Mon Nov 15 - Panel on Media Technology & Democracy

Media Technology and Democracy Post-Election 2004:
Where Do We Go from Here?

Monday, November 15th, 7- 9 pm
New College Cultural Center, 766 Valencia Street, San Francisco

What are the lessons of the 2004 elections regarding media, new technology and politics? What is on the horizon for the media democracy and media justice movements? Media technology has the capacity for both liberation and oppression; it can enlighten and obfuscate; serve the interests of progress or reaction. From the perspective of the recent elections, an outstanding panel talks about the future of media technology and democracy.

Panelists:

Dan Coughlin, Executive Director of Pacifica Radio. He was appointed the Executive Director of Pacifica Radio in January 2002. Under his stewardship, the network pulled itself back from the brink of bankruptcy following a debilitating 2-year internal struggle. Pacifica has since undergone the largest financial and audience expansion in the network's 55-year history while transforming itself into a membership organization with national elections for its board of directors. Coughlin previously served as the network's news director and as a producer of Democracy Now! He came to Pacifica from Inter Press Service (IPS) Third World News Agency, a wire service specializing in the Global South, where he worked as a senior editor

Jan Frel, Political Editor of AlterNet - the highly acclaimed Internet information source that provides readers with crucial facts and passionate opinions. He recently worked on the Dean for America campaign in Vermont, and before that he worked for the public interest journal TomPaine.com. Jan graduated from St. Andrews University Scotland with a degree in Geography. He says he could have been a better student.

Art McGee, communications, media, and technology consultant with Online Policy Group. Art McGee has over 15 years of experience in the corporate and non-profit arenas. He has worked with organizations such as Project Change (AntiRacismNet), Media Alliance (San Francisco), TAO Communications (now known as the Organization for Autonomous Communications), the Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO), the Black Radical Congress (BRC), and the Institute for Global Communications (The World's First Non-Profit Internet Service Provider), among many others.

Thenmozhi Soundararjan, Co-founder and Executive Director, Third World Majority. She is a filmmaker, singer, and grassroots media activist. As a second generation Tamil Untouchable woman, she strives to connect grassroots organizers in developing countries with media resources that can widen their base of resistance. She was the director and founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling's national community programs in which she developed the framework for community based digital storytelling. In that capacity she has worked with over 200 communities around the country developing grounded new media practices for their work. Further she is in residence at the MIT Center for Reflective Community Practice writing about her experiences with community based digital storytelling. She is also a 2001-2002 Eureka foundation fellow.

Donation: $5 - 10 (sliding scale; no one turned away for lack of funds)

This event is sponsored by New College Center for Education and Social Action. For more information about this event, please contact jon [at] newcollege.edu or call 415-437-3425.