Article: Seattle Hosts Progressive Media Gathering - Is Radio Dead?

Another model is to fund the program through underwriting/sponsorship. Jeff Santos' talk show in Boston is sponsored by a labor union. In Portland, progressive radio fans launched a Kickstarter campaign which raised $250,000 to help fund a new radio station.

Currently there are many ongoing discussions and forums among US alternative media folks regarding these political. economic and technological issues. Media democracy is an important part of these discussions for the simple reason that new progressive media networks have been instrumental in helping to elect progressives and Democrats during national elections.

President Barack Obama's election campaign benefited directly from progressive and liberal radio networks and their daily political talk shows. Presidential candidates Rocky Anderson(Justice Party) and Jill Stein(Green Party) relied almost exclusively on progressive media to get their message out to the voters. If the recent trend towards conservative corporate owned media continues without a serious challenge, we can expect direct political results from this development as well.

When democratic voices are stifled or censored, the entire nation suffers. An effective, participatory democracy requires opposing viewpoints and alternative analysis. The constant echo chamber of neo-liberal and neoconservative viewpoints in US media represents a regressive tendency towards uniformity and authoritarianism. Although no commercial media will report on this fact, the US is currently ranked as 37th on the World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (rsf.org). In other words, due to the corporate dominance of US media, there are now 36 other countries where you will find more freedom of the press. Finland is currently ranked as number one.

As a US journalist I must admit that I am not proud of our ranking on the World Press Freedom Index. We can do much better than this! One conclusion I've drawn from this low ranking is that public broadcasting has not provided the necessary balance to heavily funded conservative media programming. I am also sadly aware that freedom of the press is taken for granted by the majority of the public and by most of my colleagues. After reading the Reporters Without Borders report, any responsible journalist, editor or producer should immediately address the issue with adequate news coverage and analysis. We may not have state controlled media in the US, but corporate control leads to less diversity in reporting and less interest in investigative journalism or political criticism of national policies.

With any luck, this negative trend in US media can be checked by a growing number of new innovative and progressive networks. Though many of the details have yet to be worked out, organizations like Progressive Radio Northwest and the Northwest Progressive Institute are dedicated to making this new media possible. PRNW plans to sponsor future forums and eventually, they hope to help create a new progressive media network that will broadcast, podcast and live stream new cutting edge programs from Seattle.

http://progressiveradionorthwest.org
http://nwprogressive.org

http://pacifica.org

http://fsrn.org
http://normangoldman.com
http://thomhartmann.com
http://radioornot.com
http://mikemalloy.com
http://facebook.com/mtaylorcanfield
http://thestranger.com
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/06/29/rob-mckenna-illegally-bars-stranger-reporter-from-press-conference

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