Funferal

The Internet as organizing tool

This piece, about the conference on media reform, is by guest author Sabryna Cornish.
Is it possible to use something as vast and spatial as the internet to mobilize a group of people who have a common goal? It only makes sense that the Media Reform conference held Nov. 9 through 11 in Madison would have a session about how to use the internet as an organizing tool. The speakers came from very different organizations, but they all have a common quest – determining how they can mobilize the public into demanding that media be reformed into a tool that works for the people. Keeping in mind that this conference was geared toward activists, there were some interesting and practical tips about the best way to utilize the internet for participatory purposes.
Art McGee from the Media Justice Network said that although the internet is the tool being used to organize, the human factor of organization still needs to be taken into consideration — a valid point I think. No matter how much information is disseminated on the internet, it is irrelevant if the people at the receiving end do not know what to do with that information. Utilizing the internet effectively involves balancing the technological with the human (it sounds very Katherine Hayles, I know).

Probably one of the most celebrated speakers (or at least the one who everyone wanted to talk to after the session) was Noah Winer from Moveon.org. He offered some insight into how the organization is structured and gave some tips for those who might want to set up smaller, grassroots organizations. The organization does target email, a practice that I find troubling when it purports to be an open, democratic forum. He said they choose to target email because they do not want to flood emailboxes with unnecessary mail. But I would argue that most people who sign up to be a part of Moveon.org would rather make their own decisions as to what they would like to receive. To me this is a form of gatekeeping, the very practice that most alternative media abhors. The last speaker was Inja Coates from Media Tank who offered practical advice on how to start up one’s own independent media center.
Some of the suggestions from the three panelists for effectively utilizing the internet include:

• make web sites focused toward the specific audience
• do not clutter web sites with too much. As McGee said, “Quality and consistency of information are more important than quantity.”
• do not send too much email
• web pages should be displayed in a traditional journalistic inverse pyramid style with the most important information at the top of the page