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<back | home Forget the Mainstream and Pursue Independent Media by Bob Banner (Bob Banner was invited to speak about the media to a newly established group in Santa Barbara calling itself "Reining in Corporate Power." The following is an abridged version of that speech.) We know about the problems. I won’t go into them. And, thankfully, we have many people working on these problems already. We have people reporting on the ongoing FCC decisions, we have the public demanding more from their NPR affiliates, we have people who criticize the corporate ownership of the media. Is it six corporations or has it gone down to four or five since the last time I looked? It certainly isn’t 11 as Howard Dean has been reported to say. We had the recent Media Reform Conference in Madison, Wisc., where people can read the findings, reports, analyses, etc., including the excellent speech by Bill Moyers (go to http://www.mediareform.net/). We also have people who are weary with criticizing and continually focusing on the problems and who are doing something about them. We have an upsurge of activity in the independent media scene. People starting papers, websites, and radio stations. (Since KCBX will only air Democracy Now! one day a week and since people in SLO are not as lucky as you here in Santa Barbara who can get KCSB and KPFK, a local LPFM station has just been birthed in SLO, carrying DN! five days a week, as well as Free Speech Radio News, five days a week, and they are now requesting local programs). HopeDance already has a slot of time, so if you have any audio or a music hour show, see me afterwards. We have public access TV, Cyber radio, Satellite TV with stations like LinkTV, FSTV (FreeSpeech TV), UCTV, Wisdom, and more. Of course Direct TV has just been bought up by Rupert Murdock but DISH TV is still independent, the last time I looked. [Contact freespeech.org or call 888-550-FSTV to get free installation of the dish plus 2 free months.] We also have groups that are extending the life of excellent and powerful documentaries and new independent films by either showing the films in their homes as houseparties, getting a place like Muddy Waters to show films for free or like Art’s Party at the Friendship Manor in Isla Vista. In San Luis we have created a traveling theater where we can go anywhere to show films, at bars, churches, basements, libraries and even outside. We’ve had successful "film festivals." We show 3-4 films on a Saturday evening or 10 films in a 3-evening spread. The Arab Middle East film festival was great. We had a George W. Bush festival. We recently had a behind-the-scenes festival as well as a Latin American festival, and they were all sell-outs. The money goes back to the community to various causes or back to HopeDance. We wrote an ebook about it, and Clamor magazine will be publishing a piece about it this month. The point is not just showing films but creating a gathering place where networking, coalition building, stretching out and strengthening various movements can happen. It’s called becoming the media. And we are not just showing political films. If we were, we would get the same people in the audience over and over, and it would soon get boring. We need to include the spiritual people, the ecologists, the social-justice types, the sustainability folks and the peace people. We need cross pollinating (in fact Gary Paul Nabhan is coming out with a book called Cross Pollinating.) This reminds me of when I went to see David Orr and Jim Hightower at Sol Fest in northern California this past summer. Jim Hightower was speaking about solutions rather than staying in the typical social justice arena where problems are about 90% of the speeches. David Orr, who is an environmental educator, was speaking about civil liberties and genuine patriotism. His new book, out in April, is called LAST REFUGE: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror. Yes, cross pollinating will strengthen our causes. It will get the spiritual people politicized, the political people spiritualized, the enviro people into permaculture, and the crop circle people to understand cover crops. All of this thus far is to give you a broad sweep of grassroots independent media (and I haven’t even discussed the hundreds of indymedia web sites throughout the world that give us immediate and grassroots reporting and video streaming on numerous events throughout the globe; see the SBarbara Indy Media in this issue) and neither have I discussed the numerous animators and film-makers who are putting together profound short films that portray the dire straits we are in. We used a number of animations we discovered on the internet for our George Bush Festival, and they were wildly received! Check out Eric Blumrich’s website or Bush in 30 seconds.org where Moveon has filed away the finalists in its contest to put a powerful message on CNN [the complete list of finalists as well as extra footage of various celebrities highlighting the moveon 30 second commercials are now available. We will be showing segments of the DVD during our film gigs.] However their desire to air it on the Superbowl has been denied by CBS because of their advocacy format. People are taking their cameras, their pens, their computer expertise, their low-powered radio equipment, their printing presses and other forms that we may not even be able to conceive of currently, all to voice the voiceless... and since the dominant voice is getting narrower, it’s