rabble.ca - Media Matters

Why pay for Globe and Mail online? Support free community media instead

rabble staff — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:07:55 -0400

"The Globe and Mail is moving to charge readers for its online content, following a trend established by the New York Times and other major publications." Steve Ladurantaye - Globe and Mail, May 10, 2012

The headline says it all - "Globe to charge readers for online content." This news is not really that surprising. It is true of course that producing media and presenting news to the world costs money - a lot of money. Corporate media is going the way of fees and media is getting increasingly owned by a handful of corporations.

Reject the austerity agenda, become a member of rabble.ca

rabble staff — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:08:51 -0400

The world needs to hear a lot less from the mainstream media and a lot more from rabble.ca
~ Linda McQuaig

It seems that almost everywhere you turn today another government, another media organization, another pundit is worshipping at the altar of "austerity."

Not at rabble.ca. We're an alternative voice. They say austerity, we say abundance. We need an abundance of democracy, an abundance of voices calling for change. We need alternative media to trumpet alternatives. We're asking you to join us in rejecting the austerity agenda by becoming a member of rabble.ca today.

Movie: Big Boys Gone Bananas!

redeye — Mon, 14 May 2012 01:08:35 -0400

Big Boys Gone Bananas! documents the campaign Dole waged against Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten to try to prevent him from showing his film Bananas! from being distributed in the United States. This first film documented the struggle of Nicaraguan workers to take Dole to court for health problems suffered as a result of use of a banned pesticide.

To find out more about Redeye, check out our website.

The other shoe: Why the Globe's 'temporary leaves' are likely to become permanent for some

djclimenhaga — Mon, 14 May 2012 02:42:07 -0400

In the 21st century, corporate bosses aren't opposed to journalists making a fortune -- as long as they make it for someone else.

So while the Toronto Globe and Mail struggles with technological and social changes that have driven its business model toward obsolescence, it is also launching an attack on its unionized journalistic workforce under the cover of Internet-caused hard times.

A leaky paywall won’t keep the Globe and Mail afloat

djclimenhaga — Sat, 12 May 2012 04:03:36 -0400

According to the publisher of Canada's National Toronto Newspaper, the Globe and Mail will now try to make its readers to pay to read its on-line content -- a trend established by the New York Times last year with limited success.

Phillip Crawley told his assembled troops on Thursday that the paper "will implement a metered paywall system this fall, asking readers to pay if they read more than a certain number of articles each month."

Rick Salutin: Is dissent alive and well in Canada?

rabble staff — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:06:55 -0400

Rick Salutin used to be a respectable columnist at The Globe & Mail. Then he got fired, and happily (as he tells it), became “unrespectable” again.

But the fact that the left-wing dissident ever had a weekly column in a national mainstream publication speaks to the evolution of dissent in Canada, he argues.

“Think about the media for a minute in the 1960s,” Salutin told a crowd of over 100 people who gathered at the Ottawa Public Library for a lecture on the health of dissent, hosted by Prism Magazine on April 21.

Peter Kent, pants on fire!

John Bennett — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:35:22 -0400

This week Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent has made repeated allegations that environmental groups are “laundering money”. This is a serious charge because according to the federal government’s own website: Money laundering is the process used to disguise the source of money or assets derived from criminal activity.

Watch live Monday! Reimagine the CBC

rabble staff — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:16:25 -0400

rabble.ca is proud to be media sponsor for the Reimagine CBC Vancouver event, Monday, May 7. In Vancouver, you can still buy tickets. Not in Vancouver? Join us here at 7PM PST to watch this Gen Why, LeadNow and OpenMedia.ca event LIVE. See full event details here.

Reimagine the CBC

redeye — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:16:34 -0400

One of the casualties of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's 2012 budget was the CBC. The network faces a 10 percent cut in funding over the next 3 years. In anticipation of the cuts, OpenMedia.ca and Leadnow.ca launched a project to encourage Canadians to discuss what they valued about the CBC and what they would like to see change. Tyler Morgenstern is spokesperson for Reimagine the CBC.

To find more about Redeye, check out our website.

Our trip through 2011: rabble.ca releases annual report

rabble staff — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:08:08 -0400

While we can't have everyone over to show slides of our journey through 2011, we have our annual report up for your perusal.

'Media for the 99 Percent' challenges corporate media with joint coverage of May Day protests

rabble staff — Tue, 01 May 2012 08:30:29 -0400

rabble.ca is proud to join Media for the 99 Percent in North American May Day and Occupy coverage. Following is the media release announcing the innovative collaborative initiative.

San Fransciso. This year, International and Immigrant Workers' Day, May Day, will usher in a spring of protests fueled by the rise in anti-immigrant legislation and enforcement, a lopsided economic recovery that favors the few, and a reemergent Occupy movement poised to challenge corporate power.

Judy Rebick and Kai Nagata on Quebec student protest coverage

Anita Krajnc — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 09:05:11 -0400

Clips from JournalismStrategies.ca panel "Where to from Here?" Thursday April 19, 2012. Judy Rebick (rabble.ca) and Kai Nagata (The Tyee) discuss Canadian Anglophone coverage of the ongoing student protests in Quebec.

Montreal conference on changing nature of journalism

rabble staff — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:32:28 -0400

With a mandate to "make democracy work better," Montreal-based OpenNorth.ca built an online database of contracts awarded by the City of Montreal and programs to allow citizens to scrutinize local budgets and identify their political representatives.

