Briarpatch articles from June 2007

Briarpatch archives from June 2007

Consent is manufactured, but dissent comes naturally.(human rights activism)
June 1, 2007... As I WRITE this letter, hundreds of activists and academics--including at least two contributors to this issue, as well as Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, Amy Goodman, Judy Rebick, Linda McQuaig, and others--are converging on Windsor, Ontario, for...

Community radio and the frequency of struggle.
June 1, 2007... WHEATER TROUGHT A POLITICAL AFFAIRS Shown, an indy-rock program or a cultural program dedicated to immigrant communities, community radio has long played an integral part in social change and activism in Canada. Community radio has a rich...

PropAfghanda: the battle for Canadian hearts & minds: if maintaining Canada's Afghan occupation requires a "perception war" on Canadian soil, then are Canadians now the enemy?
June 1, 2007... FEW CANADIANS KNOW THAT THE transformation of Canada's military and foreign policy establishment towards more aggressive operations has been afoot since the end of the Cold War. But in the face of Canada's escalating engagement in a dirty...

The power of imaginative media: or the neo-conservatives' guide to shaping public opinion for fun and profit.
June 1, 2007... IT IS NO SECRET THAT, IN the hands of the ruling class, news media are a powerful tool for shaping public opinion. A 2003 study by the Program on International Policy, for instance, found that Americans who primarily get their news from Fox are...

Covering Fallujah: violence, silence, and the view from the newsroom: U.S. and Canadian print media were nearly unanimous in their silence on the human rights violations and war crimes perpetrated in Fallujah.
June 1, 2007... GEORGE ORWELL'S OFT-QUOTED remark about truth being the first casualty of war is certainly applicable to North American corporate news coverage of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. This coverage has been consistently marked by a lack of...

Better zine than herd: the underground politics of do-it-yourself media.
June 1, 2007... "THE PUBLIC SHOULD CREATE A MASS media that isn't based on ratings and consumerism. We have voices, we should be heard. We should listen to each other instead of pundits, anchormen, and so-called experts. We should take away the power that we...

Love's labour lost? Working for a sustainable alternative press.
June 1, 2007... I DON'T RECALL THE EXACT MOMENT I became skeptical of the term labour of love, but I do remember the day it began feeling like an inappropriate descriptor for Shameless, the independent, feminist magazine for teens I co-founded in 2003 and...

Deep integration buried deep in the back pages: citizens' groups want to make the Security and Prosperity Partnership on election issue--but will the media bite?
June 1, 2007... THIS PAST MARCH, THE Council of Canadians, along with the Canadian Labour Council and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, declared war on the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership. At a two-day teach-in held in Ottawa on...

Viva Zapatero!(Movie review)
June 1, 2007... Viva Zapatero! Directed by Sabina Guzzanti, 2005 VIVA ZAPATERO! PAINTS A STARTLING picture of Italy's crippled independent press and the implications for Italian democracy. This ferociously funny documentary, told through the personal...

Can social media be a tool for social change?(Parting Shots)(RightOnCanada.ca)
June 1, 2007... The powerful thing about MoveOn is that it is not a one-way broadcast media. The Internet, when used best, is a two-way media. JOAN BLADES, MOVEON FOUNDER MOVEON.ORG's VIRAL organizing methods have revolutionized progressive politics...