Media Democracy Festival
To help build a movement for Media Democracy we're holding a big Media Democracy Festival at Goldsmiths University on October 17th 2015.
Note: this event will be filmed (and if all goes according to plan, live streamed), by attending you agree to being filmed.
9am - 10am: Arrivals/ registration - Great Hall
Speakers
10am - 11.30am: Great Hall
The day will start with some great speakers setting the scene and explaining why Media Democracy is so important. Confirmed speakers include:
Deputy Leader of the Green Party and media reform activist Amelia is the youngest deputy leader of any UK political party, and was elected aged 29 while still a member of the Young Greens. She is committed to youth engagement, and making young peoples’ voices heard both in politics and within the Green Party.
A designer & social entrepreneur creating independent technologies that protect our fundamental freedoms & democracy.
Professor of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, Co-Director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre and Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy, a founding member of the Media Reform Coalition and Board Director of Hacked Off.
Kam Sandhu
A journalist and co-founder of Real Media, an independent news website and aggregator that campaigns for public interest journalism and against mass media distortion. Kam has written and produced several short documentaries, and also founded RealFare, where she spent over two years reporting on the effects of austerity on welfare and inequality before Real Media.
Michelle is the elected general secretary of the National Union of Journalists (UK and Ireland). Michelle worked as a journalist for 10 years at the Sunday Express newspaper as feature writer and books editor.
11.30am - 12pm: Break, and the great chair re-arrange, Great Hall
Open Space Unconference
12 - 6pm: Great Hall (with breakout sessions in various classrooms)
The bulk of the day will be a self-organising open space unconference facilitated by Johnnie Moore. Everyone will be free to propose a session that answers our central question: How can we create media democracy?
Sessions already lined-up include:
- Drew Rose from Bristol Cable and Danielle Batist from Positive News (and the Constructive Journalism Project) doing a session on Media Co-ops.
- Andy Williams from Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies and Sam Kinch from Hastings Independent on Community Journalism.
- Jonathan Heawood from IMPRESS and Natalie Fenton from Hacked Off with an update on Leveson and why a recognised press regulator could be good for small publishers.
- Mike Flood Page of Open Democracy's OurBeeb will be asking does public service broadcasting have a future?
- Matteo Bergamini from Shout Out UK's and Susana Giner from Youth Media Agency on Changing Perceptions of the Youth in the Media.
- Open Democracy's Adam Ramsay on How Climate Change is Reported in the Media.
- Richard Hering from visionOntv on How to Build the Citizen TV Revolution.
- Bectu Writers, Producers and Directors branch members Chester Yang and Marcus Relton on their plans for a progressive internet TV station in partnership with the trade unions.
- Gail Bradbrook from Compassionate Revolution on collective acts of civil disobedience and media reform, looking at the legal side of sabotaging the media, brainstorming cheerful subversive actions.
- Kerry-Anne Mendoza and Roja Buck will be introducing their brand new independent media outlet The Canary.
- Amit Singh and Mike Pope from Consented on how alternative media platforms can circumvent the mainstream.
Film
Alongside the open space they'll be screenings of related documentaries including:
The Fourth Estate with a Q&A with Director Lee Salter
El Diario de Agustin (Agustin's Newspaper), with a Q&A hosted by Alborada.
Plus:
10 minute summary presentations running on a loop from Centre for Investigative Journalism:
The Centre for Investigative Journalism – An introduction to the organisation
Data Stories - Using data to find, write and explain news stories, from Excel to SQL
Interactive Storytelling - The cutting edge of innovation in digital narrative methods
Advanced Online Research - Tips and tricks for getting the most out of the internet
The FOIA: Problems and pitfalls - Getting the most out of your requests.
Information Security – Keeping your communication secure
Company Accounts – ‘Follow The Money’ investigations into illicit finance
Workshops
Half hour taster sessions run by the Centre for Investigative Journalism.
15:00-15:30
Data Stories - Using data to find, write and explain news stories, from Excel to SQL, led by Juliet Ferguson.
15:30-16:00
The FOIA: Problems and pitfalls - Getting the most out of your requests, led by Sid Ryan.
16:00-16:30
Interactive Storytelling - The cutting edge of innovation in digital narrative methods, led by Marina Calland.