leaving more and more diverse voices voiceless. I don’t want to focus on the bad news about corporate media. You can simply go to numerous resources that expose the seriousness of the undemocratic control of our media. Please go to: FAIR.org, /CounterSpin, mediareform.net, alternet, or zmag.org, for example. The two best urls that have a comprehensive list of alternative media sources are robertmcchesney.com and commondreams.org. What I want to focus on are two questions: 1. how does media make us feel 2. and what does media make us do? or, in other words, how does the media create us? The term Media encompasses many media. It means the emails we get, the newspapers and magazines we read or browse, the novel that sits on our bed stand, the music we hear and dance to, the art we ponder, the independent films we may encounter on POV or Independent Lens on PBS or LINK TV or FSTV or the radio programs we listen to... or the stories we tell each other when we actually get together for lunch or coffee, if in fact people still do that sort of thing. I actually had to create a formal "men’s group" so my friends and I could physically have a place to hang out for two hours every other week. So how does this media make us feel: tired, wasted, uplifted, drained, inspired, despairing, angry, useless, hopeless, geared up for action, wanting to murder someone, wishing to hide under a rock and join that monastery you read about last week? Do we take responsibility for what media we choose to take in? If we want to be angry do we know where we can go... and if we hang out there for hours is this a progressive use of our time? If we wish to stay uninformed there are a plethora of media that will entertain us. Are we aware of this? Do we judge ourselves for this? Do we glum onto a media we think is truthful and politically correct and simply pay no attention to the psychic and emotional consequences? Media is like food. How come we usually think of health only in terms of physical health? It’s time to think of a healthy media diet and learn to discriminate as much as we do with the food we eat. Ten years ago my rented studio needed to be tented, so my landlord paid for a nearby Motel 6 for a night. At the time, I didn’t have a TV. As I got settled into the room, I turned the TV on. It was Phil Donahue, and his show was about Media, Violence and the Evening News. A panel of six white men were on stage. I would have turned it off except for one guy who appeared a bit different: no tie, no suit, Levi’s and boots. Donahue introduced him as someone who had turned away from the madness of media and taken a different path. So I stayed tuned even though he was the last person to speak. He said he had begun to feel there was something terribly wrong in the media industry. He wasn’t sure of the specifics, but he needed a break. What was originally a two-week vacation turned out to be a year-and-a-half sabbatical. He realized in that time that the media was instrumental in fomenting violence and the craziness of the world. He also realized he needed to read stories of hope and inspiration. He started a publication called the Good News Gazette (or something like that). He didn’t even need to hire reporters since there were already good news stories being reported by AP and UPI but they just weren’t getting front page coverage. The guy not only looked comfortable but healthy, not in a rebellious way but as one who goes in a different direction, listening to a different drummer. This story was instrumental for me since it taught me about mental health, the mental environment, what we ingest by way of stories. News and images influence us a lot, and he had the courage to break away from the dominant paradigm and do something different, discerning what he needed to take in for his mental health. It’s similar to certain Buddhists who speak about the importance of discerning what we allow in, whether it’s images, food, music, etc. We have choices. We are created by the media we take in. The question for me is: Is the media I am consuming making me a better person, an angry person, an acquiescent person? Adbusters Magazine helped me along the way because it gave its readers a critical perspective on what we were inundating ourselves with in terms of commercials, news stories, etc. Adbusters focuses on the mental environment, which to me is just as important as the eco environment. We trash our minds like we trash the environment. We trash our environment like we trash our minds. Before I get into the "doing" aspect of media I wish to say that there are many levels of sensitivity to the feelings we have when we absorb the diverse realms of media. Some people are more sensitive than others. Some can take Democracy Now! only once a week. Are we going to judge them for that? Perhaps some people need to hear KPFK 12 hours a day. I don’t know. What I do know is that each of us has to listen to our own inner media and trust what it says we need. Do we need to get more - or less - angry? Do we need to focus on understanding the problems more, or ought we say enough is enough and pay attention to the solutions? Do we need more quiet time to tune into our own intuitive media, or do I really need to check in with Fox occasionally to see what kind of media they are offering millions of viewers? After we become more acquainted with our feelings after viewing or hearing a specific media, then let’s take a look at our behavior: what do we do afterwards? Do we jump up and write a letter to the editor? Send an email