[Seattle-editorial] FEATURE PROPOSAL: NAB (x4)

[Jeremy Kahn]

wow. that *is* a lot of information. But the NAB is as relevant to
Indymedia as we can get.

Though it is a bit long, I say go ahead and post them.

great work, all. Sorry I've been off radar for so long.

-j
------------------------
Veeble a rebel you shun!
On Fri, 30 Aug 2002, jonathan lawson wrote:

> Hi everybody.
> So here's the Biggest Feature Proposal Ever! Some unusually long, some
> short--all related to the upcoming NAB events. I suggest displaying them in
> the order shown here...
>
> NAB1
>
> subtitle: BREAKING THE SPELL OF MEDIA CORPORATISM
> title: Reclaim the Media! Upstaging the NAB, Sept 10-15
>
> Six years of the deregulatory "reforms" of the 1996 Telecommunications Act
> have brought unprecedented concentration of ownership to our broadcast and
> print media industries.  Most of the media Americans watch, read and hear
> every day is controlled by fewer than ten massive conglomerates. While the
> corporate captains celebrate their "freedom of the press" by covering the
> Earth in advertising and pandering to the priorities of US power elites,
> current FCC leadership has made clear its allegiance to the Love of Money
> rather than to the Public Interest, and is clearing the way for still more
> media consolidation, threatening to make the Internet and print media as
> uniformly outfitted as today's commercial FM radio.
>
> <p>Given the extent to which the national media are controlled by a few
> powerful owners, it is little surprise that media industry regulatory
> issues (such as ownership limits, implementation of digital broadcast
> technologies, press freedom and Internet open access) get little coverage
> in the corporate press. In the shadow of these institutions, however, a
> grassroots media democracy movement is growing in numbers and developing
> strategies to restore citizen control of publicly-owned media resources.
>
> <p>Show your support for a more democratic media and find out about the
> issues at <b><a href="http://www.reclaimthemedia.org">Reclaim the Media: a
> Community Media Convergence</a></b>, in downtown Seattle <b>Sept.
> 10-15</b>, timed to shadow the National Association of Broadcasters' annual
> corporate radio conference. Major events include a day-long <b>Media and
> Democracy Teach-in</b> (Fri. Sept. 13); Thursday/Friday/Saturday afternoon
> rallies, with bands, speakers, street theater and informational tables, in
> Freeway Park on the doorstep of the NAB conference; and IMC-hosted events
> (see inset box), as well as <a href="http://www.democracynow.org">Amy
> Goodman's</a> keynote address, <b>Independent Media in a Time of War</b>.
> Get more information and a <a
> href="http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/schedule">complete schedule of
> events</a> from <a
> href="http://www.reclaimthemedia.org">www.reclaimthemedia.org</a>.
>
> <p>Thanks to the judicial repeal of Seattle's <a
> href="http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=16795">poster
> ban</a>, the utility poles of Seattle are ripe for flyering. Help beaufity
> your neighborhood by copying and posting these fine Reclaim the Media
> notices (pdf): <a
> href="http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/images/Sakolsky-Flyer.pdf">Ron
> Sakolsky</a> (Sept 10); <a
> href="http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/images/Hosler-Flyer.pdf">Mark
> Hosler/Negativland</a> (Sept 12); <a
> href="http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/images/TeachIn-Flyer.pdf">Media and
> Democracy Teach-In</a> (Sept 13); <a
> href="http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/images/Goodman-Flyer.pdf">Amy
> Goodman/David Barsamian</a> (Sept 13); <a
> href="http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/images/CultureJam-Flyer.pdf">Culture
> Jam</a> (film, Sept 15)
>
> NAB 2
>
> subtitle: RECLAIM THE MEDIA
> title: Community Media Convergence in Seattle
>
> As <a href="http://www.newsguild.org">newspaper</a> and <a
> href="http://www.aftraseattle.com">broadcast</a> employees' unions struggle
> to protect <a
> href="http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=11639">local
> accountability, journalistic integrity and diversity of content</a> in
> today's blighted corporate media landscape, increasingly broad technology
> access enables a flowering of independent and community media: xeroxed
> zines, microradio and low-power FM stations, public-access TV, community
> newspapers and websites. The <a href="http://www.indymedia.org">IMC
> network</a>, launched with this site less than three years ago, has now
> expanded to over 100 sites worldwide, demonstrating that the <a
> href="http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2">resistance</a>
> to corporate media controls is truly global as well as local. Community
> organizing on behalf of community media is on the rise as well, most
> notably the successful campaign to save Pacifica Radio, and the Low-Power
> FM movement, in which <a href="http://www.prometheusradio.org">community
> activists</a> faced off against the combined corporate lobbying might of
> the National Association of Broadcasters and <a
> href="http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=3526">NPR</a>.
>
> <p>The NAB holds its annual <a
> href="http://www.nab.org/conventions/radioshow/2002/">corporate radio
> conference</a> in Seattle this month, and as in <a