16:30-17:00
Information Security – Keeping your communication secure, led by Tom Sanderson.
Party (and live crowdfunding)
6pm - late.
Live crowdfunding of media projects, spoken word, live music, and DJs. In the evening we're partnering with Filanthropy to organise a party from 6pm - late in the Student Union. This will include the opportunity for 3 projects to pitch to the room and invite pledges of financial and other support from the crowd (who will be able to decide which projects get £5 of their ticket money, plus anything else they feel inspired to contribute).
If you've got a media project that could really do with £500-1000 to help get you started then APPLY NOW for your chance to pitch to the room!
LIVE BAND: United Vibrations
We're very pleased that incredible local band and festival favourites United Vibrations will be joining us for the party.
SPOKEN WORD: Anthony Anaxagorou, Deanna Rodger and Potent Whisper
These amazing wordsmiths will be kicking the party off with their inspirational lyrics and wordplay.
These amazing wordsmiths will be kicking the party off with their inspirational lyrics and wordplay.
Who's coming to the Media Democracy Festival?
We've already got loads of great projects and groups signed up to participate, including:
Real Media - an aggregator of independent news
Hacked Off - the campaign for a free and accountable press
Consented - "a multi-media platform for those who aren’t accurately represented by the mainstream"
Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom - for a more accountable, freer and diverse media.
Positive News - the world’s first publication dedicated to reporting positive developments, recently transformed into the first a global media co-op.
Bristol Cable - a media co-operative – created and owned by people in Bristol who run free events, a multimedia website and a free quarterly print newspaper.
The Centre for Investigative Journalism - Investigative journalism, critical inquiry, and in-depth reporting and research.
The IMPRESS Project - for independent self-regulation of the press - and looking set to become the first recognised press regulator under the Royal Charter that came out of the Leveson inquiry
People's Assembly Against Austerity - bring together campaigns against cuts and privatisation with trade unionists in a movement for social justice.
Permaculture Magazine - an independent reader supported magazine all about practical solutions for self-reliance.
visionOntv - who aim for the widest possible distribution of video for social change.
Hastings Independent - the local non-profit community newspaper for Hastings & St Leonards on Sea
Radical Film Network - a network for which those involved in radical film culture to work together and support its development, growth and sustainability.
Shout Out UK - an independent news network that, via journalism, film and events, aims to show young people that politics has a direct impact on everything you do in life.
Youth Media Agency - the National home for UK Youth Media: raising the profile of, and supporting, over 300 exciting media platforms.
Through the Cracks - a news website devoted to coverage of reporting, storytelling and news startups made possible with the use of crowdfunding.
Alborada - a UK based magazine, events and documentary producer covering Latin America
London Socialist Film Co-op - arranges screenings where people can see films and take part in a panel discussion.
Inform My Opinion - a podcast series on various social, political, economic, environmental subjects and activism (mainly in London), featuring voices of people who are well-informed and those who want to speak.
Let Me Look TV - broadcasting videos they like or have produced (mostly activism stuff), and helping others broadcast their material too.
Stop the War Coaltion - Stop the War was founded in September 2001 in the weeks following 9/11, when George W. Bush announced the "war on terror". Stop the War has since been dedicated to preventing and ending the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere.
Compassionate Revolution - a platform where people pledge collective acts of art, heart, and civil disobedience to enable a Compassionate Revolution through the collective will of People Power! Their goals: to assert the voices of ordinary people in a functioning democracy; rapidly and peacefully redistribute wealth & power; and focus on the pressing issues of our age.
Pax Vista TV - "A collective and professional response to the mainstream media, adhering to NUJ guidelines"
Media Democracy Meetups
In the run up to the Festival we've been hosting a monthly Media Democracy Meetup in London
If you think Media Moguls and Press Barons have too much power and influence in our society, want to protect and democratise the BBC, would love to see media co-ops in every community or just work as an independent journalist, photographer or film maker, then this Meetup is for you.
We want all the various threads/ groups working on some part of Media Democracy to talk to each other more and hopefully become a rich tapestry and the beginnings of a power movement for Media Democracy in the UK.
Come along to meet more Media Activists, help organise the Festival and feed into our forthcoming Media Activism Toolkit. See also our related Media Democracy Facebook group.
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