Media Democracy Day marks its 10th anniversary

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By Gala Milne

In 1993, approximately 700 media activists gathered at Robson Square to resist what they called the rightward drift of mainstream print media. The event, organized by two Simon Fraser University instructors, Robert Hackett and Donald Gutstein, was called “Take Back the News”.

The Vancouver Sun had recently slashed their coverage of environmental issues, and dropped two of its environmental reporters. Canadian scientist and broadcaster David Suzuki keynoted the event, which helped set the tone for a period of growing concern on the state of the public sphere as far as the media would shape it throughout the 1990s.

By the mid-90s, Conrad Black’s growing media empire became a concern among the organizers of Take Back the News. Lacking funding for a national media democracy conference, three instructors, including Hackett and Gutstein, as well as David Skinner, along with allies elsewhere in Vancouver, decided to focus their energy on a local initiative.

“It began as a result of ongoing concern for the state of media in Vancouver,” Hackett told The Peak. “Ideas and concepts of ‘media and democracy’ were out there, and we decided, ‘Why not do something locally and have an ‘earth day’ for the media reform movement in Vancouver?’” Thus, in 2001, Media Democracy Day was born, bringing citizens, activists, scholars, students, policy-writers, and media makers into the discussion.

Simultaneously, organizers in Toronto had the same idea and over the last 10 years, MDD has expanded to include up to 16 cities worldwide. “Probably the most rewarding experience for me,” said Hackett, “was being at a conference in Egypt and seeing a woman wearing a ‘Media Democracy Day Barcelona 2002’ t-shirt.”

Throughout the years, MDD Vancouver has had a range of supporters from labour and policy groups to universities and colleges. The Vancouver Public Library has also been a supporter of MDD throughout the last decade in providing a free public venue to accommodate a diverse audience. Additionally, Vancouver-based independent online newspaper, The Tyee, as well as advocacy group, OpenMedia.ca, were both formed in part out of Media Democracy Day events.

This year, MDD will open on Remembrance Day with a talk on militarism and the media from former SFU School of Communication PhD graduate Dr. Sut Jhally. It will run for two days, ending on Sunday, November 13.

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