What Can I Do? Tips for Getting Involved in Media Reform
This entry is an adaptation of a flyer
provided to the audience at the Media Ownership Forum Town Hall Meeting held at
St. John Fisher College March 8, 2004. Tips on how to get involved in reforming
our media are provided.
I have written a report on the forum that has been published on the Rochester IndyMedia website. Audio files of the forum are also available. Persons interested in viewing a complete videotape of the forum may contact Rochester IndyMedia at 585 325 3603.
A story discussing the local news media coverage of the event will be posted later this week.
I have written a report on the forum that has been published on the Rochester IndyMedia website. Audio files of the forum are also available. Persons interested in viewing a complete videotape of the forum may contact Rochester IndyMedia at 585 325 3603.
A story discussing the local news media coverage of the event will be posted later this week.
The following information was adapted by Rochester
IndyMedia from a flyer provided to the audience at the Media Ownership Forum
Town Hall Meeting held at St. John Fisher College March 8,
2004.
Tell policymakers what you think.
In 2003, over 2 million people contacted the Federal Communications Commission and Congress -- and it made a difference. Your elected officials and the FCC need to hear from you on how you feel about the media. The FCC accepts public comments through their electronic comment filing system. You can also reach them by phone at 1-888-CALLFCC.
Speak out for media reform.
Talk to your friends, family, and colleagues about media reform. Organize a group in your area to discuss media issues and plan actions. Make media an issue within groups in which you are already active.
Become an e-activist.
Free Press, which sponsors MediaReform.net and was responsible for the first National Conference on Media Reform held in Madison, WI, in November, 2003, sends updates to activists about campaigns to support or oppose legislation. (Subscribe here )
Ask candidates about Media Reform.
Tell candidates for elected office why you are concerned about media and ask them about their positions on public interest media policies.
Check your local broadcast stations’ public files.
Radio and television stations are required to maintain a Public File containing information on owndership, citizen agreements, children’s programming, and political advertising. All you have to do is walk into the station’s headquarters during business hours and request to see the Public File. (Do not be surprised if staff tell you they don’t know what you are talking about or if they balk at providing you with their files. Be persistent. They are required by law to make this information available to you.) By requesting this information you make the stations aware that citizens will work to hold them accountable to the public, and you also inform yourself and others about the extent to which they are actually complying with their public interest obligations.
Participate in the broadcast license renewal process.
In New York, radio station licenses are up for renewal in June 2006. TV station licenses are up for renewal in June 2007. If you feel your local broadcasters are not serving the public interest, you can file comments with the FCC to be considered when the FCC reviews renewal applications.
Get involved with a media reform organization near you.
There are many organizations across the country doing great work on media literacy and media policy. Find one near you using MediaReform.net's online database.
Be the media!
Join the IndyMedia movement by becoming involved in an Independent Media Center near you. In Rochester, NY, that is Rochester IndyMedia. Rochester IndyMedia meets every Tuesday from 7-9 p.m. at 167 Flanders Street (19th Ward, just off Thurston Rd.) People who are unable to attend the Tuesday night meetings are invited to leave a message at 585 325 3603 to indicate their interests. To stay in touch with what is happening at Rochester IndyMedia meetings, subscribe to the Rochester IndyMedia mailing list. In addition to maintaining its website and providing web reporters for some community events, Rochester IndyMedia produces “TV Dinner,” a video news program broadcast on RCTV-15 (public access cable) Thursday evenings at 8:30 p.m. The staff is entirely volunteer and whether or not an event gets covered depends on who is available and interested.
Individuals and community organizations are invited to post their own news on IndyMedia websites, including photos and audio and video files.
In addition, everyone has the ability to produce programs for public access television through the cable television service provider in their own locations. In Rochester, that is Rochester Community Television. In a subsequent post I will cover how citizens in towns surrounding the City of Rochester can become involved in public access television.
Tell policymakers what you think.
