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May 16, 2005
Commenting on and Critiquing the National Conference for Media Reform
Saturday night St. Louis IMCistas organized an impromptu media center in the conference lobby area outside the ballroom where the keynote festivities were going on. Almost a dozen laptops with Wi-Fi were brought together so that conference participants could air their views and frustrations on the St. Louis IMC website.
Frustration over many things -- from the lack of involvement with the local black community and press to the apparent use of the Independent Media caucus to rally journalists to spread the word of Free Press' and Media Access Project's campaigns, and Free Press' refusal to allow a media center to be set up in the first place -- had been building for two days. This indy press room provided some release valve for these frustrations, while also communicating them outside the walls of the Milennium Hotel.
Handbill fliers were made explaining Indymedia and pointing people to the media center and were handed out as conference attendees exited the keynote. I helped cut up fliers and handed out a bunch, and was brought back down to earth with the reminder that still even at this media reform conference a lot of people really don't know what Indymedia is and how it works.
Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi went down before the Keynote ended and bulk of the attendees entered the lobby. At first there was some wondering if the spiking of the wi-fi was retaliation for organizing the expression of dissent. But moments later Phlegm came running out of the ballroom saying that the network was down everywhere and that they'd lost the ability to do the live stream. So, instead it was just part and parcel of the overall crappy net access that had plagued the conference from the start.
Comments about the conference have filled the St. Louis IMC newswire, and they've been posted in response to a feature recounting the first day of the conference.
I'm a little burnt after 6 days of media reform / consolidation conferencing, but will try to gather my thoughts and post them here and at my blog. I hope some of my fellow BeTheMedia bloggers will do the same.
I will say right now that I feel less energized than I did after the 2003 conference, even though I think I was more exhausted after the one in 2003. I'm glad I went, and attending has forced me to think harder about the tension between the media reform movement and Indymedia and other movements that focus on more fundamental and systematic change.
Posted by paul at May 16, 2005 11:21 AM