to our progressive listservs? Call our congressperson? Does it leave us so hopeless that we want to slit our throats? Does any of the media we take in affect our work, our relationships, how we spend our money, how we vote or don’t vote, what book we will read next, what subject we wish to ponder and investigate, what article or story we will read or write next? Is it the responsibility of journalists and publishers to be aware of the consequences of an article they write/publish? For example, I recall talking with a filmmaker who defended himself against the criticism of his documentary that he offered no solution, no uplifting tone whatsoever. He told me he did not want to allow people to feel they were off the hook. He wanted his audience to feel shame at the end of the film. If there was indeed a solution, he thought the viewer would be left off the hook. His implication was that shame was a good motivator for action. So, that brings up a subject about shame, guilt and solutions. What will encourage people to change for the long term? Do we plaster photos of alien-looking children from Iraq due to the Depleted Uranium we have been using? Will this change people? Will this shock people? Are we into the same shock and awe that our government insists is necessary to oust evil. Perhaps some people will be motivated by guilt and shame and anger while others will need to see the solutions before they act. We just don’t know how people will respond. I recall that Earth Island Journal mailed out a survey recently and found that many people wrote in that they could no longer bear the hard-hitting and disturbing news, which left them feeling hopeless. The readers’ suggestions to the editorial staff was that they needed to know what they could do. I often hear this complaint in other media as well. What about the solutions? What about what we can do? A year ago the same thing happened to the New Internationalist magazine. The following comes from a story we published in HD a year ago: <<In the latest issue of New Internationalist, a monthly international magazine subtitled "the action in the fight for global justice," the focus is "Getting It Right," all about Solutions. The editor Chris Richards writes in her editorial that at a conference she had attended, there was one workshop where people spoke about what kind of workshops they wanted to create. When it came to Bridie’s turn to speak, she told the circle of activists about her sister who was so full of dread and despair at the meaningless of it all that she wouldn’t go outside anymore and fervently believed the word would end within her lifetime. Bridie said she wanted to create a workshop where her sister could embrace hope once again. The editor goes on to say that if we continually pile up the world’s problems in front of the public, especially young people, they will eventually give up. Because Ms. Richards was so moved by Bridie’s call for alternative visions and solution-oriented activities, the current edition of NI is dedicated to inspiring stories which can give hope to readers, both young and old.>> [See the summaries of some of those stories below.] Theodore Roszak did a similar study where he discovered that people will react out of shame and guilt, but it will be short lived [eco-activists, "their habitual reliance on gloom, apocalyptic panic, an the psychology of shame takes a heavy toll in public confidence."]. We need vision; we need solutions. We need to say yes as well as no. We can refuse all we want, but where are we going if we don’t say yes to something different? And there are a number of organizations and publications and radio and TV stations that are responding to this new demand. For example, Yes magazine in the States, The Ecologist and Resurgence out of England and Ode from the Netherlands which publishes in three languages. Check them out. Global Exchange is very much into positive action, so much so that they have organized three very successful green festivals in San Francisco and Austin. [In fact we in SLO are organizing a similar event on June 5th, see the material in this issue.] There is something about positive stories that need some attention and I don’t mean the puppy sentimental stories at the end of most of your evening news outlets. I mean stories that fight the fight and win or simply win and become inspirational. I wasn’t even aware of positive stories until I came across the positive futures listserv via Yes magazine in 1996. The stories blew me away. I recall just sitting there gleaming and beaming with a hope that bolted through my veins. The new mantra "Another world is possible" genuinely penetrated into my psyche. Granted, back then I needed little to uplift me but I also realize now that I need a steady diet since I have an uncomfortable obsession with despair... My early college days I spent reading, studying and majoring in Nihilism. Herbert Marcuse’s negative critiques were enough to lay out a firm foundation of negativity and hopelessness. So I know I need regular doses of good news. Also, I need to observe in myself and others how easily our conversations move to complaining and bitching. If I leave anything with you this evening it would be this. Be aware of the complaining. It reminds me of the Michael Moore film where he takes his hat off scrubbing his head saying "I can’t take the complaining anymore!" It’s all around us. The complaining is like the air we breathe. Oftentimes I will interject a solution into a conversation, and it feels like I’ve either said