Strategies for change

One common theme addressed by conference participants was the importance of eliciting the utilitarian facets of media. In practice, this means producing or presenting work in order to instigate an ongoing and critical dialogue, expanding media's applications beyond the confines of the screen, as well as posing questions that address a group's understanding of their own relationship to representation. In her introductory remarks, moderator Anne Lieberman suggested that one principle objective of alternative media is to challenge the normative structure of passive viewership. She also emphasized the "ecological" use of media. Noting the significance of self-representation, she nonetheless cited the resource-intensive character of production and advocated increasing awareness of the abundance of already produced programs through outreach and distribution projects.

The conference's morning session was devoted to presentations by four featured speakers, each of whom exemplified a distinct approach to utilizing media for social change, with the later part of the day devoted to smaller participant workshops expanding on these themes. As the morning's first speaker, independent producer Judith Helfand explained the development of The Uprising of '34 (1995), a film she co-produced with George Stoney and Susanne Rostock about the General Textile Strike of 1934. Initiated by a consortium of historians, the central themes and goals of the film were conceived and organized by ongoing discussions with Southern textile workers and a number of diverse local Southern groups with long-term commitments to working in the community. Distribution and audience development thus began at the project's inception. With the enduring refusal of trade unionism presaged by the strike's bitter defeat ("right to work" policy remains predominant within the Southern states), it became evident that the film could not simply be about "which side are you on?" The historical circumstances and lived experiences of the people most affected by the strike were far more complicated than such a reductive stance would suggest. To address only the strike or unionism per se would mean overlooking the larger picture of the ingrained attitudes and issues felt by people in these communities.

Two essential points were made during the organized dialogues between filmmakers and community members. Foremost among the issues raised was the need to articulate that the unions emerged from the tenacity and needs of the community itself, and were not simply the result of outside influence by "Yankees" or agitators. The second point emphasized that protest is not an act of disloyalty to one's community. Rather the degree to which many consciously attempted to forget the strike and remain silent, or believed that the union abandoned the rank-and-file, suggested that the underlying conditions of the situation could make the film useful for the community to re-evaluate its own history. Whereas the issues of labor and unionism are most often encountered in the oppositional or combative circumstances of a picket line or contract dispute, exploring the spectrum of a community's experience in relation to this event contributed to a more subtle and complex picture of the event. Drawing on the resources and guidance of community groups, churches, foundations and unions validated the project for disparate audiences, many of whom would not previously have expressed an interest in a film about a strike. It also served to forge coalitions between formerly unassociated organizations, and involved potential funders in the project from its inception. Much of the film's financial backing came from sources already invested in the organizations with which the producers had established relationships. Distribution efforts for the film also benefited from this targeted yet inclusive approach.

The second speaker, Mario Murillo, Director of Public Affairs at WBAI Pacifica Radio, discussed the prospects for making politically committed non-commercial radio responsive and sustainable within the predominance of commercial, advertising-driven programming. Pacifica Radio is the oldest listener-supported independent network in the U.S. Now comprised of five stations and an archive in Los Angeles, Pacifica began in 1949 with KPFA in Berkeley. Its mandate has been to disseminate information addressing events and issues ignored by dominant media. Nonetheless, the necessity of remaining financially solvent, and an interest in reaching a large and diverse audience, pose fundamental questions about the structure of the network's broadcasting practices.

Murillo chronicled the station's internal controversies. With 86% of WBAI's budget acquired directly from listener support, an expanded listener base is more than simply effective political communication. Debates over the efficacy of "strip programming" - the standardization of broadcast schedules - are indicative of more essential questions about the station's overall objectives. Currently, only several programs can be found routinely on the same day and at the same time, making the formation of a regular listening audience more challenging. On the other hand, such flexibility enhances the station's responsivity to community issues and political exigencies, and means that a plurality of voices are aired regularly. Whether the reduction in the number of voices diminishes WBAI's function as a community station, or whether this represents acquiescence to the forms of professionalism demanded by market forces, remain hotly disputed topics. Existing within the commercial context incessantly reiterates the tension between calculating what elements can be strategically appropriated from a rationalized market paradigm, and at what point form determines content.