This fall, the non-profit plans to create a portal so citizens can more easily file Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to access information gathered by governments at public expense, Alexandre Cayla-Irigoyen told the Montreal conference JournalismStrategies.ca last weekend (April 19 to 21).

Changing nature of journalism

#Resistmedia: Empower one of the most victimized groups in society

Battered Womens Support Services — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:02:31 -0400

From April 15 to 21, Prevention of Violence Against Women Week, guest blogger Joanna Chiu and guest videographer Camila Galdino, produce a series on resisting media representations as a way to prevent violence against girls and women.

Sneak preview: rabble's best of 2011 -- in iBook format

rabble staff — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:35:25 -0400

Every year rabble.ca publishes a print edition of our Best of rabble. This year, thanks to the inspired work of students in Western University's journalism program, we will be publishing a companion best of rabble 2011 in iBook format. Listen in as Matt Dusenbury discusses the process of developing the rabble.ca best of 2011 iBook using the newly released iAuthor platform.

#Resistmedia: How to create the media you want to see in the world

Battered Womens Support Services — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:17:03 -0400

Today, as I was walking down the street to write at my favorite coffee shop, I received the usual afternoon greetings from my neighbours: "Hey baby!" "Konichiwa!" "Ni hao! "Look at that ass!!"

As all Indigenous women and women of colour know, if sexism wasn't bad enough, we encounter racism on a daily basis as well-on the street, in the classroom, in the workplace, and in the media. (See the theory of intersectionality on how oppressions like racism, ageism and classism intersect.)

It's our birthday! Help us celebrate 11 years of rabble-rousing

rabble staff — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:28:07 -0400

Today is rabble's birthday! Hard to believe, but it's been 11 years since we launched on April 18, 2001.

rabble was created to provide independent, progressive media, critiquing power and injustice while helping to report on social movements whose perspectives are too often ignored. That's why the website first went live in the midst of an important protest action.

Violence sells? Time to say 'enough' to advertisers

Battered Womens Support Services — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:06:20 -0400

Before anyone had even heard of the show Jersey Shore, MTV leaked out a clip of Snooki (Nicole Polizzi) getting punched in a face by a man in a bar, and the clip went viral, prompting articles like "The Countdown to Snooki Getting Punched in the Face Is On!" (trigger warning for link).

The author of that article for Barstool Sports wrote:

How does she resist? Resisting media representations to end violence against women

Battered Womens Support Services — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:41:05 -0400

Like many students who were sexually assaulted in college, I didn't identify what had happened to me as sexual assault until after I graduated. That moment of realization happened when I was sitting at a lecture hall back at my alma mater, the University of British Columbia. I had just returned to Vancouver from New York City, where I had completed a magazine internship and observed the curiosities and arrogance in the world's media capital firsthand.

rabble.ca welcomes back journalist, author, activist Derrick O’Keefe as Editor

rabble staff — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:13:58 -0400

Welcome back Derrick! Veteran freelance journalist, author, and community activist Derrick O'Keefe has returned to rabble.ca as the new Editor.

Beware of Images: Sergio Toporek's call to action

alex — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:58:47 -0400

Living in a culture where every inch of our public space -- both off and online -- are crowded with images, it can be easy to assume we've become immune to their seductive messages. Instead, designer and filmmaker Sergio Toporek argues that the opposite is true.

At a recent CreativeMornings event in Vancouver, Toporek challenged members of the audience to question their assumptions about the power of images in their environments.

"Ancient cultures were very cautious about how they use representation. Today people believe themselves to be immune to their power but that belief actually makes us more vulnerable to representations."

Can books built for iPads be used for rich media journalism?

M.Gregus — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:53:50 -0400

Can books built for iPads be used for rich media journalism?

That's the question my online journalism students in the MAJ program at the University of Western Ontario are tackling.

And, we're working with rabble.ca and thetyee.ca to get a made-in-Canada answer.

Starting a couple of weeks ago, two student teams in the class partnered with rabble and The Tyee to take a sizeable chunk of their content and convert it into a book on the iPad using Apple's new iBooks Author software.

Social movements in the age of information

M.Gregus — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 07:57:05 -0400

Contemporary social movements are characterized not only by their diverse commitments to building an emancipatory, egalitarian society but also by their innovative network composition. Both the form and content of the newest insurgencies embody essential aspects of our age of information. Their novelty opens up new possibilities for presence, mobilization and social change.

Arthur the Video Zine

Anita Krajnc — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:24:52 -0400

Trent University's Arthur the Video Zine presents a collection of multi-media work by reporters Zach Ruiter and Anthony Gulston who covered the neo-liberal administration's attack on the student press at the same time as it was marketing a new journalism program.

Brace yourself for a collaborative world, courtesy of the Internet

Don Tapscott — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:11:10 -0400

Over the next few weeks, I will post a series of articles around the theme of the power of collaboration. I hope to provoke discussion on rabble.ca.

The rapidly evolving social media has become integral to collaboration. For example, two years ago, many questioned just how important social media could be in helping activists achieve social change. Writer Malcolm Gladwell wrote a thoughtful essay in The New Yorker entitled “Small Change: Why the Revolution Won’t be Tweeted.” He argued that social networks only create weak ties between people, but that it’s strong ties and close relationships that bring about real social change.