Beyond Mainstream Media
Event
Activists, artists and citizens from nearly all walks of life and perspectives have struggled to reach beyond the limitations of mainstream media in the U.S. Tired of being talked to or overlooked, Americans have long sought to exercised their rights to free speech and to fulfill their need to hear from independent voices by creating new avenues of speech, by inventing new forms of communication, and by seizing the microphone to speak to their community. This movement did not begin and does not end with the Internet or social media.
The New America Foundation’s Media Policy Initiative presents a discussion series - Beyond Mainstream Media. The series will highlight the contributions of alternative media, and the challenges citizens face in a political environment that seems to reward those with the most money. Independent media provides a unique service to the public, particularly to those members of the public too often undervalued and overlooked by mainstream commercial media. Investigative reporting, journalists who focus on ethnic communities, low-power radio giving local voice to community leaders, low-power television providing new Americans critical life-saving service, public access cable TV and youth press all play a vital role in our local media environment. These services all provide important services and opportunities rarely possible with profit-driven media.
How do these voices get heard? How does independent alternative media find creative ways to continue to provide needed service? What role does the government play in ensuring that these media survive?
We invite you to join the conversation looking beyond mainstream media.
The series will be hosted by the Director of the Media Policy Initiative, Mark Lloyd. All events are located at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. Click on the event title below to read more about each of the programs.
The Story of WPFW and Pacifica Radio and A Crisis in Grassroots Media
Tuesday, June 11th at 4pm
Yves Point Du Jour, Chair of Local Station Board at WPFW; Katea Stitt, Music and Cultural Affairs Director at WPFW; Askia Muhammed, News Director at WPFW
Catherine Komp & Alice Ollstein from Free Speech Radio News; Askia Muhammad from WPFW, Pacifica Radio in Washington, D.C.
Disappearing off the Dial: The Future of Low Power TV
Tuesday, June 25th at 4pm
Tara Ballesteros of ZGS Communications; Peter Tannenwald, Attorney at Fletcher, Heald, and Hildreth
Reclaiming the Airwaves: The Largest Expansion of Community Radio, Coming This Fall
Tuesday, July 16th at 4pm
Julia Wierski of Prometheus Radio Project; Katherine Grincewhich of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Liz Humes, President Emeritus of WRIR-LP in Richmond, Virginia
Corporate FM Documentary Screening with Director Kevin McKinney
Tuesday, July 16 at 5pm
Kevin McKinney, Director, Corporate FM
Tuning into Community Cable: The Hopes and Heartache of Public Access TV
Tuesday, July 23rd at 4pm
Tonya Gonzalez from DCTV; Bunnie Riedel from American Community TV; Robyn Holden from the National Media Consortium
Participants