CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION NEWSLETTER: January 5, 2005 http://www.chicagomediaaction.org In this month's newsletter: * CMA appears in the Chicago Reader in December * A media forum in St. Paul, Minnesota packs them in * WLUW begins airing Democracy Now! * Planning forums for media activists will be held in January * One imagined vision of American media in the next ten years (1) ANNOUNCEMENTS * The next CMA meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 11, at 6:30pm, at 3411 W. Diversey, in Chicago (at the intersection of Milwaukee, Diversey, and Kimball, near the Logan Square blue line stop). Help plan what CMA will do for the coming year. * Additional media-themed non-CMA announcements are listed below in "What's New In Media Politics?". (2) WHAT'S NEW WITH CMA? * CMA took part in a conference at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art entitled "The Future of Public Television". We were mentioned in an article about the conference in the December 10 issue of the Chicago Reader, and in an article in Current magazine, available online here: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/news.php?id=262 http://www.current.org/funding/funding0423trustfund.shtml More information about the conference (which was broadcast on C-SPAN) is available at the conference website: http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/pbs/ (3) WHAT'S NEW IN MEDIA POLITICS? * WLUW radio in Chicago (88.7 FM, www.wluw.org) has announced that it will begin airing the renowned daily news program Democracy Now!, starting January 3, 2005. WLUW will air Democracy Now on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, starting at 9am. Chicagoans can also listen to Democracy Now at WZRD (88.3 FM) weekdays from 7-8am, and again from 8-9am, and on WRTE (90.5 FM) weeknights at 10-11pm, and online at www.democracynow.org. * CAN TV supporters are invited to a discussion of CAN TV's future, 5:30-7:30 pm in the large conference room at CAN TV, 322 S. Green Street. CAN TV's short-term funding problems have been resolved, with a Comcast funding package approved and a settlement with the cable company RCN in the works. CAN TV will continue to work on resolving the long-term funding with the City and cable companies. Join a discussion about CAN TV's future viability and what has been recently accomplished. Resfreshments will be served. Please RSVP by January 7, 2005; call 312-738-1400 or email info@cantv.org * The Illinois Telecommunications Act is expected to undergo a rewrite in 2005. The Citizens Utility Board, Citizen Action AARP, and Illinois PIRG are holding a strategy meeting to mobilize for the Spring rewrite of this act and what you can do to help. The strategy meeting will be held Friday, January 14, 11am, at the Citizens Utility Board (208 S. LaSalle St., Suite 1760). Breakfast will be provided. Please RSVP by January 7, 2005; call 800-669-5556. * Some 550 people attended a forum on media ownership and concentration held at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota on December 9, 2004. FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein took part. Read more and listen: http://www.freepress.net/future//stpaul (4) FACT OF THE MONTH According to an article by Stuart Elliott in the April 14, 2004 New York Times, entitled "New Survey On Ad Effectiveness", 69% of people surveyed say they "are interested in products and services that would help them skip or block marketing". (5) QUOTE OF THE MONTH We shouldn't forget how often in the past centuries people have been astonished by sudden crumbling of institutions, extraordinary changes of people's thoughts, unexpected eruptions of rebellions against tyrannies, quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible. We shouldn't forget how often in the past have those in power, who confidently said "never!" to possibility of change, lived embarrassed by those words. -- Ziga Vodovnik, in an article entitled "WTO Derailed: A Concise History"; these words could also apply to current struggles for media democracy. Read the full article: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=6929 (6) RECOMMENDED WEBSITE http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/ This is a webstreamed short film by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson, called "EPIC 2014", depicting an imagined future history of the media through the year 2014. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** This is an email from Chicago Media Action, a Chicago activist group devoted to media issues. Chicago Media Action, P.O. Box 14140, Chicago IL 60614-0140 Call toll-free: 1-866-260-7198 Web: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org E-mail: cma@chicagomediaaction.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, simply send an email requesting removal to mailinglist@chicagomediaaction.org