Censored 2012 (44 page)

To continue your exploration of creativity, integrative thinking, and an expanded definition of health and activism, visit the Holistic Health Learning Center, San Francisco State University, online, where you’ll find an extensive set of links and emerging ideas:
www.sfsu.edu/~holistic
.

KENN BURROWS
has been an educator and consultant for over thirty years, teaching Holistic Health Studies at San Francisco State University since 1991. He is founder and director of the Holistic Health Learning Center, a unique library and community action center staffed by student volunteers. He is also the producer of the biennial conference “The Future of Health Care.” Prior to coming to SF State, he taught at Foothill Community College for twelve years and operated Stress-Care, a corporate training and consulting company. For the last sixteen years, he has taught the popular course “Holistic Health: Human Nature & Global Perspectives.” He also serves as faculty evaluator to three different campus student organizations, including Project Censored—SF State Affiliate, and he is a member of the board of the Media Freedom Foundation.

1
. Rebecca Costa,
The Watchman’s Rattle—Thinking Our Way out of Extinction,(New
York: Vanguard Press, 2010).

2
. D. J. Simons and C. F. Chabris, “Gorillas In Our Midst: Sustained Inattentional Blindness For Dynamic Events,”
Perception
28, 1059–74.

3
. Costa,
The Watchman’s Rattle
.

4
.
James B. Quilligan, “Making the Great Adjustment: Coalition for the Global Commons,”
Kosmos
, Spring–Summer 2008,
http://www.kosmosjournal.org/CustomContentRetrieve.aspx?ID=3846791
.

5
. John Tierney, “Doomsayers Beware, a Bright Future Beckons,”
New York
Times, May 17, 2010,
www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/science/18tier.html?ref=science
.

6
. Neal Gorenflo, “Knowledge Workers & The Commons: A Reflection,”
Shareable
, January 19, 2011,
http://www.shareable.net/blog/knowledge-workers-and-the-commons-a-reflection
.

7
. David Emerald,
The Power of TED* (*The Empowerment Dynamic)
, 2009,
http://www.powerofted.com
.

8
. Rebecca Solnit, “Iceberg Economies & Shadow Selves: Further Adventures in the Territories of Hope,” Common Dreams, December 22, 2010,
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/22
.

9
. “Public Service Announcements,” Dutch Institute for Road Safety, 2010.

10
. Solnit, “Iceberg Economies & Shadow Selves.”

11
. Marilyn M. Schlitz, Cassandra Vieten, and Elizabeth Miller, “Worldview Transformation and the Development of Social Consciousness,”
Journal of Consciousness Studies
17, no. 7–8, 18–36.

by Mickey Huff with contributions by Abby Martin, Tracy Rosenberg, Jeff Cohen, Lisa Graves, Josh Wolf, Khalil Bendib, Emma Cape, Logan Price, Nolan Higdon, and Ryan Shehee

In past editions of
Censored
, we occasionally included highlights of the many groups and individuals that dedicate their lives to media freedom, and help create and protect a vibrant free press in maintenance of democracy. In 2003, then Project Censored director Dr. Peter Phillips compiled the
Project Censored Guide to Independent Media and Activism
, which was released by our publishers at Seven Stories Press. We have partnered with many in this broad and diverse community over the years and hope to continue building solidarity with those who, like Project Censored, strongly believe that we are on the verge of a media revolution that can revitalize our democratic institutions and restore hope to hundreds of millions that self-government can work, but only if the people have access to highly accurate and factual information.

This year, we highlight some of the shining lights, some newcomers, some veterans. The following truly represent media democracy in action and they bring updates from the frontlines of the media revolution.

by Abby Martin

The root system of a tree is five times more extensive than the tree itself, reaching far underground to form a solid base for growth and nourishment. Just as this root system is integral to the survival of a
tree, media is integral to the foundation and survival of a democracy. However, the corporate consolidation and top-down control of America’s current media system undermines democracy by stifling and diluting the discourse crucial to maintaining a critical and informed public.

The mainstream media establishment has conceded its journalistic integrity time and time again by catering to corporate and political interests. The people can no longer wait on Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to eke out miniscule reforms to the dysfunctional system in which they are embedded. Instead, the people must create alternative methods to freely communicate and exchange information.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, such an organization has been formed. Media Roots is a grassroots, independent citizen journalism project that reports the news from outside of party lines, while providing a collaborative space of open dialogue for conscious citizens, artists, and activists.

The website,
MediaRoots.org
, aggregates a variety of critical and fascinating underreported news on various subjects: local and world news; political and corporate corruption; food and health; and science and philosophy.

In conjunction with providing an ever-expanding archival base of crucial information, Media Roots also conducts original reporting on an array of important local, national, and global issues. The organization produces a regular radio talk show, original video content, and extensive interviews with artists, activists, journalists, and inspiring Bay Area locals.

The merit of citizen reporting is increasingly recognized as corporate journalism continues to fail in its intended role as the watchdogs against corruption. Many people find that their voice isn’t represented in the political dialogue and are seeking alternative media sources reporting raw, unfiltered, and truthful information.

Media Roots is a valuable tool for people to begin revolutionizing the media dialogue. The organization’s aim is to build community through collaboration and participation, and its openness to feature submissions of all kinds encourages others to take an active role in the field of media. Everyone has the ability to be a citizen journalist,
and Media Roots, while maintaining strong principles of integrity that require all content to be based on sound research, provides an important outlet for others to explore their ideas and share their skills.

Since the inception of the project, Media Roots has motivated multiple people worldwide to directly engage with their communities, whether by interviewing inspirational figures or by conducting investigatory research on a range of issues. Furthermore, the organization has provided a voice for multiple active duty soldiers to speak out anonymously about their political beliefs.

Many people who get their news from the corporate media have a highly skewed perspective on what issues should be of concern to their health, family, and communities. The mainstream political discourse truncates issues into oversimplified talking points that pit one political party against another, causing a deep divide in the American citizenry. Media Roots holds no party bias, and reports from the bigger picture by analyzing issues through a broad historical lens.

As a completely independent organization, Media Roots will never cater toward corporate sponsors or censor credible information. Because it exists outside the rigid corporate model that capitalistic societies are accustomed to, it has a unique and unrestricted ability to spontaneously grow and flourish. Instead of competing monetarily with other independent media outlets with similar goals, Media Roots simply seeks to coexist as an organic beacon of information in the emerging renaissance of grassroots journalism happening worldwide.

Like a tree’s widespread root system, grassroots networks of communication in all fields of media must extend far beyond the top-down institutional structures created for us. The Media Roots model is not mechanized, and will continue to naturally evolve as more people participate in and contribute to the project.

People must create the alternative they wish to see from the bottom up. Media Roots is paving an important path that is driven by a shared passion for media justice and the core belief that unfettered access to information is a human right.

Find out more about Media Roots at
www.MediaRoots.org
and its founder Abby Martin at her website
www.AbbyMartin.org
.

by Tracy Rosenberg

Founded in 1976, at the pinnacle of idealism about what journalism could accomplish by speaking truth to power, the Bay Area–based nonprofit organization has followed the same winding path as the profession it follows. Over the past thirty-five years, it has bird-dogged the mainstream media for accountability to communities, called foul on faux-objectivity as the measure of good journalism, fought for the survival of independent media, and re-imagined itself as the regional voice in the media policy battles that will determine the playing field for generations to come.

In 2011–2012, Media Alliance has identified the following priorities as the key battlegrounds for an independent communications future: