The Philadelphia Public Access Coalition is here..
http://www.phillypublicaccess.org.
It's ridiculous that this is even an issue. I can't believe this took ten years.
Especially what's happening in LA, where public access is essentially an incubator for the industry. Time Warner operates 12 public access stations in LA regional which will be going dark on Dec. 31 unless Villaraigosa grows a pair (or decides he doesn't want to be governor, which ain't ever going to happen.)
That said, I am really really happy that a) people are organizing on media democracy issues in the Hellmouth and b) we are going to have all these public TV channels in Philly real soon. If anyone can reinvent public access, we can.
Friday, December 26, 2008
In Search of the Infinite Wave (new blog!)
After a very long hiatus from blogging I feel like it's time to start writing again. I have been largely unable to write due to the nature of campaign work, with the exception of making caustic commentary on Philly's central political blog, Young Philly Politics. Although that has been fun, it's also been frustrating because the reader-to-writer ratio is so astronomical, and I can't write about baseball or California politics there. I feel like political writing should be public, so here I am again.
I've also gotten into a new field - media policy - which is a perfect fit for my background and interests. A lot of what I write on this blog will probably be a record of my discoveries within this field, which is still in many ways still in the beginning stages of its development. It's funny to finally come to this after reading McLuhan 15 years ago, but in the interim I have learned 15 years of educational, organizing, political, fundraising, legal, and writing techniques, and I am very excited to be able to use them. I do like a challenge, and organizing on something as archaic as media reform (gotta find a new term) should be very difficult indeed.
That said, I think 50 percent of the organizing challenge is message. Just talking about this stuff is difficult. People's Production House has a great, charming educational film called "The Internet is Serious Business," with stop-motion photography of Skittles moving around on pencil lines to show Internet traffic and the importance of net neutrality. It was great, but what I didn't understand was why there weren't more videos like this - especially in a field where the people doing the politics are all writers, filmmakers, musicians, etc! We should be damn near expert at communicating.
I think the first campaign is going to be radio. It looks like the most important place to start.
I've also gotten into a new field - media policy - which is a perfect fit for my background and interests. A lot of what I write on this blog will probably be a record of my discoveries within this field, which is still in many ways still in the beginning stages of its development. It's funny to finally come to this after reading McLuhan 15 years ago, but in the interim I have learned 15 years of educational, organizing, political, fundraising, legal, and writing techniques, and I am very excited to be able to use them. I do like a challenge, and organizing on something as archaic as media reform (gotta find a new term) should be very difficult indeed.
That said, I think 50 percent of the organizing challenge is message. Just talking about this stuff is difficult. People's Production House has a great, charming educational film called "The Internet is Serious Business," with stop-motion photography of Skittles moving around on pencil lines to show Internet traffic and the importance of net neutrality. It was great, but what I didn't understand was why there weren't more videos like this - especially in a field where the people doing the politics are all writers, filmmakers, musicians, etc! We should be damn near expert at communicating.
I think the first campaign is going to be radio. It looks like the most important place to start.
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