the wrong thing or it takes all the wind out of those who have made it their purpose in life to be the bearers of bad news. Do we even want solutions? Do we not want to hear the good stories? Are we so afraid to feel hopeful? Is it not politically correct to be positive and hopeful and even inspired or inspiring? Are we so afraid to feel the incredible solidarity that happens when things actually work out. Are we so intent on saying No that we have no room for the Yes? I personally have become weary of my peculiar obsession to say No. I want a Yes. I want to see visionaries and their manifestations of those visions into the world. That is also the reason why I started HopeDance — for a very selfish reason: to restore my mental health! Look what Moveon has achieved, raising 3/4 of a million dollars for selling the important documentary UNCOVERED in only a few days. The film doesn’t cover the whole truth (since they totally left out the Israeli and oil connection), but at least it’s a major coup where an organization can create 2600 houseparties in a matter of a few days, and it will be up to us to keep the effort radical and effective. Look at Global Exchange: creating their fourth store in California; organizing tours to other countries to learn about their culture and politics, and orchestrating global justice rallies and actions against the murderous policies of the IMF, World Bank and WTO. Just a note here: take a look at The Blood Bankers by James Henry, a new book I predict will become another bible of the global justice movement, exposing the extreme repercussions of those policies on the South. Just a snippet from the book: The first world now accounts for just 16% of the world’s population but receives more than 81% of its income. 497 billionaires are worth more than 1.5 trillion dollars more than the imputed wealth of the world’s 600 million poorest citizens. (forbes.com) Look at the greenfestivals where more than 250 businesses gathered in SF this past November, with excellent speakers, businesses that are making a right livelihood by making a difference. One such is American Apparel which makes T-shirts and other clothing in LA at fair wages (and they now have an organic line that is the same price). Check out their mission statement. An excerpt from their website: <<Our global philosophy and Political Mission: At American Apparel, we make "Sweatshop Free" T-shirts. Our goal is to seek profits through innovation not exploitation. We are advancing a hyper capitalist-socialist business fusion. By relentlessly pursuing efficiencies in management and production, we aim to demonstrate that the use of exploitative labor tactics is not only unnecessary but actually counterproductive. We recognize that over-reliance on low-wage and ill-treated labor— like slavery at the time of the Civil War— impedes progress and technological advancement by relying on an outmoded and inhumane way of thinking about human potential that continues to cripple third-world countries and consumer values. >> Also at the festival were a number of cooperatives going to South America and helping create T-shirt cooperatives while enjoying a right livelihood .... The Fair Trade coffee and chocolate movement is blossoming. As is the use of biodiesel in trucks in the city of Berkeley or of tree-free or new-leaf paper that is creating 100% recycled paper for newspaper and magazine production. And of course for numerous positive stories, check out the Bioneers conference that will knock your organic socks off. Learn about how water pollution is being healed by using plant and animal life via John Todd’s Living Machines, or about William McDonough and Ray Anderson’s type of carpeting that uses no toxins and can be returned to the earth instead of to the landfill. There are also new methodologies in communication so people can work together more harmoniously rather than getting bogged down in ego posturing. We certainly know that activist groups need this kind of learning. Non-violent communication and compassionate listening are two that are having many successes. Anita Roddick premiered her new TV show called Take It Personally, featuring John Sellers of the Ruckus Society, Medea Benjamin and Kevin Danaher, both from Global Exchange. She also has a book publishing company; her latest book, "Take It Personally," features a number of the anti-globalization heroes. People are stopping WalMart, people are coming together in SFrancisco to build a greenmart so green festivals are not just annual events but can happen every day. Go to greenmart.us for details. People are fighting "corporations as personhood." Two cases have won in the US. Thom Harmann has written a book about it called "Unequal Protection" where lawyers have already written out the ordinances to make it easy for activists to rally city councils and concerned citizens. These are powerful tools to cripple corporations. Another book that just came out that can be downloaded freely is called "Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy" by Ted Nace. He spells out how corporations started, how they got their power and what efforts can alter their growing power. See an excerpt in issue #42, "Eliminating Corporate Control." Also, what they have done in Arcata with Measure F ought to be a rallying cry for all city councils throughout this country. See the Arcata Revolution in issue #41 of HopeDance. Do these snapshots of what is happening not infuse hope into your veins? Wouldn’t you rather do something knowing that your efforts