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Media Should Not Be Business

Capitalism, at least the version that is commonly practiced in this era that we currently live in, has a long list of terrible drawbacks. The one I was thinking most about this evening, as I cruised the canals of Amsterdam, is the marriage of business and media.

Let us take a step back for a moment. While pure capitalism seems to push for a world where everything is a commodity and everything can be bought and sold. We know, in fact, that many things cannot and SHOULD NOT be for sale. Examples of this include matters of public safety, like the Fire Department. Many centuries ago they experimented with private fire brigades in the US, but of course houses that didn’t pay for service burned down and led to other houses catching fire. Clearly, fire protection was deemed something that cannot be a business.

Let us return to media, a far cry from the world of fires and fire protection. Media is widely operated around the world as a business. While there are numerous public media run from public funds, a majority of the world’s information comes from media companies that are private businesses. Why even in terms of language (english anyway) you hear this cultural norm in the term “the newspaper business”. Yup, when you talk about media, you’re almost always talking about business.

Yet everywhere you look there is evidence of what a terrible and detrimental marriage this is. News reports mixed with advertisements to the point you can’t tell which is which. Media companies buying other media companies and cutting staff and budgets in order to increase profit margins. News programs covering topics that will attract the most amount of people in order to attract the most amount of advertisers, appealing to people’s insecurities, fears, or dreams. Ignoring news that makes people uncomfortable about their lives, their government, or the companies they help fund. Firing or marginalizing reporters that dare to challenge this system, by direct or indirect orders of business managers or sponsors.

Over and over again, now of course, on the internet, we are told that media is a business and that is just how it has to be.

People ask me, “Maybe you could make a living out of your work on the site by having ads or a sponsor”, and I make some excuse about not being sure what to do. The truth is I am very sure it has been and would be a mistake. More than that, I disagree with the global norm, the widely accepted tradition that this is how media works and the world will be fine if this continues. It’s not fine. We are not ok, and one of the most basic reasons is the way our media system functions… the business of reporting the news.

And so I carry on without the sponsors. Without the money that journalists need to survive. Like many of my friends and fellow reporters on the internet, I try to formulate a better way. Or more often, sit here hoping that if I keep doing my work, that new day will finally come when media breaks free from business and finds a better way to exist. One where reporting about people and injustice gets the priority, and funding comes without the need to sell something or compromise the essential principles that make it possible to shed light on what has been left in the dark for much too long.

Victims of the Tea Industry

In the 90’s there was the big collapse of coffee prices, and the millions of farmers whose lives were ruined while their story was barely covered in the mainstream.

Today I’ve been reading more and more about the collapse of tea prices in the last 10 years; ruining the lives of tea farmers in India. Between 1998 and 2004 the price of tea dropped dramatically, and now the major tea companies are buying each other up… once again.. leaving tea farmers to pick up the pieces.

It is yet another one of those stories we never hear about. We drink coffee, tea, expect dirt cheap prices, and put little more thought into how it gets to us.

This will be a topic for an upcoming podcast, just as soon as I get a hold of some people with some experience or knowledge related to this topic. In the meantime it reminds me of a recent post about the Development of India by Dilip over at Death Ends Fun.

Listen to Mailer

A cool wind blew through my tshirt and grey clouds rumbled above my head today, as I scooped water from out the boat. Never the funnest task in the world, I always have podcasts playing in my ears while I balance myself over the boat, keeping my feet from touching the water.

A perfect backdrop for listening to Radio Open Source’s interview with Norman Mailer. I’m often quick to say that I admire Mailer, and look up to him as a writer and a thinker. But as I listened today, I realized I hardly know the man.. and in fact there is much more to admire than I’d previously assumed.

What I liked best was his words regarding ignorance and television. And even his take on George Bush was actually extremely telling beyond the typical criticism you can hear everywhere else. It was about intelligence and admitting one’s mistakes, one’s limitations. Actually if you listen you may hear something even different from the way I summarize it… so you know what to do: listen to it!

More from the g8 Summit

Click here to see a good video from today’s events demonstrating against the G8 Summit.

What I like best about this one is how it shows one member of the group speaking politely with police explaining that they are not the enemy and they will not act violently towards them. He even asks if they would please open their helmets and put down their clubs. (which they don’t seem to, but at least one cop seems to want to do so)

From the Front Lines of Resistance

It has been quite difficult to get any of the many organizations involved in demonstrations at the G8 summit in Germany to talk to me. This could be because they are so busy with the never ending media requests they get (wouldn’t that be nice!). It could also be that things are so tense on the front lines of these demonstrations that the last thing you worry about is answering a phone.

