Participants: 

George Gerber, Temple University; Chair, Cultural Environment Movement

"Who's Telling all the Stories"?

Norman Solomon, Institute for Public Accuracy/FAIR

"A Bridge Too Far: Academia and News Media

Robert Hackett, Canadian Project Censored, Simon Frasier University

"Influencing News Discourse: Project Censored Canada as a Pedagogical Academic and Political Intervention."

Peter Phillips, Project Censored, Sonoma State University

"Academia as Ombudsman: Project Censored and American Media Censorship"

DeeDee Halleck, University of California, San Diego

"Building Icebergs in the Path of the Colossus: Strategic Use of Community Media"

George Gerbner led the session with a perspective on the kinds of stories that television tells: "There’s nothing to tell but lots to sell." Television storytelling leaves the poor and the marginalized out of a TV world which is far more affluent than the real world. As a result, people cannot connect to the urban crises plaguing American society. He explained the purpose of the Cultural Environment Movement and how it can contribute to the democratization of media. 

Norman Solomon addressed the crucial role right wing foundations play in insuring a never ending cacophony of right wing voices in the mainstream corporate media. The millions of dollars these foundations spend in influencing media has no counterpart on the left. He discussed the role of the recently formed Institute for Public Accuracy as an attempt to form an extensive list of left wing activists and public intellectuals which will be projected by the institute to bring balance to media discussion of social and political issues. 

Bob Hackett discussed attempts in Canada to promote media democracy. Newswatch Canada drew inspiration from the U.S. Project Censored but has modified the process it uses to expose underreported stories in the Canadian media system. A clarification of what "censorship" entails needs to include the role of the market in shaping coverage -- discouraging coverage of stories which may be critical of a market economic system. 

Peter Phillips of Project Censored (U.S.) gave an update on the concentration of media decision making -- the number of directors at the dozen conglomerates which control media is around 150 people with extensive interlocks between the conglomerates as well as with the larger global corporate system. He argued that in this situation, media reform is impossible and urged extensive grass roots organizing as a way to critique the system and form alternatives to it. 

Dee Dee Halleck’s presentation on "icebergs in the path of the Colossus" provided a view on how progressives throughout the world are using the internet to pubicize their work and demonstrating participatory use of communication technology. She presented slides of Web sites which are helping grassroots groups throughout the world to bring their voice to a global level -- the McDonald’s case in Britain and the website of the Kurdistan diaspora were presented as excellent examples of how people are using the Web to serve human interests. 

(Written by Jim Wittebols)