Investigating the Future: Pacifica and Indymedia this weekend

FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

New College is supporting a seminar of Pacifica and Indymedia activists on Dec. 3rd, 4th, and 5th. This will be the third in a series beginning in 2001 with Pacifica Now!, a gathering of producers and listener activists, followed by Rethinking the News, a gathering of many of Pacifica’s news directors and producers ( click to see archive MP3s). The upcoming seminar will focus on investigative reporting as a means of supporting democratic culture.

New College has just completed building a recording studio and audio-video production lab. This brings important additional resources to our seminar. In addition to recording and production space, we will be using web based software (a Wiki called Moodle http://www.moodle.org) that includes file sharing, video conferencing and distance learning modules which add depth and flexibility to our meeting.
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FULL SEMINAR LISTING
http://www.digitaltheater.newcollege.edu/index2.html

Friday Night: Opening Session 7pm, New College Theater, 200 seat venue

Should Pacifica support in a major way the dissenters who are challenging the presumptive election victory of the Republicans? How?
A Roundtable with participants from all five stations
* Military who refuse: Jeff Patterson, ex Marine who refused induction to Iraq, organizer "Not in Our Name"
* Conversation opened by M.T. Karthik, Pacifica's National U.S. Elections Coordinator

Saturday Morning: 9:30am, New College Creamery, 60 seat venue

* How can we expand Pacifica and Independent media's reach: What has worked? Democracy Now!: a model for growth? - Denis Moynihan, DN! Outreach Director & Ana Nogueira, Co-founder New York City Indymedia Center and DN! Producer
* Free Speech Radio News: How did its structure emerge and what changes are underway? Is there another great technological leap on the horizon after MP3? - Mic, FSRN Producer and Low Power FM radio activist (confirmed)
* LA Sound Posse: What outreach and organizing efforts are occurring out of KPFK? - Dave Adelson
* Enemy Combatant Radio, SF Bay Indymedia - Mark B.
* KPFA General Manager: Roy Campanella, Jr.

Saturday Noon: The seminar will host two international tele-panels. The first a meeting of internationally known intellectuals and critics, the second, a first ever international teleconference between community radio networks in the US, Latin America, and Europe. These conference calls will take place using free, open source telephony software called Skype (Mac OS X, PC, Linux) and include simultaneous text based translation.

Panel One: What can we as a community of nations, independent thinkers and activists, what should we do about the problem we face with this growing empire that wants to be bigger and better than the Roman empire? What can we do for the preservation of culture, resources, the welfare of the planet and the people in it?

* USA: Pacifica Radio
* FRANCE: Ignacio Ramonet, Editor of Le Monde Diplomatique (invited)
* MEXICO: Carlos Montemayor, author, journalist, political analyst and columnist for La Jornada.
* QATAR: Al-Jazeera (invited)

Panel Two: How can the Pacifica Radio Network link up with the networks participating in this panel to have a freer faster information flow outside the mainstream media? What previous projects have you engaged in? What have been the results? How can we immediately began?

* USA: Pacifica Radio
* ARGENTINA: Rodrigo Tornero, member of the Buenos Aires-based FM La Tribu radio collective.
* ECUADOR: Alar, continental network of community radio stations, daily broadcasters, Mario Villalobos, journalist.
* SPAIN: Rafael Cuesta, member of the Madrid-based Red Con Voz radio collective.
* THE NETHERLANDS: Radio Netherlands (invited)

Saturday: 3pm-5pm
What is it most important for us to talk about now? (a facilitated open meeting)

Saturday Night: 7:30pm
Xenophobia the Father of Stupidity
Poetry and Soundscapes

* Robert Knight, producer WBAI's Earthwatch, Flashpoints Headlines
* Kim Shuck, Cherokee and leader of CA Poets in the Schools
* Keith Hennessy, dancer and performance artist

Sunday Morning: 9:30am
Talk Back, feedback to the organizers

Sunday: 10:30am Unofficial Enemies

* Ryme Kathouda: News Producer, WPFW, Co-Founder WBIX.org
* Prof. Kambiz Sakhai: author, "Communicative Reason & Medieval Iranian Thought"
* Anti-Zionist Broadcasting in a Calvinist's Country: Nora Barrows Friedman, Flashpoints (KPFA)
* Neil MacLean, Heathens and Heretics Unite!

Sunday: 2pm Dissidents or Nutcases: Should Interviewers Decide?

* Interviewed by MT Karthik
9/11 Who can say what happened?: Carol Brouillet, organizer
* Both "sides" Voted for War, Did Gatekeepers Make it Possible?: Joe Wanzala
* And Opinions from Otis MacLay, Program Director, KPFK

Sunday: 7pm Womyn's Building, 3543 18th Street, 300-seat venue

Investigative reporting, what isn't being done? What connotes a real investigative report? What does it take for a story to sustain itself in the face of censorship?

* Dennis Bernstein, Flashpoints KPFA
* Robert Knight, WBAI Earthwatch, Flashpoints KPFA
* Kevin Pena, investigative journalist, film maker, Haiti Response
* Response, Roy Campanella Jr., KPFA Station Manager