Issues
- Holding Big Media Accountable to Community Needs
Works to ensure that local radio, TV and newspaper outlets are meeting the needs of diverse communities. Tactics include conducting media monitoring, convening town hall forums and meetings with media representatives, and when appropriate, organizing for changes at outlets that are not fulfilling their public interest obligations.
Mega-corporations exacerbate the digital divide with discriminatory redlining practices. MA works to bridge the digital divide and make sure the Internet stays open for us all by intervening in regulatory forums at the local state and regional level, calling for corporate accountability and helping local communities organize for a better deal from the companies, including choice, price, and reliability.
Initially founded as a legal defense committee for journalists under fire, MA supports media workers in organizing for better working conditions, freedom from government harassment, and increased resources for rigorous, investigative, community-based reporting with a particular emphasis on community media.
Tracking, spying and profiling are turning the liberatory power of electronic communications into a nightmare for activists, whistleblowers and other vulnerable communities. MA is leading on local responses to bulk surveillance, police militarization, predictive algorithms, social media monitoring and crackdowns on free expression, the right to dissent and biometrics.
- Social Media Accountability
Through FUU-People Power and other projects, Media Alliance calls for increased accountability from social media platforms to users and viewers to reduce harm.
- Training and Media Capacity Building
Media Alliance offers workshops for groups of five or more. MA provides capacity building training to under-represented groups to reframe media myths and deliver authentic first-voice expression on social justice issues.
Media Alliance supports community-based arts and media projects with fiscal sponsorship services.
Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popular and relevant to a local, specific audience but is often overlooked by commercial or mass-media broadcasters. Community radio stations are operated, owned, and influenced by the communities they serve. They are generally nonprofit and provide a mechanism for enabling individuals, groups, and communities to tell their own stories, to share experiences and, in a media-rich world, to become creators and contributors of media.
Alternative media are media sources that differ from established or dominant types of media in terms of their content, production, or distribution. Sometimes the term independent media is used as a synonym, indicating independence from large media corporations, but this term is also used to indicate media enjoying freedom of the press and independence from government control. Alternative media does not refer to a specific format and may be inclusive of print, audio, film/video, online/digital and street art, among others. Some examples include the counter-culture zines of the 1960s, ethnic and indigenous media such as the First People's television network in Canada, and more recently online open publishing journalism sites such as Indymedia.
Internet censorship in Tunisia significantly decreased in January 2011, following the ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, as the new acting government removed filters on social networking sites such as YouTube.
Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, indigenous, and traditional knowledge; freedom of information, building of open knowledge resources, including open Internet and open standards, and open access and availability of data; preservation of digital heritage; respect for cultural and linguistic diversity, such as fostering access to local content in accessible languages; quality education for all, including lifelong and e-learning; diffusion of new media and information literacy and skills, and social inclusion online, including addressing inequalities based on skills, education, gender, age, race, ethnicity, and accessibility by those with disabilities; and the development of connectivity and affordable ICTs, including mobile, the Internet, and broadband infrastructures".
Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The organization which focuses on topics such as the rights of individual users in relation to technology policy, with the potential to affect the architecture of the Internet. The CDT has established a set of five key objectives which the organization is centered around. As described on the organization’s website, their first objective is to focus on promoting any legislation that may enable individuals to use technology for purposes of well-intent, while at the same time preventing its usage for harmful purposes. CDT’s second objective is to advocate for transparency, accountability, and a regard for human rights in the context of online platforms; this objective places a particular emphasis on setting a precedent for limiting the collection of the personal information of the average user. CDT’s third objective is to mitigate issues of online media censorship by governments, along with enabling individuals to access information freely without retaliation or punishment. Their fourth objective is to limit the ability of governments to perform surveillance activities on citizens. Lastly, their fifth objective is to highlight the importance of maintaining and supporting the globalized nature of the internet. These objectives are further defined within in the CDT’s six areas of focus including, Cybersecurity and standards, Equity in civic technology, free expression, government surveillance, open internet, privacy, and data.
Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other or share some common problem come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest.
The Prometheus Radio Project is a non-profit advocacy and community organizing group with a mission to resist corporate media consolidation and radio homogenization in the United States. Founded in 1998 by a small group of radio activists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Prometheus has participated in the community radio movement by providing technical training, helping marginalized communities gain access to affordable media outlets, and creating a network of low power community radio stations. A lot of Prometheus' efforts have focused on legal advocacy for low-power FM (LPFM) stations.
The Tunisia Monitoring Group (IFEX-TMG) is a coalition of 21 free-expression organisations that belong to the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), a global network of non-governmental organisations that promotes and defends the right to freedom of expression and freedom of the press.
