Social Action Media:
Indymedia
What?
• ‘Triggered by discontent with the
mainstream media’
IMC UK
Discontent with…
• Professionalism, recruitment and
control
• Institutional interface
• Culture and discourse
• Corporate ownership
• Commodification
Professionalism, recruitment &
control
• ‘I don’t say you’re self-censoring - I’m sure you believe
everything you’re saying; but what I’m saying is, if you
believed something different, you wouldn’t be sitting
where you’re sitting’ (Chomsky to Andrew Marr, BBC,
1996).
• various studies indicate that a small increase in the
selectivity of an organization often results in a
disproportionate large decrease in the investments required
for control (Etzioni)
• The control function of institutions entails that
‘performances desired by organizational norms will be
rewarded while undesirable performances will be
punished’ (Etzioni)
• Class: proportion of top 100 journalists in
news and current affairs who have a private
school background:
– 49% in 1986
– 54% in 2006
– 45% attended Oxbridge universities
• As late as 1999 only the Guardian had any
ethnic minorities in its editorial staff
• Guardian, The Times, Daily Telegraph,
Mirror, Sun, Observer, News of the World,
Mail on Sunday, and Sunday Mirror shared
13 journalists or reporters employed from
ethic minority groups
• By 2005 only 9% of national newspaper
editors were female
• ‘Powerful occupational mythology’
• ‘Occupational ideology’ of journalism
= common sense ‘nose’ for news
= over-reliance on official sources
= institutional interface
= narrow focus/narrow ‘news net’
= reactive journalism
Culture and Discourse
• A society will share a ‘language’ or
discursive structure of comprehension
• Institutional language and official terms
dominate
• ‘other’ groups have difficulty
in being heard (as sources) and
understood
– Think of the ‘no borders’
movement
Corporate ownership
• Time Warner Book Group
– Warner Books
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The Mysterious Press
Warner Vision
Warner Business Books
Aspect
– Warner Faith
• Warner Treasures
• TW Kids
– Little, Brown and Company
• Little, Brown Adult Trade
• Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Back Bay
• Bulfinch Press
– Time Warner Book Group UK
– Time Warner Audio Books
• Time Inc.
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Southern Progress Corporation
Sunset Books
Oxmoor House
Leisure Arts
• Time Warner - Cable
– HBO
– CNN
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CNN International
CNN en Espanol
CNN Headline News
CNN Airport Network
CNN fn
CNN Radio
CNN Interactive
Court TV (with Liberty Media)
Time Warner Cable
Road Runner
New York 1 News (24 hour news channel devoted only
to NYC)
– Kablevision (53.75% - cable television in Hungary)
• In Demand
– Metro Sports (Kansas City)
• Time Warner Inc. - Film & TV
Production/Distribution
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Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Studios
Warner Bros. Television (production)
The WB Television Network
Warner Bros. Television Animation
Hanna - Barbera Cartoons
Telepictures Production
Witt - Thomas Productions
Castle Rock Entertainment
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Warner Home Video
Warner Bros. Domestic Pay - TV
Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
Warner Bros. International Television Distribution
The Warner Channel (Latin America, Asia - Pacific,
Australia, Germ.)
– Warner Bros. International Theaters (owns/operates
multiplex theaters in over 12 countries)
• Time Warner Inc. - Magazines
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Time
Time Asia
Time Atlantic
Time Canada
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Time Latin America
Time South Pacific
Time Money
Time For Kids
Fortune
All You
Business 2.0
Life
Sports Illustrated
– Sports Illustrated International
– SI for Kids
• Inside Stuff
• Money
– Your Company
– Your Future
• People
– Who Weekly (Australian edition)
– People en Español
– Teen People
• Entertainment Weekly
– EW Metro
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The Ticket
In Style
Southern Living
Progressive Farmer
Southern Accents
Cooking Light
• The Parent Group
– Parenting
– Baby Talk
– Baby on the Way
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This Old House
Sunset
Sunset Garden Guide
The Health Publishing Group
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Health
Hippocrates
Coastal Living
Weight Watchers
• Real Simple
• Asiaweek (Asian news weekly)
• President (Japanese business monthly)
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Dancyu (Japanese cooking)
Wallpaper (U.K.)