In 2003, over 2 million people contacted the Federal Communications Commission and Congress -- and it made a difference. Your elected officials and the FCC need to hear from you on how you feel about the media. The FCC accepts public comments through their electronic comment filing system. You can also reach them by phone at 1-888-CALLFCC.
Speak out for media reform.
Talk to your friends, family, and colleagues about media reform. Organize a group in your area to discuss media issues and plan actions. Make media an issue within groups in which you are already active.
Become an e-activist.
Free Press, which sponsors MediaReform.net and was responsible for the first National Conference on Media Reform held in Madison, WI, in November, 2003, sends updates to activists about campaigns to support or oppose legislation. (Subscribe here )
Ask candidates about Media Reform.
Tell candidates for elected office why you are concerned about media and ask them about their positions on public interest media policies.
Check your local broadcast stations’ public files.
Radio and television stations are required to maintain a Public File containing information on owndership, citizen agreements, children’s programming, and political advertising. All you have to do is walk into the station’s headquarters during business hours and request to see the Public File. (Do not be surprised if staff tell you they don’t know what you are talking about or if they balk at providing you with their files. Be persistent. They are required by law to make this information available to you.) By requesting this information you make the stations aware that citizens will work to hold them accountable to the public, and you also inform yourself and others about the extent to which they are actually complying with their public interest obligations.
Participate in the broadcast license renewal process.
In New York, radio station licenses are up for renewal in June 2006. TV station licenses are up for renewal in June 2007. If you feel your local broadcasters are not serving the public interest, you can file comments with the FCC to be considered when the FCC reviews renewal applications.
Get involved with a media reform organization near you.
There are many organizations across the country doing great work on media literacy and media policy. Find one near you using MediaReform.net's online database.
Be the media!
Join the IndyMedia movement by becoming involved in an Independent Media Center near you. In Rochester, NY, that is Rochester IndyMedia. Rochester IndyMedia meets every Tuesday from 7-9 p.m. at 167 Flanders Street (19th Ward, just off Thurston Rd.) People who are unable to attend the Tuesday night meetings are invited to leave a message at 585 325 3603 to indicate their interests. To stay in touch with what is happening at Rochester IndyMedia meetings, subscribe to the Rochester IndyMedia mailing list. In addition to maintaining its website and providing web reporters for some community events, Rochester IndyMedia produces “TV Dinner,” a video news program broadcast on RCTV-15 (public access cable) Thursday evenings at 8:30 p.m. The staff is entirely volunteer and whether or not an event gets covered depends on who is available and interested.
Individuals and community organizations are invited to post their own news on IndyMedia websites, including photos and audio and video files.
In addition, everyone has the ability to produce programs for public access television through the cable television service provider in their own locations. In Rochester, that is Rochester Community Television. In a subsequent post I will cover how citizens in towns surrounding the City of Rochester can become involved in public access television.
Posted: Wed - March 10, 2004 at 09:24 AM
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My name is Georgia NeSmith. "Random Acts of Love" is my weblog, but I have numerous other websites you can link to through this blog. "Random Acts of Love" began in February, 2004, and I have been posting to it fairly steadily ever since, although there are a few months when illness and other issues have kept me away. I write about nearly everything under the sun. I also do a lot of photography and digital art and I teach journalism online. Recently I've also started posting videos to YouTube.
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"The difficult I'll do right now
The impossible will take a little while."
-- From "Crazy, He Calls Me"
written by: Bob Russell / Carl Sigman
Sung by Billie Holiday
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-- Margaret Mead
"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all..."
-- Emily Dickinson
"In our sleep, pain, which we cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom, through the awful grace of God.
-- Aeschylus, Agamemnon
-- From "Crazy, He Calls Me"
written by: Bob Russell / Carl Sigman
Sung by Billie Holiday
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-- Margaret Mead
"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all..."
-- Emily Dickinson
"In our sleep, pain, which we cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom, through the awful grace of God.
-- Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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