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The Northwest's Independent Media -Where to Find It
Hardly a week goes by when one large media conglomerate isn't gobbling up some independent outlet. Pulitzer prize winners are bailing out of newsrooms in droves as business pressures dry up support for good reporting. Locally, the creativity is being squeezed out of public radio as stations adopt a mass marketing agenda to aid in fundraising [witness the chronic decline of KCMU]. Local daily newspapers resemble giant "shoppers" as they pander both to their readers and their advertisers. "If it bleeds, it leads" guides the local TV news.
But there may be light at the end of this dark and dreary media tunnel. The Northwest is part of a national movement to recreate the reporting of the progressive press, and the creativity of the early days of TV and radio. Last fall, a national conference in San Francisco helped catalyze the formation of local independent media consortia, and the Puget Sound has become a center of new activity. The Seattle Independent Media Coalition is the informal collection of these media pioneers.
This proliferation of new media relies in part on the availability of new technologies which make media-making inexpensive and accessible. The world wide web allows any HTML jockey to spin out a page. Hand-held video cameras make documentary filmmaking possible for those on a tight budget. Public access TV creates opportunity for hosts and filmmakers who would never be able to set foot into a corporate studio. Even traditional print outlets (like this one) are aided by the advent on inexpensive desktop publishing.
But producing independent media still requires a strong dose of old-fashioned hard work, volunteerism, and the good will and support of the community. Please consult the accompanying chart and features - and support your local providers!





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Contents on this page were published in the November/December, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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Copyright © 1996 WFP Collective, Inc.