wish to encourage all media organizations producing daily news to give editorial responsibility to women editors and journalists to direct the news on 8th March, the International Day of Women, as a step to promote gender equality in the media. Women Make the News 2008 is a unique and exciting opportunity for all those who are committed to the promotion of gender equality in newsrooms to challenge the media to fulfill their democratic responsibility to represent women and men in a fair and balanced way. For many women journalism profession continues to represent harsh realities in terms of job safety and job security, access to facilities, choice of assignments and discriminatory treatment. Progress of women journalists' careers is still hampered by lingering stereotypes and subtle discrimination. Women journalists continue to face substantial obstacles to full participation in the newsroom - particularly in terms of management opportunities. Women Make the News 2008 has two goals: to highlight the need to promote women journalists to decision-making positions throughout the world, and to promote gender equality in newsrooms. We wish to invite print and broadcast media to share with us features, articles, interviews and TV and radio programmes dedicated to this year's theme Women's Untold Stories to highlight women's multiple talents, achievements and contributions to their communities. We are therefore inviting you to submit to our website your stories for others to learn from them. The stories collected will provide practical examples that we believe will inspire others and raise the visibility of the role women play in the news as correspondents, as newsmakers and as valuable and authoritative sources of information.
by Bonnie Carlson, WIFP The name says it all: Reclaim the Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to gaining media accessibility and control for all citizens. Founded in 2002, the group is rooted in the premise that a democratized media is critically important, and to get there, this organization is guided by three major goals: changing media policy teaching media literacy, and supporting community media. The group's website is equipped with a section entitled "Bookshelf", which lists books regarding media access, as well as a section entitled "Recent Stories", which provides a frequently updated page of news stories relevant to media control. One of Reclaim the Media's most exciting new projects is its community radio show entitled Listen Up! Northwest. Broadcast weekly, this thirty-minute segment features stories about community activism taking place in the Northwest. The first installation of this program, which aired on June 19, 2008 and is available on the website, detailed a variety of stories, including an environmental initiative and a move for empowerment in women's prison each taking place in Northwestern towns. For the more technologically savvy among us, Reclaim the Media also hosts a channel on YouTube. This subscription-only site gives users access to dozens of online videos pertinent to issues of media neutrality. Popular videos include testimony at the Federal Communications Commission hearings held in Seattle in 2007 as well as statements made by politicians regarding media consolidation. For more information and to support their efforts, visit www.reclaimthemedia.org.
Links for
Alternative Media and Media Democracy Concerns -- (be sure to return to the WIFP website!) MediaWatch, challenging racism, sexism and violence in the media through education and activism, P.O. Box 618, Santa Cruz, CA 95061-0618. (831) 423-6355. Email: mwatch@cruzio.com The outstanding newsletter is available by subscription for $20 ($10 low income). Center for Media Justice The Center for Media Justice is a member-driven media strategy and action center dedicated to creating a collaborative movement for racial justice and youth rights. Together with our participants, members, partners, and allies—the Center for Media Justice builds the power of grassroots movements and disenfranchised communities to transform public debate and win media accountability in the service of justice. Progressive Communicators Network The Progressive Communicators Network exists to strengthen and amplify the power, voices, and vision of grassroots movements that are working for racial, social, economic, and environmental justice. Network members use communication strategy, framing and messaging, and media tools to: 1) enhance the influence of social change movements on public policy and opinion; and 2) realize a world without poverty, racism, and other forms of oppression. The Network is a project of Spirit in Action, a movement-building support organization located in western Massachusetts. Media and Democracy Coalition The Media and Democracy Coalition is an unincorporated affiliation of national, state and local consumer, public interest, organized labor and media reform organizations representing tens of millions of Americans. The coalition is governed by a steering committee and an executive committee of coalition members. Save the Internet is a coalition working together to keep the internet open and free. Feisty Aphrodite was conceived of by two frustrated women fed-up with the corporate media’s lack of responsibility to educate its people. "We are now a resource focused on bringing the many feminine perspectives to the world through information, activism and independent media. Please peruse our site, where we offer our guests the opportunity to voice their perspectives via blogging, podcasts and the gallery." Center for International Media Action CIMA seeks to advance media access and representation and to support diverse voices and actors in media reform, media production and media accountability. Reclaim the Media is a coalition of independent journalists, media activists and
community organizers in the Pacific Northwest, promoting press
freedom and community media access as prerequisites for a functioning
democracy. Media Access Project is a non-profit, public interest law firm which promotes the public's
First Amendment right to hear and be heard on the electronic media
of today and tomorrow.
