Media Equity

Col Collaborative

In development -- a national networking and fund- ing pool for feminist media justice organizations

May 1, 2008 MAY DAY Vol 1, No 1

May 22, Montreal Ariel Dougherty will present a Short paper on feminist media justice communications, outlining some history as a way to point out possible next steps. This will be in Bridging the Divide Between Scholars and Activists pre-session at the International Communications

Association conference.

Late June WATCH for the launch of

MEC’s website www.mediaequity.org

Recent Steps

With two collaborating academics, Lisa McLaughlin, PhD in communications and Susan Feiner, economist, MEC applied to the Social

Science Research Council to survey the field of feminist media justice organizations and assess the most appropriate sustainable funding models to serve the field. Chica Luna and National Radio Project are partnering organizations.

A parallel grant went into New

Media Women Entrepreneurs to further subsidize Dougherty!s time on the above; And to do critical outreach to potential donors.

Mission

MEC!s long term goal is to bring in a swath of new resources to support media work which honor core principles without compromise --- to racial and economic justice, grassroots political activism, women!s empowerment and human rights, and the evolution of a self-determined healthy environment and culture for all.

MEC recognizes that the severe lack of funds to do our critical organizing and

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WHY? Feminist media, forty years out now since publication of No More Fun and Games and the very first women!s films of Newsreel, should be more developed. By now it should have a greater impact in national dialogues on vital issues effecting women like pay equity or this Presidential campaign. But why not?

Its support base is barely existent. Staff, producers if not volunteers, get minimal pay. Once finished with doing the original research, recording, editing then airing a show, women do not then have capacity to develop the plan for further outreach, more shows, a new idea. Dialogues among some staff and producers dream of new possibilities, but the next steps are elusive. And the money is even more elusive.

International VIDEOLETTERS, 1975

Women!s media justice organizations have largely fallen through most funding cracks. The organizations deemed small and diffused have been unable to make a case before larger

From the Field………….Far and Wide

Only 21% of print inches/ broadcast time are devoted to stories about women and girls in mainstream media globally. Read “Who Makes the News” and learn more about the Global Media Monitoring Project’s every five year reports. http://www.whomakesthenews.org/

…JUST IN!!..... Jennifer Pozner of

Women In Media and News is blogging LIVE from Istanbul, Turkey. She is attending the first-ever conference on sexism in the media, organized by Mediz, a new media watch coalition of Turkish NGOs.http://www.wimnonline.org/WIMNsVoicesBlog/?p=1026 Learn about Mediz here: http://www.mediz.org/Kategori/13/1/English.aspx

Preetr Shekar (l. above) of Women’s Magazine, the radio show on KPFA/Berkeley, records Cynthia Enloe’s closing remarks at WAM/Women, Action and the Media, 2007. Enloe, a writer and professor, serves on the Advisory Board of Center for New Words, which annually organizes this conference. Enloe’s comments can be heard at the end of a very strategic segment that Women’s Magazine aired April 9, 2007 on women & media. Another member of the radio show’s team, Kate Raphael had analyzed women’s participation on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now!. Interviews live with Goodman and Katha Pollitt are the main feature. Why aren’t Raphael’s data more widely KNOWN??

EVENTS

MEC Newsletter Vol1 No1 May ,1, 2008 Page 2

MEC is a sponsored project of International Radio Project. All donations are tax-deductible.

Media Equity Collaborative 1580 Caballo Road, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, USA 87901-3013 Ariel Dougherty, Initiator 575.894.1844 fax 575. 894. 1845 <ArielCamera@gmail.com>

foundations. At this point in history the conditions of free media are so dire, and the funding increasingly scarce, that seeing feminist media through the thicket is further complicated. The emergent support that sister organizations who work in VAW and human rights and repro-ductive justice have gotten from the 100+ women!s funds has not come, enlarge, to feminist media work. When Ms. Foundation started in 1973 it had a policy to not fund media (and the arts). Many women!s funds followed. There have been exceptions. Astraea!s support of Lesbian films is exemplar. Today there are fortunately many changes. Even Ms. Foundation!s new “Building Movements”

initiative considers media. However, the funds needed to build a feminist social justice media movement are vast. Hence, Media Equity Collaborative!

C.Road graphic on the cover of South

End Press’ 2008 Catalog.

