Media Reclamation Project

Next Media Matters meeting: Thurs Sept 25, 6:30pm
Location: OPIRG-Ottawa, 631 King Edward 3rd floor

Agenda (order to be determined):
- planning for upcoming events (45 min)
- discussion on media issues (45 min)

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Media Updates:

Rabble.ca has launched election coverage at http://rabble.ca/election – but especially see the ‘rabble rouser’ at http://rabble.ca/about_us/about_us.shtml?x=75411 – this is a project of a Media Matters volunteer, and is a project that looks to involved people by having them print and distribute copies of the 2-pg pdf editions every week of the election campaign, all across the country.

An article talking about the lawsuit CanWest is using against some media activists in Vancouver, and about how no-one in the Canadian corporate media is even talking about it.
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18899

An article about upcoming Media Democracy Day celebrations in Toronto.
http://ryersonfreepress.ca/site/archives/19

About the media’s role in Bolivia’s current crisis.
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18822

Free Radio!
http://counterpunch.org/dunifer09132008.html

Reminder and confirmation:

Meeting this Wed (Sept 17) at 6pm
Location: OPIRG-Ottawa office, 631 King Edward (3rd floor, above the Fulcrum)

If you are a student at Univ of Ottawa and can’t make the meeting but are interested in signing up as a ‘potential member’ of Media Matters as a campus club, please come by OPIRG-Ottawa and sign up asap (there will be a sheet in the working groups binder). We need 12 students, 15 people total, by this Friday. You can phone OPIRG-Ottawa at 613 230-3076.

Other notes:

Jesse, who is part of Indymedia Ottawa, and newly employed at The Real News Network, wanted to let people know of the video by a TRNN reporting team of their arrests while covering the protests outside the Republican National Convention in the states:
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2269&updaterx=2008-09-11+14%3A22%3A05

Charles, another person who receives our regular updates, was ready to unsubscribe after seeing our link to ‘Stop Porn Culture’ in the last sendout, but since we admit that we may make mistakes sometimes, he is staying on the list. Here is some of what he had to say about the site and how it might (or might not) fit with our mandate:

“I understood perfectly well that the overlap between Media Matters and the “Stop Porn Culture” group is focused on the concept expressed in the sentence you cite (“Are you ever concerned that mass media reduce women, and increasingly girls, to sexual objects while encouraging men and boys to be sexually callous?”). In isolation, I agree with the virtues expressed in that one sentence. But the goals of the group that produces this website are far broader than can be expressed in this one sentence, and it is these broader goals that draw my concern.

The site uses the extreme case and rational objections like the one you quote to rally support for a ban (be it legislated or de facto) on all pornography. The site’s FAQ supports my interpretation of their aims. For example, they assume that no woman is able to freely decide to participate in pornography, and they patronizingly blame women’s decisions to do so on “the industry that exploits these women” and “cultural context” (FAQ #1). The second-last question in the FAQ assumes that healthy images of sexuality are “imaginary”, and therefore that all images of sexuality (“actual pornography”) are bad, and there is an underlying context that it is wrong to look at sexual images for sexual pleasure.

Sexuality in the mass media and the pornography industry (which includes independent producers) are two very different creatures.

I am all for a natural reduction of the overrepresentation of the “ideal body” and the sexually callous male in the media and the use of sex to sell products, but I will not support a group that hijacks people’s support for those aims in order to push a hardline position that all depictions of sexuality are bad. Furthermore, I think that this position is fundamentally in conflict with Media Matters’ apparent goal to increase media democracy.”

Want to discuss? Email us, come to our meeting, and/or perhaps we can begin having regular media discussions and have this as one of the topics for discussion?

Welcome to the newly-added people to our list, most of whom signed up during Univ of Ottawa’s Alt 101 week! Remeber to check our website at http://mediamattersottawa.org

To keep the momentum going we are looking to have our first meeting of the term, sometime next week – tentatively Wed Sept 17, at 6pm, at OPIRG-Ottawa’s offices: 631 King Edward, 3rd floor (above the Fulcrum). If enough people can’t make it on Wed but would come to a Thurs meeting, same time, we’ll change the date – so please RSVP!

We can talk about the upcoming events we have in the planning stages, including the possibility of a launch party for the Dominion (http://www.dominionpaper.ca/)’s upcoming special issue dedicated to Mining. Other possibilities are: setting up an ongoing (monthly? twice a month?) self-organized, self-educating series of discussions (with speakers?) on media literacy, media issues, and media creation; becoming a campus club (which would mean, amongst other things, free use of rooms on UofOttawa’s campus – we need at least 12 UofOttawa students to sign up as ‘potential members’ to become a club); and more.

And in the meantime, here are some media tidbits to keep you interested:

Report on police actions against media, protesters at Republic National Convention (includes links to videos):
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/05-2

Take back CKLN 88.1FM (community/campus radio station in Toronto):
http://takebackourradio.blogspot.com/

What’s happening to journalism?
http://zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18692

Stop Porn Culture:
http://stoppornculture.org

New Michael Moore movie, being distributed free online:
http://slackeruprising.com/

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Underneath this post, you will find the periodic updates we send out to our mailing list, people interested in staying informed of media issues and activism. To join this list and start receiving emails, please email us at mediamattersottawa(at)gmail.com

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