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The October 2000 Vermont Independent Media Conference

The Independent Media Convergence Project (IMCP) was launched last summer not only to stage the October 2000 media conference but also to promote alternatives, create a network and/or coalition, and possibly launch a sustainable, new enterprise in New England. In the coming months, steps will be taken to create a more formal organization, with the support of Toward Freedom, and input from conference sponsors and others. We don’t know yet whether a follow up conference will be held. But obviously, other groups will be organizing. Plans are underway for a national gathering in San Francisco in April 2000, as well as a continental IMC meeting. read more

By ignoring critical social issues mainstream corporate media dismisses democratic values in the United States.

Since the Fall of 1999 there have been four major political demonstrations in the United States. The cities of Seattle, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles each hosted either a major political party convention or global economic institution meetings where thousands of activists protested, engaged in non-violent civil disobedience, and in rare, often provoked cases, caused superficial damaged to public and private property. Corporate media has labeled the protesters as unorganized groups of radical environmentalists, single issues extremists, and directionless anarchists bent on disrupting  social order. The extensive involvement of unions and labor in Seattle has generally been explained as an one time aberration and the global trade issues focusing on NAFTA and the WTO have been mostly forgotten. read more

For Robert Manoff, more coverage of international conflicts isn’t enough: He wants a whole different brand. The former managing editor of Harper’s Magazine and editor of the Columbia Journalism Review thinks the news media should reevaluate their role in such battles, examining what they can do to resolve and perhaps even prevent them.

Some say this is too close to advocacy. But to Manoff, director of New York University’s Center for War, Peace, and the News Media, it’s really part of good journalism. "We’re trying to push the envelope here," says Manoff. "I’m really trying to put on the table the question of what the moral responsibility of journalists is, with respect to genocide – the limit case – or other forms of mass social violence. It’s a question of how to cover, where to cover, and what to cover that isn’t covered." read more

For Robert Manoff, more coverage of international conflicts isn’t enough: He wants a whole different brand. The former managing editor of Harper’s Magazine and editor of the Columbia Journalism Review thinks the news media should reevaluate their role in such battles, examining what they can do to resolve and perhaps even prevent them.

Some say this is too close to advocacy. But to Manoff, director of New York University’s Center for War, Peace, and the News Media, it’s really part of good journalism. "We’re trying to push the envelope here," says Manoff. "I’m really trying to put on the table the question of what the moral responsibility of journalists is, with respect to genocide – the limit case – or other forms of mass social violence. It’s a question of how to cover, where to cover, and what to cover that isn’t covered." read more