Global Exchange was founded in 1989 and is an advocacy group, human rights organization, and a 501(c)(3) organization, based in San Francisco, California, United States. The group defines its mission as, "to promote human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice around the world." Global Exchange deals with a wide range of issues, ranging from the U.S. war in Iraq to worker abuse and fair trade issues.
The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) is an initiative that attempts to "galvanize international action against extremism" through the forging of international, intercultural and interreligious dialogue and cooperation. The Alliance places a particular emphasis on defusing tensions between the Western and Islamic worlds.
The United States Social Forum is an ongoing series of gatherings of social justice activists in the United States which grew out of the World Social Forum process, bringing together activists, organizers, people of color, working people, poor people, and indigenous people from across the United States. Its purpose is to build unity around common goals of social justice, build ties between organizations at the event, and help build a broader social justice movement. Planning for the first event was spearheaded by the organization Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide, and involved dozens of other organizations around the United States. The Forum defines itself as "a movement-building process. It is not a conference but it is a space to come up with the peoples’ solutions to the economic and ecological crisis. The USSF is the next most important step in our struggle to build a powerful multi-racial, multi-sectoral, inter-generational, diverse, inclusive, internationalist movement that transforms this country and changes history."
The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) is a nonprofit advocacy organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., U.S., that describes itself as "an advocate for and with the working poor around the world." ILRF, formerly the "International Labor Rights Education & Research Fund", was founded in 1986, and the organization's mission statement reads: "ILRF believes that all workers have the right to a safe working environment where they are treated with dignity and respect, and where they can organize freely to defend and promote their rights and interests. ILRF works to develop practical and effective tools to assist workers in winning enforcement of protections for their basic rights, and hold labor rights violators accountable."
Community media are any form of media that function in service of or by a community. It is the rise of all kinds of alternative, oppositional, participatory and collaborative media practices that have developed in the journalistic context of ‘community media,’ ‘we media,’ ‘citizens media,’ ‘grassroot journalism’ or any radical alternative to on and offline mainstream journalistic practices. In other words, it is having access to or creating local alternatives to mainstream broadcasting, like local community newspapers, radio stations, or magazines. Community Media aids in the process of building citizenship and raising social awareness. "Participation" and "access" are a large aspect in the rise of community media. Those who create media are being encouraged to involve themselves in providing a platform for others to express views. Community media is often given parameters when being defined by groups, but often challenges these boundaries with its broad yet narrow structure.
Public humanities is the work of engaging diverse publics in reflecting on heritage, traditions, and history, and the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of civic and cultural life. Public humanities is often practiced within federal, state, nonprofit and community-based cultural organizations that engage people in conversations, facilitate and present lectures, exhibitions, performances and other programs for the general public on topics such as history, philosophy, popular culture and the arts. Public Humanities also exists within universities, as a collaborative enterprise between communities and faculty, staff, and students.
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA) is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that mobilizes the Jewish community of the region to advance racial and economic justice. JCUA partners with diverse community groups across the city and state to combat racism, antisemitism, poverty and other forms of systemic oppression, through grassroots community organizing, youth education programs, and community development.
Most Azerbaijanis receive their information from mainstream television, which is unswervingly pro-government and under strict government control. According to a 2012 report of the NGO "Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS)" Azerbaijani citizens are unable to access objective and reliable news on human rights issues relevant to Azerbaijan and the population is under-informed about matters of public interest.
The World Forum for Democracy is a gathering each November in Strasbourg, France to debate the complex challenges facing democracies today and foster democratic innovation. The Forum is hosted by the Council of Europe and brings together members of civil society, political leaders and representatives of business, academia, media and professional groups. Past editions have revolved around themes such as "Bridging the gap: democracy between old models and new realities", "Re-wiring Democracy: connecting institutions and citizens in the digital age" and "From participation to influence: can youth revitalise democracy?".
Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide is a non-profit organization based in Atlanta, Georgia that incorporates sociological research into education and organizing projects. Project South focuses on developing activist strategies in response to social issues in the Southern region of the United States. The organization was founded in 1986 by Jerome Scott and Walda Katz-Fishman.
Women in media are individuals who participate in media. Media are the collective communication outlets or tools used to store and deliver information or data. The role of women in media revolves around the four axes of media: media freedom, media pluralism, media independence, and media safety. Women in media do not face the same difficulties and threats as men, but also experience gender inequalities, safety issues, or under-representation.
The Ontario Party is a minor social conservative, fiscal conservative and right-wing populist political party in the Canadian province of Ontario, founded in 2018.
