“We Dont Have a Megaphone That's Big Enough ZMagazinetounder discusses alternative media and strategies for media activists Darren Shore, The Link (Concordia University) MONTREAL (CUP)—We live in a world filled with conflicts and change. In order to understand what’s happen- ing, we need media that we can trust. Unfortunately, the mainstream, cor- porate media we know so well has been highly criticized—especially by marginalized groups—for ignoring or misrepresenting many issues, as well as the people involved. Alongside the mainstream, howev- et, is a growing and diversifying movement of alternative and commu- nity-based media consisting of people attempting to counteract this lack of reliable information. Having spent some time volunteer- ing in community radio and the alternative press in Montréal, I have often questioned the role of alterna- tive media, and wondered whether it is able to promote positive social change and adequately communicate issues to society at large. Is alternative media reaching peo- ple outside of the activist milieu? Are we getting through to the people who don’t already agree with us, share our values, or understand the issues we face? Could some of our energy be better spent? I went to the World Social Forum last January in Mumbai, India. There, 100,000 people with similar values gathered to discuss questions like mine. We came to work on strategies, ideas, solutions, and change. At the conference, I got the chance to ask for some perspective from Michael Albert, a guru of sorts when it comes to activism and alternative media. Albert is the founder of Z Magazine and the ZNet website , one of the most comprehensive and_ best-organized sources of alternative information on the internet. “T call it the megaphone problem,” Albert says. “We don’t have a mega- phone that’s big enough so that what we have to say will reach[...Jordinary people. Instead, what we have is so relatively small that the only people who see it are the people who look for it—who almost search for it. As a result, we’re not reaching new main- stream people who are far from us; OCuOber §=G/e200 we're reaching people who are already looking for us.” According to Albert, one of the ways to make alternative media effec- tive is by using it to put pressure on the mainstream media. “Not negotiate with it. Not moralize with it,’ he stresses, “but pressure it (in) exactly the same (way) as pressuring a corpo- ration for higher wages, or pressuring the (International Monetary Fund) for different policies.” Like the growing anti-corporate- Using the Net It is not surprising, says Albert, that producing an alternative mass-media system is not easy, mostly due to lack of resources. However, many have made use of the internet as a way around this problem. One example of web-based alter- native media that is “moving in the right direction,” according to Albert, is the Independent Media Center , an interna- tional collection of independent news YOU WRITE WHAT YOU’RE TOLD! THANKS, NATION-BUILDERS! We Couldn't Control The People Without You Albert believes there is potential for an anti- globalization movement, mainstream-media movement. One that is “demonstrating outside the New York Times or the Globe and Mail and[...Jis literally pressuring main- stream media to have content that is more valuable for its audience.” Another way alternative media can reach out to more people, proposes Albert, is by improving the work done so as to become the preferred option by the public. “Our media (could) be so good and so visible that it embar- (This) makes it much more difficult to be deceptive and exclusive,” he offers. “If rasses mainstream media. people have a generalized knowledge, it becomes clear that mainstream media is lying. So the bigger we get, and the more information we can get out|...]puts more pressure on them.” websites that has been in existence since 1999. There, anyone with online access can post and read news stories, and personal accounts of events such as demonstrations, thus opening up media in new ways. Using the internet in this way has an advantage over creating a news- paper or TV station, which is costly, but attention and visibility are still concerns. “The issue (with) the internet isn’t so much the production costs, as it is people coming across the site,” says Albert. “The reality[...]is that six sites get 50 percent or 60 percent of all traffic: Microsoft, AOL, CNN, Google, and so on. So again, you’re in a situation where it’s hard to get in front of people; it’s hard to get visible. But that’s what we have to do.” Albert believes something bigger than Indymedia could be in the works for media activists, like expanding on the model of the alternative US radio program Democracy Now. That program “reaches potentially, if people tune in to it, millions. But suppose we had 50 Democracy Nows— not all the same, but shows with excellent content, which could reach out to many different people,” he says. “What we need is enough media so that when a normal person encoun- ters progressive, leftist, and truly radical ideas, they don’t seem so absolutely impossible, so outrageous, so different. There has to be enough of that so that people say, ‘OK, that’s something that’s on the table; now I have to assess it’ The minute they assess it, we're OK,” Albert continues. “Tt’s that (alternative media) is so for- eign—it looks like it’s from Pluto—that means that (many people) won't even look at it.” Media activists can overcome these challenges by relying on existing social movements, says Albert. “Our ability to put pressure on mainstream media is dramatically enhanced by actual movements, (by) civil disobedience, by movements pressuring (the corporate media). “It is (also) tremendously enhanced by the existence of wider alternative media, which then lets peo- ple know that there is another truth—I mean, there is a truth. Forget another truth. There is real truth. There is real information|...|People will be looking for the alternative. People will be willing to help with the alternative. So, (both tactics) will assist each other.” Albert acknowledges that current- ly, the bulk of media we are exposed to serves to spew out whatever the elites who control it dictate, with the purposes of selling audiences to advertisers and maintaining the wealth of powerful interests. This is why thinking critically about media in gen- eral is essential. “It’s profoundly important[...]to address how we com- municate with the population, (and) how the population communicates amongst itself. “It’s not easy, but it is the task that we have to do.” OUNEPPPESS | 19