[IMC-bristol] article about IMC uk for "media development"

[anarchist606 at hushmail.com]

I have written an article already!

The Growth and Growth of Bristol Indymedia 
------------------------------------------ 

This article is being written from the perspective of an Indymedia volunteer,
 
a reader of the site and a writer on the site. This gives a perspective

from inside and from the outside of which to write about and comment

upon it. 

Bristol Indymedia was founded by local activists with help from the London

Indymedia collective. It's been going for over a year now and has a very

definite local agenda. This direction was established at the initial

public meetings that established the site. The discussion centered on

the idea that for the site to truly be called 'Bristol' it had to reflect

Bristol and the surrounding area. Great strides are made to moderate

and manage the site so as to ensure that local voices are the loudest.

That's not to say the site does not feature news from outside the area,
 
but always we encourage contributors to seek a local angle on international

events. A critic might say that this would leave us as nothing more than

an online version of a local paper; but we believe we are far from it.

To illustrate this it is worth pointing to some of the successes of the

site: 

Bristol Indymedia gave an open forum to anti-war voices during the recent

conflict. Bristol's media outlets; Evening Post, Western Daily Press

and Venue are all owned by Northcliffe Newspapers, as in line with the

group editorial position, devoted most of its war coverage to International

events from the Gulf. Coverage of anti-war voices was marginal at best.

Events such as the historic 10,000 people at Fairford or the blockading

of Bristol city center on the day war broke out were covered extensively

by the people who attended and so the site reflected far more coverage

that was allotted in the mainstream media. 

Coverage and debate of the drugs/crime issues has been extensive on the

site, which again, reflects the reader/writer concern. In the main this

coverage has been written by the people who live in the areas affected

by the crack epidemic within the city and so the voices have had an immediate

authenticity not found elsewhere. 

Local media has also come under scrutiny. It is interesting to note that

the site is frequently visited by the local mainstream media as well

as other institutions such as the police and council; indeed the police

have been known to post articles on the site. It is arguably inevitable

that local media would come under such scrutiny given its one-way consumption

method. As such lively debate frequently explodes on the accuracy, impartiality

and quality of the mainstream media. The most notable of these debates

was local opposition to HTV's 'Currie Night' TV program, which engendered

a lively debate between the site users and the HTV management. 

Once other important development that must be afforded space is Al-MuaJaaha,
 
the Iraq Witness. Here we see grass roots inter-community organizing

at its best. The Indymedia software and tech-know-how, fund-raising,

combined with Bristol anti-war activists and Iraqis, living both in 
the UK and in Iraq, together have created what is arguably Iraq's first

ever truly open, free and democratic media outlet. Without a strong 
community and support base here in Bristol, the project could not have

happened. Without the international peace movement and its links and

without dedicated Iraqi writers on the ground in Baghdad, the project

would never have happened. The project has happened and goes from strength

to strength! 

Recently the site's volunteers have been pushing further the local nature

of the site and to date it seems to be paying off; there has been a marked

increase in comments, local groups using the site and exclusive local

coverage of events. The future also looks bright as the addition of a

calendar system is allowing the site to respond to user requests for

a forum for publicizing events. Bristol Indymedia also organized the

'Communtiy Media Day' in June 2003, which was a huge success in bringing

together local media outlets such as The Spark, Bristle and plugincinema.com

as well as national groups such as Undercurrents and Talkiokie. The event

both was platform for debate on independent media as well as a skill

sharing opportunity which allowed everyone to pickup some media skills;

this being the greatest success of the local and international Indymedia

movement - the blurring of the line between consumer and producer. It

allows ordinary people the opportunity to cease being a passive participant

in the forces that shape their community, and start being an active voice.



http://bristol.indymedia.org 
http://www.almuajaha.com 
http://anarchist606.blogspot.com 



On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 02:50:35 -0700 ionnek <ionnek at gmx.net> wrote:
>this was forwarded to me
>
>Tony G
>
>
>
>Hi,
>
>Following Arne's email
>http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-london/2003-July/000526.html,

> I've
>contacted Pradip Thomas, the editor of "media development". The
>article
>should have 1000 to 1500 words, which is not very much. Pradip agreed
>to a
>rough proposal, which focusses on the development of the imc-uk
>website:
>
>"I'd like to focus on two aspects:
>Our first phase was marked by the specifics of an imc located in
>the
>metropolitan geography of london, the richness of connectivity and
>inspiration, the lack of space, and our offline-practices of blagging
>and
>sharing as inspired by our roots in the anti-road/squatting/free
>party/rts
>movements. The second, post-decentralisation phase points to the
>process of
>building a larger network, using much more cybertools than before."
>
>I told some London people that I'll send a draft as soon as I have
>one.
>A collection of resources and a draft are linked from
>http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcLondon.
>
>Comments welcome - stories and links to add, etc.
>
>I thought it would be nice to publish this imc-uk presentation under
>a name
>like imc-uk writing group or so, rather than individual names.
>
>your thoughts?
>
>best
>ionnek
>
>
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http://anarchist606.blogspot.com
Bloging as radical as the issues the world faces.




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