“Be the media!” That’s the rallying cry of folks tired of their passive positions at the receiving end of the global information economy. Fed up with the diet of processed news and entertainment used to deliver eyes and ears to advertisers, media-savvy consumers are becoming producers.
And they’re creating newspaper, radio, television, and web-based projects like nothing you’ve seen before.The Indymedia movement is at the forefront of this new, improved information revolution—a global phenomenon based on new media technologies wed to the long-established principles of non-commercial, community-based, participatory journalism.
You can find Indymedia across the country and around the world, including right here in Troy, New York! Indymedia started as a way to bypass the traditional corporate news gatekeepers at the Seattle WTO protests in 1999 by providing a web-based source of print, photos, audio, and video created by the protesters themselves.
Since that debut, scores of Indymedia organizations have been established around the world. The Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center, as the local Indymedia organization is called, took root in the summer of 2000. It began with a virtual presence with the website http://www.hm.indymedia.org/ and like Indymedia globally, has been growing steadily.
There’s an active contingent of RPI students, staff, and faculty involved in the Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center, along with others from throughout the Capital Region. They maintain the website, broadcast a weekly “Indymedia Radio” program on WRPI (91.5 FM), and curate a weekly television show cablecast on Time Warner systems throughout the region. They also have produced three half-hour video documentaries on the Iraq War: “Hudson Mohawk Voices Against War,” “Womens’ Fast For Peace,” and the most recent, “Independent Media In A Time Of War.”
Part scathing critique, part call to action, “Independent Media In A Time of War” reminds us that dialogue is vital to a healthy democracy, and that independent media has a crucial responsibility in times of war to “go to where the silence is” to represent the diverse voices of people engaged in dissent.
Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of the daily radio and television program “Democracy Now!” (heard weekdays at 9 am on WRPI), makes the compelling argument that the news media have failed to represent “the true face of war.” Goodman criticizes the refusal to report civilian war casualties during the 2003 Iraq invasion and the new phenomenon of “embedded reporters” as examples of a pro-military bias in the corporate press, as she makes the case for an expanded and emboldened independent media movement.
The world premiere of “Independent Media In A Time Of War” takes place this Friday at 7:30 pm in RPI’s West Hall auditorium. The featured speaker will be Janine Jackson, host of the syndicated weekly media analysis program “Counterspin” (heard Monday mornings on WRPI).
The event is being co-sponsored by the Capital Region alternative weekly “Metroland,” so a large crowd is anticipated. After the premiere, the video becomes immediately available to educational institutions nationwide, distributed by the Media Education Foundation (http://www.mediaed.org/).
The Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center meets the first Monday of every month at the YWCA in downtown Troy at the corner of First and State Streets.
Whether your interest is web design, writing, audio production, video, photography, fundraising, or something we haven’t even considered yet, come on down to become part of the new wave of independent media!
