[Seattle-editorial] FEATURE PROPOSAL

[Lance Larkin]

I will be leaving the house around 11:00 and will not
be home until 6:00. If this article gets the requisite
votes during that time could somebody please post the
article. I am hoping I will get thumbs up before I
leave but just in case I don't I want to make sure it
gets posted ASAP since the conference is happening
now.

L.

[green bar] POVERTY AND THE MEDIA
[title] Homeless work at breaking the media blackout

In the deft maneuvering of politics, compromise is
often the name of the game. And in issues of
homelessness this is no different. Politicians often
give lip service to helping the homeless and pass
legislation to this effect. However, in the
self-congratulatory fashion of politics and <a
href="http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=homeless15m&date=20010815&query=%22Timothy+Harris%22+AND+%22Real+Change%22">corporate
media</a>, the details of service <a
href="http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=18166&group=webcast">cutbacks</a>
are lost. <a
href="http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=18211&group=webcast">Causes</a>
of homelessness are often unacknowledged, so media
activists have stepped in to fill the void.

A plethora of 'street newspapers' have opened shop
around the world to provide a forum for the homeless,
providing income for homeless vendors who - as in the
case of Seattle's street paper, Real Change - keep 75%
of the sales. Though some of these papers have been
lambasted for providing <a
href="http://www.realchangenews.org/real_change_org/thevision.html">uninspired
reading</a>, others thoughtfully provide a <a
href="http://www.alternet.org/sns/story.html?StoryID=14054">human
face</a> to the problem of homelessness. 

A <a
href="http://www.kwru.org/conference">conference</a>
in Philadelphia this weekend has taken the task of
educating people about issues of media democracy, its
relation to the homeless and the importance of
coalition building in order to break the media
blackout.

<a href="http://www.phillyimc.org/">Philadelphia
Independent Media Center</a>, <a
href="www.realchangenews.org/">Real Change</a>


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