Indymedia:

INDYMEDIA

Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth.

We work out of a love and inspiration for people to who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity and the earth.

The goal of indymedia is free speech through open and democratic creation and sharing of information. The IMC movement started with coverage of the N30 WTO protests in Seattle. It played a huge role in getting accurate, up-to-date information out from behind the corporate media curtain, and worked so well in Seattle that indymedia centers have become a vital part of radical movements worldwide. At every major demonstration and in many areas around the globe, IMCs provide frontlines coverage of issues and events that continue to be ignored by the mainstream corporate media.

INDYMEDIA
INDYMEDIA (D)

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Indymedia:

WHAT IS INDYMEDIA?

What is Indymedia?
Distilled from our mission statement: Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth. There are currently about over fifty Independent Media Centers around the world. Each IMC is an autonomous group that has its own mission statement, manages its own finances and makes its own decisions through its own processes. To learn more about each IMC, visit its web page. You will find links to IMC web sites on the left column of the main page Indymedia page (http://www.indymedia.org). Most of the below information answers questions that site visitors frequently ask about "Indymedia.org," an organization composed of independent media activists from around the world who are working to coordinate international independent media projects. The Indymedia.org group manages an international Indymedia page (http://www.indymedia.org) and coordinates technical and editorial policy issues that affect all IMCs that are associated with the Indymedia network.

How did the IMC project get started?
Indymedia is the collective effort of hundreds of independent media makers from around the world who are dedicated to providing a forum for independent reporting about important social and political issues. Several hundred media activists, many of whom have been working for years to develop an active independent media through their own organizations, came together in late November, 1999 in Seattle to create an Independent Media Center to cover protests against the World Trade Organization. The Seattle IMC provided coverage of the WTO through both a printed publication called ?The Blind Spot? and the first IMC web site. The web site received almost 1.5 million hits during the WTO protests. In February of 2000 a small IMC formed in Boston to cover the Biodevestation Convergence, and a larger one came together in Washington D.C. to cover the A16 protests against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. After that request from local groups interested in forming their own IMCs started to pour in. There are now over fifty local Independent media centers around the world and more are on the way. You will find a list of local IMCs on the left column of the www.indymedia.org site.

What are Indymedia?s long-term goals?
That?s a big question, one that every Indymedia organizer would likely answer in a different way. Indymedia endeavors to empower people to become the media by present honest, accurate, powerful independent reports. One vague long-term goal would be to foster and facilitate the development of as much independent media as possible around the world. Some come to their Indymedia organizing with a deeper goal, to enable people, while they're ?becoming the media,? to realize they can take control of other aspects of their lives that they previously left up to ?experts? or 'professionals.' On a practical level, some who are involved with Indymedia are working toward the development of national and/or international television or radio networks, and others are working toward the establishment of an international independent regular newspaper and others projects that will assure the public has access to independent news reports.

How is Indymedia associated with the 'anti-globalization' movement?
While Indymedia is not a conscious mouthpiece of any particular point of view, many Indymedia organizers and people who post to the Indymedia newswires are supporters of the ?anti-globalization? (alternative globalization, anti-corporatization) movement. Corporate media often describe those who protest so-called ?free trade? conferences and agreements as being "anti-globalization," ostensibly against the process of breaking down national borders to create what pro-globalization economists claim will be a more profitable world. This misrepresents the reality of the international movement for social justice, which advocates not the ?free trade? of powerful governments (trade that allows goods and services to flow across national borders, often in a way that allows producers to move their manufacturing plants to countries where they can pay workers a pittance), but "fair trade" that opens borders to goods and people as a way of sharing the earth?s natural and manufactured resources in a way that will benefit all. Today?s social justice activists are not against globalization of community, justice and resources, they protest the economic globalization coordinated by the powerful few that results in their profiting from the work of the majority of the world?s population. They sometimes prefer to call themselves ?alternative globalization? activists, or those who are against the increasing corporatization of society and culture. What draws many of these activists to Indymedia? Perhaps people who protest the power multinational corporations, faceless international financial institutions and inaccessible governments have over their lives find encouragement in Indymedia?s news wire, which encourages them to present their own account of what is happening in the world. People participating in protests that question the very tenets of corporate domination of their lives understand why their issues are unlikely to receive honest consideration in the corporate-owned media. Activists planning an alternative globalization/anti-corporatization event can assure a safe space for presenting non-corporate news by forming a local IMC to provide coverage of the event, or posting news to the site of a local IMC that currently exists.

If each IMC is autonomous how do you make global Indymedia decisions?
Indymedia is currently developing a global decision-making process that will enable all IMCs to make decisions that affect the whole network. The current proposal is for Indymedia to form a "global spokescouncil" that will confirm decisions on global Indymedia issues that local IMCs have made through their own decision-making processes. When this process develops, you will find information about it on the Indymedia sites. If you would like to be involved in developing the spokescouncil idea or working on other Indymedia process issues you may subscribe to the imc-process[@t]indymedia.org e-mail list through the http://lists.indymedia.org page. If you've been involved in Indymedia for a while and would like to participate in the decision-making working group, the group that's focusing attention and work on developing the a global decision-making process, subscribe to imc-dmwg[@t]indymedia.org through the lists page.

Do you really organize via the Internet?
Yes. While people in local IMCs organize face-to-face, many IMC projects have international involvement and discussion about them happens primarily through e-mail lists. You may view the archives of all Indymedia e-mail lists by going to http://lists.indymedia.org, clicking on the name of the list you would like to explore, and clicking on the link that takes you to the archive of that list. Another collaborative resource is the indymedia Twiki, a content management system which basically works like an open-access website. Sometimes people who are organizing Indymedia projects ?meet? on-line in chat rooms on the Indymedia IRC (inter-relay chat) server (http://irc.indymedia.org) to communicate in real time. Some international IMC working groups, such as the Imc-Print team, have weekly IRC meetings.