Field & Stream
Freeze
Golf Magazine
Outdoor Life
Popular Science
Salt Water Sportsman
Ski
Skiing Magazine
Skiing Trade News
SNAP
Snowboard Life
Ride BMX
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Today's Homeowner
TransWorld Skateboarding
TransWorld Snowboarding
Verge
Yachting Magazine
Warp
American Express Publishing Corporation (partial
ownership/management)
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Travel & Leisure
Food & Wine
Your Company
Departures
SkyGuide
• Magazines listed under Warner Brothers label
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DC Comics
Vertigo
Paradox
Milestone
Mad Magazine
• Online Services
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CompuServe Interactive Services
AOL Instant Messenger
AOL.com portal
Digital City
AOL Europe
ICQ
The Knot, Inc. - wedding content (8 % with QVC 36%
and Hummer
– WinbladFunds18%)
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MapQuest.com - pending regulatory approval
Spinner.com
Winamp
DrKoop.com (10%)
Legend (49% - Internet service in China)
• Time Warner - Online/Other Publishing
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Road Runner
Warner Publisher Services
Time Distribution Services
American Family Publishers (50%)
Pathfinder
Africana.com
• Time Warner - Merchandise/Retail
– Warner Bros. Consumer Products
• Theme Parks
– Warner Brothers Recreation Enterprises (owns/operates
international theme parks)
• Time Warner Inc. - Turner Entertainment
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TBS Superstation
Turner Network Television (TNT)
Turner South
Cartoon Network
Turner Classic Movies
Cartoon Network in Europe
Cartoon Network in Latin America
TNT & Cartoon Network in Asia/Pacific
• Film Production
– New Line Cinema
– Fine Line Features
– Turner Original Productions
• Sports
– Atlanta Braves
• Other Operations
– Turner Learning
– CNN Newsroom (daily news program for
classrooms)
– Turner Adventure Learning (electronic field
trips for schools)
– Turner Home Satellite
– Turner Network Sales
• Other
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Netscape Communications
Netscape Netcenter portal
AOL MovieFone
iAmaze
Amazon.com (partial)
Quack.com
Streetmail (partial)
Switchboard (6%)
Who owns Time Warner?
• U.S. Trust Co, Capital Research, Axa,
Barclays Bank, Citygroup bank, Wellington
Management Company, State Street
Corporation, Dodge Street and Cox etc =
73%
• Individuals – Ted Turner, Steven Case,
Mark Reuben 1%
• Others (inc. 1000s of individuals) 26%
What do they want?
• Profit/return on the investments!
= Commodity form:
– Media products bought and sold (even BBC)
– Subject to commodity relations, property
claims, copyright etc.
– Problems of distributing non-commodities
• … ‘Supported by the widespread
availability of media technologies’ IMC UK
– handy-cams, VHS recorders, digital video and
still cameras, PC editing, internet distribution,
web interface
• Use of tech contrasted with MSM…
• ‘new technologies, multi-media news production
and associated practices of multi-skilling at this
[Bristol] BBC newscentre have, despite corporate
and management claims to the contrary,
contributed to the production of more standardised
news treatments and formats, and led to more
superficial journalist involvement with selected
news stories and their sources’
(Cottle)
• Founded before 1999 Seattle anti-WTO
protests
• May Day 2000, UK Indymedia in operation
• From 2002/3, Indymedia starts
decentralising/glocalising
• Dozens of collectives around the world
• New collectives start all the time; just have
to agree to Mission Statement and
Principles of Unity.
Principles
• Each collective writes Mission Statement and
editorial guidelines
• Generally,
– Open publishing
– Open participation (in everything from tech to legal) via
emailing lists, IRC, meetings & activity
– Volunteer-run
– Non-commercial
– Transparent
– Technologically independent (open source)
– Non-hierarchical
– No ‘prior restraint’
Function(s)/ing
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Facilitates ‘radical democracy’
Support local community
Support for social movements, protests, activists
Runs outreach, training, film nights, documentary
production, radio projects
• Links to social centres
• Global solidarity
• Specific actions – climate camps
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Bus passenger revolt public meeting
Launch of a book about dissent in Bristol
Occupation of a local swimming pool building
Grass roots climate change initiatives
Court case against anti-GMO protestors
Police action against Bristol IMC
Bristol Latin American Forum
List of CIA ‘torture planes’
Proposal to add more street art to a public parks
Public meeting about public space in the city
A ‘green’ conference
Animal Liberation Front action
Politician receiving a visit from police
An occupied council building
BNP collaboration with Christian group
Protest against a government minister’s visit
Universities ban Coca Cola
Educational exclusion in Bristol (R).
Typical front page
content on Bristol
Indymedia web
site
• ‘Overspend’ by a regional
hospital
• Pros and cons of health
privatisation
• Arson attack
• The ‘smashing’ of an
‘international drugs ring’
• Road closure after gas leak
• Shotgun incident
• Speeding motorcyclist
BBC Bristol on the
same day
Problems…
• Open publishing can attract ‘cranks’
• Non-hierarchy and consensus model can be
difficult to maintain
• Legal problems (UK & Bristol server seizures,
libel)
• Problem of the journalist-activist
• Money and resources
• Volunteers and stability
• The state, esp. during protests
• Bristol Indymedia
www.bristol.indymedia.org
• UK Indymedia www.indymedia.org.uk
• Global Indymedia www.indymedia.org