Washblog

is a necessary direction, an ongoing work-in-progress, and -- if you're talking about any "grand plan" -- easier said than done.  

In an immediate, practical sense, tons of help is needed with many small media outlets to help integrate them with others -- like Washblog, for example.  We need more writers and more integration with community radio, film, etc. We need more people writing stories and then using the information they contain to take action. This is a model that works, I believe.   I sometimes wish when I see proposals like yours that this kind of effort could, instead, be directed into the smaller, ongoing projects that are already making a difference.

As for big, over-arching efforts, such as I see your proposal --

The conservative coordination has been backed by mountains of $ and leaves its participants less autonomy than desireable.  On the progressive side of the aisle, there is a rich and complex history of past and current work to build the power of small media.  Indymedia is one of these organizations and it was founded here in Seattle. In the blog world, there's work such as that being done by BlogsUnited.  In radio, there's the relatively new NW Progressive Community Radio Network.  Here's a story I did on that: NW Community Radio Network: A New Force for Media Democracy.

WiserEarth is a powerful combination relational database, wiki, and social-networking tool that is just starting in the past year -- run by Natural Capital Institute.  

Here's a story I did on that: A Washington Slice of the Biggest Movement the World has Ever Seen.  

Strengthening progressive media means an entirely different approach than that used by conservative media, as I believe that being progressive or liberal, intrinsically, means not being dominated top-down -- not aggregating power that, inevitably, will then be monopolized by powerful organizations and individuals that are always on the lookout for such opportunities.

There's much to be said for self-organization. Paul Hawkens in his speech on WiserCommons/WiserEarth talked about environmental and human rights organizations comprising the largest movement the world has ever seen -- and proposes that its power comes from the fact that it has ideas but no ideology, that it is purely grassroots, and therefore cannot be squelched or dominated or used.

No big effort, such as I understand you to be proposing, can really get far, I believe, without understanding this landscape much more than I do and working with the major players and being willing to give up the idea of top-down management.

by noemie maxwell on Mon Jul 09, 2007 at 10:35:23 AM PST

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