What is the address/phone/fax of Indymedia's office?
Believe it or not, the Indymedia has no central office, and therefore we have no address, phone number or fax. That said, many indymedia centers have offices. You can find indymedia contact information for local imc's at www.indymedia.org/contact.php3.

INDYMEDIA

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Indymedia:

WAS IST INDYMEDIA?

Was ist indymedia?
indymedia Deutschland versteht sich als ein multimediales Netzwerk unabhängiger und alternativer Medien, MedienmacherInnen, engagierter Einzelpersonen und Gruppen. Es bietet offene, nichtkommerzielle Berichterstattung sowie Hintergrundinformationen zu aktuellen sozialen und politischen Themen. Bereits bestehende alternative Strukturen sollen dadurch in ihrer Arbeit unterstützt werden.
Das Projekt ist selbst wiederum Teil der internationalen Medienvernetzung indymedia.

Wie entstand die Idee von indymedia?
Seit dem Ende des kalten Krieges ist es zu einer nie dagewesenen Zusammenballung etablierter Medienmacht gekommen. Medienkonzerne verbreiten über unzählige Kanäle ihre vielfach durch politische u./o. wirtschaftliche Interessen gefärbten Informationen und konstruieren somit Kraft ihrer Definitionsmacht ein Bild der Realität, das teilweise in krassem Gegensatz zu einer von vielen Menschen ganz anders erlebten Wirklichkeit steht.

Dies erschwert weltweit die Arbeit verschiedenster AktivistInnengruppen, deren Einsatz für mehr Gerechtigkeit von den grossen Medien systematisch übersehen und deren Anliegen u. Aktivitäten gefiltert, verzerrt oder gar nicht dargestellt werden - solange es nicht 'ins Bild passt'. Um solch massive 'Lücken', die jede komplexere Wahrheitsfindung verhindern, auszufüllen, begannen Menschen in den verschiedensten Teilen der Erde alternative Informationskanäle u. Verbreitungswege aufzubauen wie z.b. Untergrundmagazine, freie Radio- u. Fernsehsender, unabhängige Filmproduktionen etc. Diese Ansätze zu vernetzen und dadurch auch in ihrer globalen Gegenpräsenz zu verstärken war dann einer der Hauptgedanken, die zur Entstehung von indymedia führten.

indymedia/IMC trat unter diesem Namen und den damit verbundenen Medienstrategien (wichtige Schwerpunkte: Internet / Open Posting ) im November '99 in Seattle anlässlich der Proteste gegen die WTO und globalen Kapitalismus an die Weltöffentlichkeit, indem die IMC-Seite während dieser Zeit eine minutiöse Berichterstattung von AktivistInnen über das Geschehen vor Ort lieferte. Das Internet bot hier die Möglichkeit, unabhängig vom einzelnen Individuum einen massiven Informationsfluss zu koordinieren, eine Diskussionsplattform zu bieten und somit in Kooperation mit anderen Medienkanälen grösstmögliche Öffentlichkeit zu schaffen.

Seitdem entstanden v.a im Zusammenhang mit politischen Grossveranstaltungen weltweit immer mehr neue indymedia-Zentren, die sowohl regional als auch international alternatives Nachrichtenmaterial veröffentlichen. Auch die Gründung eines IMC in Deutschland ist stark mit den aus Prag ( 26.9.00, globaler Aktionstag gegen die IWF- und Weltbanktagung) mitgebrachten Eindrücken und Erfahrungen hiesiger AktivistInnen verknüpft.Wo liegt der politische Ansatz von indymedia im Gegensatz zu den Mainstreammedien?

indymedia Deutschland versteht sich als ein emanzipatorisches, unabhängiges Mediennetzwerk ohne kommerzielle Interessen - hier ist die Information kein Modethema, keine 'Handelsware' mit Marktwert - mit dem zentralen Ansatz, Gegenöffentlichkeit zu schaffen, indem die Menschen an der gesellschaftlichen Basis DIREKT zu Wort kommen; darum ist auch das Open Posting ein so wichtiger Bestandteil der Idee.

Diese Form des direkten Zugriffs öffnet die Grenze zwischen KonsumentInnen und ProduzentInnen, verstärkt das - von den vorherrschenden Informationsstrukturen weitgehendst unangesprochene... - Bewusstsein der Menschen in Bezug auf ihr gesellschaftliches Mitsprache- und Mitgestaltungsrecht und kann somit effektiv zu emanzipatorischen Veränderungsprozessen sowohl inner- als auch ausserhalb der Medienlandschaft beitragen. Alle Beteiligten handeln eigenverantwortlich, Mitgliedschaften oder interne Hierarchien/Führungsstrukturen wie in anderen Organisationen widersprächen massiv dem Grundprinzip des Projekts. Alle, die sich einbringen, SIND dadurch gleichzeitig (und von daher gleichberechtigt) indymedia. indymedia ist immer auch Teil der Bewegung, von der es berichtet.

Was will indymedia NICHT sein?
- Ersatz für schon bestehende alternative Informationsstrukturen; hier soll indymedia nur unterstützende / vernetzende Funktion haben.
- Absatzpool für vorbereitete Stellungnahmen hierarchischer, etablierter oder kommerzieller Gruppierungen
- Diskussionsforum oder Verstaltungskalender; indymedia eignet sich wegen seiner Struktur nur sehr schlecht dafür. Eine Auswahl an Diskussionsforen und Veranstaltungskalendern sind hier und hier verlinkt.
- Plattform für sexistische, rassistische, faschistische u./o. antisemitische Beiträge jeder Art.

INDYMEDIA (D)