Media


	Media 1. Independent media 2. Accessing the Student Media 3. Dealing with Corporate or State media at actions

	Independent Media The best way to get your message across intact and uncensored is to use the many independent media resources available. Independent media is not owned by money hungry capitalists interested only in the bottom line, or run as the propaganda mouth piece of the State. Independent media has much less interest in pleasing owners or advertisers, or the government. This means that rather than editing their content with a mind to marketing and financial considerations as well as justifying the actions of the government, they are more likely to be interested in that old fashion notion of telling the truth. Here are some independent media outlets that would be more than happy for you to get in touch with them. SKA TV Access News screens weekly on Channel 31 8pm Mondays. SKA have also produced Activist Awards, Global Insights and S11: Melbourne Rising videos. Access News also screens for free same time mondays in the Trades Hall bar. Phone - 9663 6976 Suite 85, Trades Hall Corners Victoria and Lygon Streets Carlton 3053 accessnews@skatv.org.au Melbourne IndyMedia Publish your own articles on line! Don't hate the media - be the media! www.melbourne.indymedia.org Contact: webmaster@melbourne.indymedia.org Space Station Media Lab opening in 2001- media resources for activists/centre for media activism and media making Contact: spacekids@antimedia.net 'The paper' The Paper is a fortnightly independent newspaper dedicated to topical issues and current happenings. It aims to be a forum for critical thought, where content and presentation of ideas remain unaffected by corporate and governmental influence. The Paper is being produced in Melbourne (Australia) by a group of people who have experience in alternative media projects. The success of The Paper will depend entirely on the level of support that it is given. www.thepaper.org.au info@thepaper.org.au http://www.thepaper.org.au info@thepaper.org.au 0419809749 Dissenterlink Dissenterlink is a zine produced by the IWW unemployed group. It is funny and informative, providing support and contacts for the unemployed suffering under the maddening oppression and illogic of Centrelink. www.iww.org.au Contact: P.O. Box 145 Moreland, Vic 3058. SCAM Publishing SCAM publications produce, promote, and distribute anarchist literature, with a focus on original and local material. anarchist ideas in all facets of life and labour. www.xchange.anarki.net/~scam Contact: scam@xchange.anarki.net Mail: PO Box 756 Brunswick Lower 3056 Vic. RRR, PBS radio and 3CR are also good for community announcements and carts. 3CR Community Radio 21 Smith St Fitzroy 3065 9419 8377 SUWA show (squatters and unwaged airwaves) 5.30-6.30pm every friday radio 3cr- 855am since 1985 the suwa show has been covering local and overseas direct action from a libertarian perspective. our prime interest is in unwaged and housing issues, but much of the show covers troublemaking in general. suwa has gone through a lot of different line ups and changes over the years, but the focus remains on direct action and fighting back rather than commentary and theoretical questions. most weeks we interview people involved with various campaigns and actions, read reports and announce anything that's coming up. We take a non sectarian approach and generally will plug any action that folks are involved in. currently we are limited to covering what we personally know of, hear about or glean from the net. the more that direct action folks contact us the more we can report on and promote. time permitting we can also help out with producing community announcements to advertise actions and events on other programs. in the past year we have produced such announcements for barricade books, food not bombs, s11 awol, the east timor community computer project, melbourne uni food coop, grasslands and others. Common Ground program 3SSR Swinburn Radio, 94.1 FM, broadcasting in central eastern suburbs eg. Hawthorn, Burwood, Kew, Camberwell, etc. 'Common Ground', focusses on environment/ social action, is on Wednesdays 7-8pm. Happy to help promote useful events and causes and can be contacted on Phone/fax: 9898 0119 e-mail: jameschasehenry@yahoo.com.au

