AMC 2009: Not Your Daddy's J-School

Walter Cronkite died over the weekend. A titan in the world of journalism, in the end he personally outlived the relevancy of the corporate media establishment from whence he made his mark.

I spent the weekend in the ‘D’ at the Allied Media Conference 2009 (AMC09). You could say that what we learned there was not your daddy’s or granddaddy’s journalism – i.e., Walter’s journalism. The conference center at Wayne State University was filled with knowledge, shared knowledge, specifically by, for, and about scores of citizen-journalists from across the U.S. We learned and shared the techniques being used to replace and displace the corporate media that is collapsing after having failed for so long in meeting its public service, truth-telling, and ethical obligations. Corporate newspapers and TV news have slowly realized their readership/viewership has tiptoed out of the room. The targeted audience has taken up community news coverage in its own grassroots manner. You may have read about the trend in the newspaper – if you have one still published in your town and that newspaper covered the story.

Walter would have appreciated the AMC09 citizen-journalists. After all, most of them are starting from the standpoint of opposing U.S. wars and aggression around the globe. The lessons of Vietnam and the failures of U.S. foreign policy – so famously called out by Walter on national TV in his CBS news anchor heyday – are not lost on the AMC09 writers, videographers, artists, and others, most of whom were probably born after the retirement of the “most trusted man in America.”

On Friday I sat next to the young Latina activists from Chicago’s Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and I wonder if most of them would know the name and history of Walter Cronkite. That history, however, doesn’t directly matter in their lives, as the LVEJO activists are too busy tracking and mapping the environmental danger spots buried in and around their neighborhood. If needed later, they can tap into Wikipedia for a quick lesson on Cronkite. In Detroit at AMC09, they brought with them the techniques and strategies used to map and visually depict the environmental injustice in Little Village. After 90 minutes, a room full of activists exited the room with the shared knowledge, ready to map their own local injustices. There’s plenty of injustice to go around.

EDUCATION AND ANALYSIS

That’s what the how-to, can-do part of the conference was like: Want to learn how to start an Internet radio station? Head to the basement, the Prometheus Radio Project will show you how (photo, below right). Next door, you can learn silk screen techniques for advocacy posters or t-shirts from the Beehive Design Collective. Want to jump into the video remix wave? Have a discussion with the Open Youth Networks. Want to build your own radio tower? Grab those pliers. There was no shortage of experienced people – even people sitting right next to you in the room and not necessarily the instructors – willing to teach you a thing or two, or rattle off helpful web site addresses as you scramble to get it all down on paper. What was the web address again? was heard often.

In addition to the learning, there were exchanges of ideas and analysis. The scheduled breakout sessions were supplemented with media-focused caucuses structured to highlight specific interests or groups: Documentary photographers, professional writers, sex workers, the women’s movement and others. There were documentary films shown each day. There were amazing live video conferences scheduled with activists in Palestine, Mexico, and South Africa.

Early Friday evening, the campus auditorium in Detroit was filled with AMC09 activists. In Johannesburg, South Africa, artist/activist Ra Ra spoke with the audience in real time via Internet, as his image was projected on the large theater screen. At the same time, another image was projected showing a scrolling conversation from people posting their own live comments via chat and Twitter. It was an amazing sight and true community conversation. Below is a short video of the live stream action with South Africa. (See various photos here.)

REHEARSAL FOR THE USSF

Organizers from the U.S. Social Forum – which is booked in Detroit for June 22 -26, 2010 – were in attendance at AMC09. I’m sure they wanted to get a feel for the way Detroit can host events and, yes, throw a party. Based on my experience, I would guess the USSF folks walked away pleased with the experience. The AMC09 was well-organized, welcoming to a diverse group of visitors from around the country, and flat out fun. Next year the Allied Media Conference is scheduled for June 17 -20, 2010 in Detroit and will immediately precede the USSF. June 2010 will be “A Detroit Summer,” as I heard some activists already calling it.

I predict next summer will unforgettable, just like the AMC09.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

Real Time Talk With Activists in South Africa

My Inner Journalist

The year 2007 will mark the re-emergence of my Inner Journalist. I moved from snapping pictures to podcasting to posting video clips on the Internet through YouTube, all under the auspices of the Peace Education Center. Now I’m blogging, too, on the web with the “pen” name Rico Thomas Rico. What else is there to do with my spare time? Shovel snow?

There are very few sides to my personality that my wife, Ruth, has not met, and one is my Inner Journalist. The other side she met in recent years is my Inner Ailurophile. We were married a good number of years before we started volunteering at the Capital Area Humane Society (CAHS). Up to that point, Ruth and I had never had any pets, nor ever discussed the topic. My family in Saginaw had cats, dogs, and a chameleon. Ruth’s family never had any pets.

You can imagine Ruth’s surprise when we adopted our first cat, Sassy. We followed by adopting Thumper, who was one step away from being taken home by Claudia the Cat Lady. So, now, let’s just say we have a house full of fur – and it’s not a mink coat for Ruth. If Ruth married me for my bling-bling, all she got was ching-ching. The vet gets the bling-bling.

The Citizen-Journalist
I never imagined when 2007 started that I would interview and report on social activists like Antonia Juhasz, Ray McGovern, Patrick Barrett, Peter Dougherty, Ann Wright, David Cobb, David Korten, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and many others. I’ve had to shake off the rust on-the-fly. My journalistic training, instincts, and nose for news have been slowly returning. I tell Ruth, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

The growth of the citizen-journalist is partly the result of affordable technology, including cameras, recording devices, computers, the Internet, etc. More importantly, it is the result of the “professionals” not doing their jobs well and sometimes not at all. With a little initiative, I’ve found that you can easily scoop the professional press in this town and elsewhere. “Reporters” from the corporate media are constrained by the boundaries they are allowed to cover; they can’t stray too far into the neighborhoods or the truth without getting burned by their editors or corporate HQ or the local power elite. From what I can tell, these corporate reporters hardly venture out into the streets on weekends or evenings, unless they are covering high school sports. As I see it, these corporate reporters are pre-screened “professionals” who are paid to be local establishment cheerleaders, who have the strong tendency to ignore the obvious.

I expect big things from local citizen-journalists in the Greater Lansing area in 2008. I especially look forward to the launch of the local progressive magazine, Amplifx, which is backed by the Center for American Progress. You can also expect to see more Indy media (“independent media”) emanating from the Peace Education Center. As these progressive voices expand their coverage into our homes and neighborhoods, I’ll make this prediction: The status quo’s gonna start to shake and some fur’s gonna fly.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

Who You Callin' A News Hound?