Media Democracy Day hits a decade
November 6 marks the 10th anniversary of Media Democracy Day (MDD), co-sponsored since its inception by Simon Fraser University’s School of Communication to counter corporate media concentration and support independent and public service media.
This year's event, at co-sponsor Vancouver Public Library’s Central Library from 12-5 p.m., features keynote speakers, interactive panels and workshops focused on public media policy, citizen and alternative media production, and creating a more diverse and representative media landscape.
“While sticking to our policy reform roots, this year we also want to draw attention to people who are making change at street level,” says MDD coordinator Tyler Morgenstern, a fourth-year SFU communication student and outreach-community engagement coordinator.
By that, he means, “The indie, alternative, community-based media artists and activists that are telling diverse, interesting stories.”
The event’s opening speaker is veteran journalist Tony Burman, former editor-in-chief of CBC news and senior executive of the Americas for the Al Jazeera English 24-hour news channel.
The panelists include SFU communication professor Donald Gutstein, an expert on neoliberal and conservative rhetoric and author of Not a Conspiracy Theory: How Business Propaganda Hijacks Democracy, and York communication studies department chair David Skinner, an alternative media expert.
Panel discussions for the day include:
- Assessing the role of alternative media in environmental communication in an age of corporate green washing
- The rise of Fox News North and what it means for Canadian broadcasting
- The portrayal of protest and negotiation at global marquee events like the G20 summit
- Representations of sexual and gendered violence in media
- A close look at the shifting landscape of Canadian copyright
There will also be a trade show-style exhibition featuring almost 30 exhibitors including MDC co-sponsor Openmedia.ca, Out on Screen, Hello Cool World, the Access to Media Education Society, Rabble.ca, Amnesty International and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
For more, visit the MDD Vancouver website at www.mediademocracyday.org/vancouver or check out their Facebook page at http://at.sfu.ca/WBWywv.
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