	Accessing the Student Media The National Student Media Alliance can be reached at http://users.senet.com.au/~trystero/asmi/index.html This site has an upload facility for people to upload articles, photos, graphics and links to useful websites that student editors from across the country can then download and print. The combined audience of national student media is several million people. It also has a comprehensive list of all the student newspapers/magazines in the country along with their contact details. The student media list can be posted to at studmedia@egroups.com This provides a direct route for your article straight into each editor's email box. Some things that you should know about student newspapers: 1) Most student newspapers are edited by a group of students who are elected every year. This means the paper/magazine often changes dramatically from year to year depending on the politics/skills of the editors. It is for this reason that I have only included the land line as a contact. Often the email changes every year so its best if you ring the editors up and find that our for yourself. Some of the smaller papers are edited by staff which means they can be much more conservative. 2) Yes student newspaper editors are always desperate for contributions. They really really really want your shit. Seriously. 3) You could write an article, interview yourself, ask them if they would like to interview you, draw a cartoon etc. If you have a powerful image they may even put it on the front cover, ditto if you have design skills. 4) If you are supplying text and want to make the editors life easier, and therefore have a higher chance of getting your stuff printed, you should try and provide a graphic, photo, object, cartoon to be scanned. Anything that will in any way complement the text, it doesn't have to relate directly. If you can't think of anything, just give them some cool graphic that you like. THIS PART IS REALLY IMPORTANT! 5) Ask the eds how they want your stuff to be submitted, ie what format? What dimensions? How many words? etc. As a rule it is far far far better to submit via email or to walk in/send a disk than to expect them to type out your scrawl/printout. Why contribute to a student newspaper. 1) Ideally student media (depending on the editorial team and the structure of the funding post VSU) is independent media. By "us" for "us" not some bunch of advertising exec or whatever. Student media can act as an accessible information sharing medium (albeit the readers will usually be limited to the university community). 2) It's a bit like having thousands of your leaflets/posters/zines/rants printed, copied and distributed to thousands of people without any effort or expense on your part. For example Farrago prints 10,000 copies of each edition. FREE! EASY! HOORAY! 3) Your contribution doesn't have to be an article. You can use a student newspaper to advertise your event/action/meeting/screening. Usually student newspapers are more than happy to run a free ad for a 'good cause'. Maybe they have a 'what's on' page and all you have to do is call them up and give them the details. Talk to them, tell them what you want to communicate and see what they think. Remember that they often have a month turnaround and distribution takes a few weeks. If you are advertising an event make sure you do it well in advance. Ring 'em up, find out the deadlines and distro dates. Don't be surprised if they don't end up meeting them. 4) Don't forget the letters page. Easy, quick, guaranteed to be printed.

	Dealing with Corporate or State media at actions Extreme caution is advised when dealing with the Corporate and State media. There are some excellent and honest journalists who work for the large media outlets in Melbourne. These however are few in number and, due to the institutional structures, it is very difficult for them to articulate alternative view points in any meaningful way. For those who wish to talk to the Corporate/State media here are some basic facts. If you agree to doing an interview, then you can ask for some time to prepare. You can ask what they are going to ask and use the time to collect your thoughts. Ask for the journalist's name and media organisation and write it down. This will give you more credibility and may make them less likely to take you out of context. Although some journalists may be sincerely interested in the politics of the event, most are probably more interested in a 'good story' hence their anticipation of violence despite a repeated commitment to non violence. They are more likely to ask questions relating to any possible confrontations. The trick is not to get drawn in to talking about something other than the reason that you are there. Try to flip your answer to talk about what you want to talk about and the points that you want to get across. "The Police have been very aggressive towards us" etc It helps if you have a clear idea of what you want to talk about and have a few easy phrases to fall back on. The TV media and some radio will be using very short grabs - think of a succinct way to get across your point. Good Luck! Letters Pages theage: letters@theage.fairfax.com.au access age (records a 50 word letter to editor): 9670 1601 the heraldscum: hsletters@hwt.newltd.com.au the australian: ausletters@newscorp.com.au Fax Stream NSW SBS RADIO 02 94381660 NSW SBS TV 02 94303040 NSW SBS DATELINE 02 99573571 VIC ABC TV NEWS 03 95242712 ABC RADIO MELB 03 96261661 ABC RADIO NATIONAL 03 96261621 ABC JJJ 03 9626 1707 SBS RADIO 03 9686 7496 3CR 03 9417 4472 AAP 03 9619 9385 AGE NewsRoom 03 9601 2332 CH 9 03 9429 4082 CH 7 03 9697 7899 AGE SUNDAY 03 9601 3137 3RRR 03 9417 1841 FOXFM/3MMM 03 9525 5621