Wisconsin Media Conference

M edia scholars, reporters, and activists converged in Madison, Wisconsin from November 7 to 9. The big draw was the National Conference on Media Reform, organized by Free Press (www.mediareform.net) and UW- Madison’s A.E. Havens Center. As Free Press cofounders Robert McChesney and John Nichols stated, the turnout of more than 1,600 far surpassed their initial estimates of a few hundred attendees. But the national conference wasn’t the only game in town. A free parallel meeting of marginalized voices greatly enriched the conversation. In all, three not-mutually exclusive visions were advanced: be the media, reform the media, and radically transform the media. 

Be the Media 

C oncerned by the national conference’s registration fee, emphasis on big names, and focus on “reform,” Madison Indymedia, Infoshop, and WORT community radio organized a free parallel meeting called Be the Media! 

Be the Media! opened Friday evening with the film Independent Media in a Time of War , by the Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center, and a discussion with Juan Gonzalez, Jeremy Scahill, and Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now!” Although many in the packed auditorium likely came to see Amy Goodman, local activists also spoke. Volunteers at the community access TV station warned of a threat by city council members to cut their funding (a cheap political stunt that, fortunately, failed). El Salvador and Palestine solidarity activists gave updates on their work. “Being informed is only the first part,” Madison-Arcatao (El Salvador) Sister-City Project member Marc Rosenthal stated. “We also need to organize.” 

Saturday was devoted to hands- on, action-oriented workshops on subjects ranging from making bilingual media to starting a microradio station to performing political theater. Attendance was on the small side, though participants included both national conference attendees and local activists. Workshops assumed knowledge of the issues and a desire to put information gained to use with local media projects and in the streets—assumptions which seemed pretty accurate. 

In the same DIY spirit, and correctly guessing that “any corporate media coverage of the conference will be perfunctory (if at all),” activists launched a Be the Media! Blog (www.wisconsinite.net) to report on the weekend’s events. The Bloggers also pulled off the impressive feat of webcasting many national conference events with “less than a month’s worth of planning, a budget of $0, a handful of volunteers, and a whole lot of donated time/resources.” 

Reform the Media 

T he National Conference on Media Reform’s stated aims were to strengthen grassroots and national coalitions, develop unified plans for immediate and long-term reforms, and generate policies and strategies that will structurally improve the media system. Though it was impressive in many respects, the conference, in my opinion, failed to meet the last two of its goals. 

Perhaps because of the overwhelming participant response, the conference relied on an “expert” to audience one-way flow of information. Only one hour at the end of the conference offered a more interactive structure. These “issue salons”—on issues including hyper-commercialism, media ownership, and democratic governance —used a speed dating format in which people talked in small groups for six minutes and then changed groups. It was fun, but any in- depth discussion was impossible. 

In the plenary sessions and workshops I attended, little time was devoted to policies, strategies, or plans. Instead, well-known people talked about topics that, for the most part, media reformers could safely be assumed to already be familiar with. “Big media is invested in the socioeconomic status quo.... We have underestimated the impact of media control on our [wider social justice] struggle.... How are we different from a society where [images of war] are banned?”