 Citizens Communication Center and Minority Media and Telecommunications
Council Among those working on Broadcast Ownership Rules: David Honig, Executive Director, at Minority
Media and Telecommunications Council (202-332-0500 or 332-7005). Virtual Alternative Media Project An impressive resource that will lead you to new places. Be sure to bookmark the site because you'll want to go back for more. Women's Radio Fund "Our mission is to build a support network for women radio producers and broadcasters worldwide." Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting (CIPB), Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting, 901 Old Hickory Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15243. Telephone: 412-341-1967 E-mail: jmstarr@adelphia.net Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom represents a common front of readers and viewers, those working in the media industries, and labour and community groups concerned about the increasing concentration of media ownership in Canada. Active in promoting greater diversity of media ownership, enhancing the rights of media workers to report freely, and monitoring key developments in the news and information industries. National Federation of Community Broadcasters The National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB) is a national membership organization of community-oriented, non-commercial radio stations. Large and small, rural and urban, eclectic or targeted toward specific communities, the member stations are distinguished by their commitment to localism and community participation and support. Free Press "If we want a media system that serves democratic and cultural values, we must address the root causes of the problem - media ownership, management, regulation, and subsidy. We must open up and democratize media policy debates, and craft a media system that reduces the power held by the enormous corporations and advertisers that today dominate the media culture. "Free Press is a new national media reform organization working to open up and ignite policy debates, reinforce outreach efforts in Washington and across the nation, strengthen the media reform network, and - using seasoned organizers and cutting-edge communications strategies - make media a bona fide issue in America."
The Girls, Women
+ Media Project The
Girls, Women + Media Project is a national non-profit advocacy
initiative and network, working to promote fairer, healthier,
more positive images of girls and women in the media through awareness
and concerted action. Media Tank "The vision for Media Tank began when local activists came together to organize independent media resources for the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. That effort led to the establishment of the Independent Media Center of Philadelphia (IMC-Philly), which provided ground-breaking coverage of the Convention week, and remains a media collective that provides alternative coverage of local events. The original founders of IMC-Philly, acting on the needs for more basic awareness-building and media education resources, have gone on to set up Media Tank, a non-profit community media resource center working to broaden the debate on important issues of media democracy."
Action Coalition
for Media Education (ACME) October 18-20,
2002 marked the founding summit of the Action Coalition for Media
Education (ACME), at the beautiful campus of the Albuquerque Academy
in New Mexico. ACME, free of corporate media funding, is a strategic
network linking media educators, health advocates, media reformers,
independent media makers, community organizers and others. ACME
will: http://adbusters.org/metas/psycho/mediacarta/ " When will we reach the breaking point? Our minds have become a virtual dumping ground of pollutants — manipulative ads, distorted news, untold violence, spin and hype. We can cope with the media onslaught to a degree. But all signs suggest that the cumulative effects of this toxic culture — on our stress levels, our moods, our relationships, our worldviews, even our mental health — could become one the most pressing issues of our generation. This online activist network — 25,000-strong — is working to rethink our broken media system. We invite you to join by signing the Media Carta manifesto. Media activism is still in its infancy and is currently fragmented into dozens of different agendas. Over the coming months and years, we'll be exploring ways to pull together these disparate threads. We consider Media Democracy, Media Justice and especially Mental Environmentalism to be groundbreaking narratives that could gel our activism into a full-fledged movement -- a movement on par with feminism, civil rights and environmentalism. We hope you'll join us in changing the way information flows and how meaning is produced in our Information Age." Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) "FAIR, the national media watch group, has been offering well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986. We work to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. As an anti-censorship organization, we expose neglected news stories and defend working journalists when they are muzzled. As a progressive group, FAIR believes that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of information. Uniquely, FAIR works with both activists and journalists." Media Matters for America "Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. Launched in May 2004, Media Matters for America put in place, for the first time, the means to systematically monitor a cross section of print, broadcast, cable, radio, and Internet media outlets for conservative misinformation — news or commentary that is not accurate, reliable, or credible and that forwards the conservative agenda — every day, in real time." http://www.apcwomen.org/"We are a global network of women who support women networking for social change and women's empowerment, through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). We promote gender equality in the design, development, implementation, access to and use of ICTs and in the policy decisions and frameworks that regulate them." Alliance for Community MediaThe Alliance for Community Media is committed to assuring everyone’s access to electronic media. The Alliance advances this goal through public education, a progressive legislative and regulatory agenda, coalition building and grassroots organizing. A nonprofit, national membership organization founded in 1976, the Alliance represents over 3,000 Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) access organizations and community media centers throughout the country. It also represents the interests of millions of people who, through their local religious, community and charitable groups, use PEG access to communicate with their memberships and the community as a whole.
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