Meanwhile, my brave friends Kiwi and Fabian just returned from Rostock where the first days of protests were held and some big confrontations with police took place. Here is a excerpt from Kiwi’s email to me: (note to the grammar police, she’s Estonian and above the laws of grammar)

The weekend was full of impressions. We are still dealing with some of the things that happened. As you know some conflicts escalated on saturday. It started already as the first protesters had just reached the destination of the strike (Rostock harbor). Me and Fabian were pretty much at the front but we didn’t see what happened. People from the Black Block just started running around everywhere. It turned out later
that the police had parked an empty car/bus in the very middle of the protest area + a helicopter was flying right above the main stage making any speech/concert impossible. The organizers repeatedly asked the police to move the helicopter but no action was taken. This was interpreted as pure provocation and some (I would say the BB mostly but thats a guess) tore up the sidewalk an started to throw pavment stones
at the police.
So this was pretty much at the beginning. An hour or two later the situation began to get worse. More and more police gathered at the scene of the protest. Me and a friend had just sat down on the sidewalk and Fabian was away to get st to drink as people just started to run away suddenly.
2 minutes later as we felt an uncomfortable burn in our eyes it became clear that the police had used tear gas to force people to back off. We were only a 100 meters away and I still don’t understand why drastic measures like these were necessary. In our oppinion the crowd was peaceful.

As Fabian came back we wanted to make a plan in case things got worse
but it was obviously to late. A car was burning and 3 fire engines followed by armored cars with water cannons drove into the crowd. Soon the whole place was full with tear gas and water cannons were used to scatter the protesters. The program on stage was disrupted and organizers tried to calm people down. They spoke to the police publicly
and told them to stop the provocation. In the mean time police were everywhere and people were running in all directions. Me and Fabian were cut off from our friend. Since we couldn’t see properly anymore and the situation began to get dangerous we tried to run into town but the police were blocking some of the streets so we felt really trapped.
Well these are just some of the weird ways the police acted. The rumor was actually that they tried to get as much of the riot on tape as possible so they could argue against further protests, get more freedom to act cruel or whatever. I must say it fits to the profile.
Anyway, the sad part is the way our beloved media is pulling the whole protest into dirt and not even mentioning the motives of “peaceful” protesters. There are so many great discussions – the people are doing an amazing job. But it is not in the interest of the system to let them be heard.

Rotting American Image

During one of my very fun nights out on the town in Berlin my two new friends offerred to show me their favorite night spots. And as we walked town the now typical hipster street, we ran into a big crowd of people gathered around one guy who was struggling to be heard, telling some story like a tour guide.

“Oh this is so funny. Have you ever heard about these pub crawl just for Americans?”. my friend asked. Of course I had not. So she went on “Yeah they have this guide who brings alcohol in this backpack dispenser and everyone gets little shot glasses and it advertized for Americans to come get really drunk and maybe get laid.”

As I listened to these words I was already noticing all these details, looking at the obscenely loud crowd of college age kids in front of me. We walked around them like you walk by the scene of an accident. We joked about maybe trying to fit in and observe them up close. The joke didn’t last long and we got out of there in a hurry.

Hours later we hopped into a tram to get to the next destination. It was a typical Berlin tram on a wednesday night, not too full, lots of people sitting and the odd conversation here and there. Suddenly, as the next stop approached, there came this overwhelming sound of people. As if a stadium had let out after a championship game, there was a crowd outside and it was chanting and singing and yelling. And as the doors opened, they packed into the tram with a resounding roar, banging on the walls and stumbling over people in their seats.

YOu could hear the accents, you could hear their words, it was very painfully obvious that the American pub crawl crowd had invaded the tram. When they weren’t shouting conversation to their friends, they were busy leaning over passengers.. repeatedly apologizing for being drunk and for George Bush. I’ll never forget the look in the middle aged German couples faces, the look of disgust and pity, as college kid after college kid apologized for George Bush or even.. being American.

After two never ending stops, they piled out. The silence was deafening. Those who remained on the tram, I’m not exaggerating, gave a collective sigh and everyone looked at each other with this knowing look. To me it said “my god that was horrible.”

These events replayed in my head all evening. The college kids, the pubcrawl, the local people on the tram, the unbelievably loud communication, and of course.. the repeated apologies for what their country has done.

Say what you want about George Bush or even Congress, but these encounters remind me that there is something deeper going on. It is hard to break down what it is all about, but I definitely look to how people are being educated in the US, especially in college. To me college is the new high school, except that now you pay big money for you kids to basically attend a glorified high school with fewer rules.

Then you come back to the whole American image abroad thing. It is in shambles. And It won’t be cured by this congress or a new president. It will take a revolution in American culture that looks highly unlikely any time soon.