are part of a larger movement? Let’s stop momentarily the notion that mainstream is the only place to get news. Pursue the independent media outlets. It’s getting easier and easier. Very much like fair-trade coffee. It’s becoming more and more available. And the more we support it, the more it will grow! I would like to conclude this talk with an excerpt from Starhawk whose courage and actions and writings are prolific and energizing. And she has become a symbol of that cross pollination between spirituality, politics, global justice and the sustainability movements! "The counterspell for fear is courage: facing the possibility of the worst and then going ahead with what you know is right. The counterspell for despair is action in service of a vision. The counterspell for paralysis is stubborn, persistent passion. Even if we’re wrong, if nothing we do does makes a difference, courage and passion are a better place to be than hopelessness, cynicism and fear. If the authorities repress us, that’s better than becoming people who repress ourselves. If we see our dreams ripped out of our hands, that’s better than never daring to dream at all. "And if we tell our own stories with enough intensity and focus, we’ll start to believe them, and so will others. We’ll break the spells that bind us. We’ll start to want that other world we say is possible with such intensity that nothing can stop us or deny us. All it takes is our willingness to act from vision, not from fear, to risk hoping, to dare to act for what we love." This comes from a longer piece called "Spells and Counterspells: Why Act Now?" at http://www.starhawk.org. Highlights of the New Inter-nationalist "Solutions" issue include: 1) Factories in Argentina are being taken over by the employees and edging toward workers’ councils. When the situation got so bad economically, many of the owners did not return to the factories. During the alleged cancellation of work, either the workers would leave the factories peacefully and become a statistic of the more than 22% unemployed or occupy the building and keep working. At the Brukman factory, for example, the workers decided to stay on, and their wages increased from two pesos a week to more than 100 pesos. And it has been reported that around 110 factories across Argentina are doing the same thing. 2) Pupils at a primary school in China (in 1985) sent a letter to the mayor that the Funan River was polluted by an assortment of factories along the river. The children appealed to all citizens and companies to clean up their act. The mayor responded. His letter was published in the media. Other students in other schools near the river followed their example. More in-depth reporting resulted from the children’s original pleas. Seven years later the government acted — 488 polluting factories were closed while 478 others were ordered to update their waste-disposal technology. Shanty houses along the river were bulldozed. 100,000 residents moved into modern homes for free. Grasslands replaced the shanty houses. As years moved on, environmental protection increased as well as community support. Now the river is clean and the adjacent area is used for sightseeing, weddings and morning exercises. All because of some concerned children! 3) To ease tension and constant battles between Hutus and Tutsis, Adrien Tuyaga, whose mother was a Tutsi and whose father was a Hutu, decided to create youth soccer matches that included both ethnics. Because of this, much understanding and compassion has occurred especially when "trauma counseling" complemented efforts to reintegrate the youth into their communities. 4) Peace Brigades is an international volunteer organization which works in conflict zones across the world to "make space for peace," as well as to protect human rights activists in their day-to-day activities. Go to www.peacebrigades.org for details. 5) In Ahmedabad, India, the February, 2002, a massacre between Muslim and Hindus occurred where 2,000 people were killed and 100,000 were displaced. Father Prakash spearheaded initiatives promoting interfaith harmony by creating peace committees to counter the inflammatory propaganda spread by each side. When rumors hit the streets, the peace committees sprang into action to begin the process of "myth busting" as an antidote to fears and mistrust that often lead to violence. This report comes from the author of "War Prevention Works" (reviewed in HopeDance) [go to www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk for details]. 6) Iceland reported in 1999 that it will become the world’s first hydrogen society by replacing the island’s buses, cars and boats with hydrogen- fuel-cell-powered vehicles and vessels over the next 30 years. It hopes to become the Kuwait of the North, exporting hydrogen to Europe and other countries. The islands of Hawaii and Vanuatu are following Iceland’s lead. 7) In Bogota, Colombia, 120 kilometers of main city arteries are now closed to motor vehicles for a seven hours each Sunday so people can bicycle, jog and get together. The first Thursday of every February will be set aside as a Car Free Day. To read the full stories in the current issue of New Internationalist, go to their website at www.newint.org. Bob Banner is author of BECOMING THE MEDIA, publisher of HopeDance, and director of HopeDance Media which orchestrates film gatherings in the tri-county area. He can be reached at (805)544-9663 or editor@hopedance.org. <back | top^ home | current issue | subscribe | books | events | contact us