Listen to this ear-opening show at: http://aud1.kpfa.org/data/20070409-Mon1300.mp3 Learn more about Women’s Magazine: http://www.kpfa.org/womensmagazine/ And the WAM conferences: http://www.centerfornewwords.org/wam/

A FLASH from

Words of Choice: Up the Creativity

“Hello Activists and Feminists” came a message from the Chicago Abortion Fund. They are announcing their television show where “we discuss reproductive justice and what it means to be a young woman of color.” The show airs on public access in Chicago, CAN-TV 21, 8:30 the last Wed of the month. But these savvy young women know we are not all hooked to Chicago’s cable. So they have posted the show on YouTube so we can all see it!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqlKRVCzDDA & you can link to all the other shows segments. Learn more about Chicago Abortion Fund @ http://www.chicagoabortionfund.com/

On The Issues is back !!!

This Progressive Women’s Quarterly is ready again

to tackle the key feminist issues of our day. Cover

of the Fall 1994 issue, with the lead story,

“A Sacrificial Light” by Martha Shelley, the entire series

of the print issues are archived now on-line. But the publication is gearing up to play a lively on-line

role to engage our minds, our hearts and our principles!! Thank you Merle Hoffman and the rest

of the OTI team!! Sorely needed!! http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/

Filmmaker Joan Braderman, and producer Crescent Diamond, for her experimental documentary, HERETICS, have archived the entire collection of HERESIES: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics, that was published 1977-1992—all 28 issues. It is a monumental work and a phenomenal tribute to this remarkable publication. Each issue is in a pdf format, available at the link below. Also take a journey around the website and learn about the film. Maybe you would even like to contribute! http://helios.hampshire.edu/nomorenicegirls/heretics/

production work constantly threatens our existence. Further, funding situations pit us against one another. MEC is committed to establishing a new model of funding that strengthens the entire field and broadens our collective reach.

Background April 1, 2007 @ the 4th WAM Dougherty lead an “action session”. 17 women attended. At the core of what the field wants is a sustainable fund that builds up from existing productions and networks. At WAM we outlined these priorities and needs: + Training and Mentoring + Equipment, especially Multimedia + Networking & Collaborating + Document Our Work + Broaden Distribution thru Existing Networks. And we selected “Uprising” (uprisingradio.org/home/) as a first program to expand its distribution.

Women!s media has a long tradition. The Woman!s Journal is the longest standing US women!s publication. Started in 1870, as the communications tool of the American Woman Suffrage Association, it was edited by Lucy Stone, Mary Livermore and Julia Ward Howe. It ran until 1917, with Elizabeth Blackwell at its helm for 30 years. off our backs, the DC based newspaper, is the longest continuously published piece of women!s media from WLM.

The following people have provided input in development of MEC: Alyce Myatt, Amy Hoffman, Asha Tall, Barbara Seaman, Barbara Winslow, Becky Lentz, Carol Hanisch, Carol Jenkins, Catherine Russo, Christine Choy, Cindy Cooper, Cynthia Enloe, DeAnne Cuellar, Debra Zimmerman, Deedee Halleck, Dorothy Abbott, Elayne Clift, Euneika Rogers, Frieda Werden, Halina Bendkowski, Helen Brunner, Jan Strout, Jen Angel, Jennifer Baumgarden, Jennifer Hsu, Jennifer Pozner, Joan Braderman, Joan Shigakawa, Josh Breitbart, Judith Ezekiel, Karen Mulhauser, Karly Beaumont, Katherine Acey, Larry Kirkman, Laura Flanders, Lillian Jiménez, Lisa McLaughlin, Lisa Rudman, Loretta Ross, Lucinda Marshall, Marge May, Marion Banzhaf, Marjorie Fine, Maria Suárez, Martha Allen, Martha Richards, Martha Wallner, Marva Stark, Mary Ellen Capek, Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, Pam Martens, Patricia White, Patricka Dallas, Peggy Law, Rita Henley Jensen, Sallie Bingham, Sheila Paige, Sonali Kolhatkar, Susan Feiner, Terry Lawler, Thenmozhi Soundararajan

History

Florence Luscomb, c. 1910 hands

out Woman’s Journal at Boston’s

Park Place Station. At the time it was considered a scandalous act.

Initiator: Ariel Dougherty has 40 years experience as a producer, teacher, administrator and advocate. A leader in establishing feminist cultural organizations she has envisioned and developed scores of path breaking media projects. She co-founded Women Make Movies (1972) and initiated its vital earned income program, distribution. Most recently as associate producer of Women, Art and Revolution, she helped secure a single $100,000 contribution for this vital documentary on the Feminist Art Movement.