Dahr Jamail: Using Independent Media as a Weapon for Justice

This lecture and workshop will focus on how, if one is willing to take some risks, it is relatively easy to work as an independent journalist in this climate where the mainstream media is in a self-described "crisis." With newspaper sales diminishing and fewer people than ever watching TV for their news, the internet leaves the door open for those willing to take creative (and sometimes personal) risks in an effort towards getting the truth out. We will investigate the cracks in the foundation of the dominant media monolith that allow our seeds of resistance to sprout.

Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist who has been covering the Middle East for five years. He reported for 8 months from occupied Iraq, and is the author of "Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq." Jamail writes regularly for Inter Press Service, Foreign Policy in Focus, and TomDispatch.com. He has also been published in The Independent, The Guardian, The Sunday Herald, The Nation, and Al-Jazeera, among others.