> href="http://sf.indymedia.org/features/nab/">San Francisco</a> two years
> ago, community media activists will come together to celebrate media which
> is in the hands of the people rather than under the thumbs of corporate
> masters. Scores of community media heroes will share their knowledge at <a
> href="http://www.reclaimthemedia.org">Reclaim the Media</a>'s <b>Media and
> Democracy Teach-In</b> (Friday, S13, 10-5pm, Town Hall), including <a
> href="http://deedeehalleck.tripod.com/">DeeDee Halleck</a>, <a
> href="http://www.alternativeradio.org">David Barsamian</a>, <a
> href="http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/stories.php?story=02/08/31/6144861">Davey
> D</a>, <a href="http://www.fsrn.org/">Deepa Fernandes</a>, <a
> href="http://www.clamormagazine.org/">Jen Angel</a> and many others.
>
> <p><a href="http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/schedule">Reclaim the Media
> Schedule</a> | <a href="http://seattle.indymedia.org/localmedia.php3">local
> community media</a>| <a href="
> http://www.tabletnewspaper.com/politics/">Tablet counter-NAB coverage</a>
>
> NAB 3
>
> subtitle: (LOW) POWER TO THE PEOPLE
> title: Mosquito Fleet of Microbroadcasters Provide Soundtrack to NAB
>
>  From the 12th to the 15th of September, Seattle will play host to
> thousands of commercial radio broadcasters, hundreds of independent media
> makers and community radio afficianados, and a small but highly audible
> swarm of license-free microbroadcasters who say that it's giant
> conglomerates like Clear Channel and Infinitynot themselveswho are the real
> Pirate Broadcasters.
>
> <p>The National Association of Broadcasters, arguably the most powerful
> corporate lobbying organization in the country, convenes its annual radio
> conference in Seattle from Sept. 12-14. The NAB, representing the interests
> of a concentrated and wealthy elite group of broadcasting owners,  has
> worked hard to prevent public access to the airwavesmost infamously in its
> attacks on FCC plans to license LPFM community radio stations two years
> ago, when it suvvessfully lobbied Congress to enact the industry-written
> (and euphemistically titled) <a
> href="http://www.mediageek.org/2000_04_01_archive_index.html">"Preservation
> of Broadcasting Act."</a> With entertainment provided by keynote speaker
> and Fox News spin-surgeon <a
> href="http://www.fair.org/extra/0205/oh_really.html">Bill O'Reilly</a>, the
> NAB has themed their conference "Radio Promotes. Radio Provides. Radio Has
> Power." The NAB wants to ensure that radio "promotes" corporate America's
> products to American consumers, and "provides" both for the media moguls
> whose pockets are lined by advertisers, and for the politicians whose
> pockets are lined by the NAB. They're working hard to make sure that
> radio's "power" stays in the hands of the privileged few, not the public
> who, incidentally, own the airwaves.
>
> <p>During the week of NAB (and the counter-NAB <a
> href="http://www.reclaimthemedia.org">Reclaim the Media</a>
> conference),  local microradio mosquitos will take back the power of radio,
> fielding broadcasts on <a
> href="http://www.microradio.net/upcoming.htm">eleven available
> frequencies</a> currently left vacant by the FCC's frequency allocation
> rulesobsolete rules which would have been overturned but for <a
> href="http://www.kyes.com/engineering/linklist/boscom.txt">the NAB's (and
> NPR's) crusade</a>.
>
> <p><a href="http://www.microradio.net">Microradio.Net</a>
>
> NAB 4
>
> subtitle: CREATIVE MEDIA RESISTANCE
> title: Radical Art and Radical Politics Meet at RTM Convergence
>
> Several events taking place as part of this month's <a
> href="http://www.reclaimthemedia.org">Reclaim the Media</a> conference
> highlight happy meetings of art and politics. On <b>Sept. 10</b>, author
> and visionary community radio activist <a href="
> http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=17417">Ron Sakolsky</a>
> introduces "Surrealist Subversions," his new anthology of American
> surrealist art and writings. He calls the book " a sustained attack on the
> institutions and idelogies that maintain human misery" and "a manual of
> cultural/political sabotage."
>
> <p>On <b>Sept. 12</b>, <a
> href="http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=17419">Negativland's
> Mark Hosler</a> hosts <a
> href="http://www.ttpixels.org/features/Negativland8217sMarkHosl.php?sec=features">Creative
> Media Resistance</a>, a video-lecture illustrating the creative projects,
> hoaxes, pranks and "culture jamming" that have typified Negativland's work
> since 1980; 9pm at the Rendezvous. Reclaim the Media events wrap up on
> <b>Sept. 15</b>, where Jill Sharpe's new documentary <a
> href="http://www.culturejamthefilm.com">Culture Jam: Hijacking Commercial
> Culture</a> premieres at the IMC (7pm). The film focuses on the activities
> of San Francisco's Billboard Liberation Front, performance artist Rev.
> Billy, and "media tigress" Carly Stasko, and includes soundtrack material
> by Negativland (who coined the term <a
> href="http://dmoz.org/Society/Activism/Media/Culture_Jamming/"> culture
> jamming</a>). Negativland also produced audio for the documentary <a
> href="http://www.negativland.com/ad_and_the_ego/">The Ad and the Ego</a>,
> which screens at the IMC Sept. 8 at 7pm.
>
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