... of an article I want to write. It's a case study of sorts. When I try to step back from this whole Wafaa Bilal censorship at RPI/Republican Protest/Sanctuary closed by the city story there are multiple stories... overarching narratives and inner threads. But the one I am thinking about now is about Indymedia, web2.0, and media activism. Having been part of a few large Indymedia mobilizations, it was (and still is) exhilerating to feel the media activism community emerge from winter time with passion - stepping up to support Wafaa Bilal and document his situation, condemn RPI for its failures as an institution of higher education, support the Sanctuary for Indpendent Media, and then hold the city accountable for its corruption and abuse of codes enforcement.
But as a media activist with some sort of roots in the Indymedia 'movement', it is strange that the pulsating i nowhere to be found. Instead there is a network of youtube sites, blip tv feeds, listservs, giant cc: lists, wiki pages, and blogs. I need to think this through more. But ... as amazing as the response has been (who knows what we will be able to accomplish, if anything), how much BETTER would it be if this community was not forced to organize on the fly.
But what does this mean? I don't know. How would Troy TV (public access) had fed into this scenario were it not shot down by Mayor Tutunjian after months of tireless organizing (by some of the same media activists involved in this struggle); What about a local free radical newspaper; Does the fact that the Hudson Mohawk Indymedia site is in a practical state of disuse - edited by a few people and generally not up-to-date - matter at all? What does it mean to use a mix of tools.. some open source.. some owned by the conglomerates. This is all very interesting.
