Media Democracy Day organizers in Vancouver are planning a number of events in the coming months to examine the media landscape in this country. Tonight, a public forum at VIVO Media Arts Centre (1965 Main St.) looks at 'Where's the money in media?'
With newspapers being shuttered across North America, CanWest's losses piling up and a concentrated media environment crying out for financially sustainable alternative voices, the question of money and media is being urgently discussed across the country.
rabble columnist Wayne MacPhail recently weighed in with a column on 'The new cost of news.'
Featured speakers at the Vancouver forum include Georgia Straight Editor Charlie Smith, Marika Swan of Redwire Native Youth Media, Colin Preson of the Canadian Media Guild and CBC Vancouver and Linda Solomon of the Vancouver Observer.
Here's the write-up for tonight's forum:
At this critical time when the new media environment is being molded and the traditional news industry is in a state of decline, creative approaches to journalism are urgently needed.
Yet politicians and policy makers are poised to further support the big conglomerates that got us into this mess in the first place. Canwest and other corporate media may even get a government bailout. At the same time, CBC is slashing jobs and programming under unprecedented cuts, and there is no end in sight.
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-If news financed by big business is failing, what alternatives do we have?
-What role could/should CBC play?
-What other models for media are available?
-What can we do?
Vancouver's leading independent media makers lead a panel and discussion about proposed government bailouts of corporate media, the impacts of cuts to the public broadcaster, and exciting alternative models for media.
