Don't hate the media, own the media

I have written extensively about what is wrong with the mainstream media and the benefits of co-operative ways of working. The article below outlines one of the most interesting alternatives or synergies that I have come across - The Dominion paper based in Canada.

What is especially fascinating is the multi-stakeholder co-operative ownership structure it is using:

"As opposed to the more common consumer or worker co-op models, organizers have set up what they call a “solidarity co-op” to allow for three different classes of members—readers, writers and editors—giving each different rights and responsibilities while still ensuring that each can influence how the co-op functions and the kinds of issues it tackles."

I can't help but wonder how well this works in practise, what are the problems that come with it and if it will ever reach a large scale public audience. I don't have any answers for now, so read the article below for more of an idea of how it works.

DON’T HATE THE MEDIA, OWN THE MEDIA - by SCOTT HARRIS

The issue of media concentration has long been a concern for Canadians, made more acute when the ever-lovable Conrad Black swept through the Canadian print media world in the mid-’90s, gobbling up papers from coast to coast.

Like Black’s luck, media concentration has gone from bad to worse over the years. According to the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union’s media monitor, in Alberta just two companies (CanWest Global and Quebecor) own 90 per cent of provincial daily newspaper circulation and just two conglomerates (Bowes/Quebecor and Great West/Glacier—owners of Vue’s competitor See Magazine) own 70 per cent of Alberta’s weekly newspaper circulation. Nationally, a handful of chains control almost the entire media diet of Canadians.

It was in response to this concentration—and the problems of diversity and accountability that emerge from it—that motivated the creation in 2003 of The Dominion, a national grassroots monthly that its founders hope in time will grow to offer an alternative news voice in Canada.

“We got tired of hearing talk that it would be nice if there was a progressive national newspaper in Canada and decided to start one—with no resources whatsoever,” explains Dru Oja Jay, the editor and one of the founders of The Dominion. “It’s expanded from there to be a fairly substantial network of a few hundred writers and editors across Canada and around the world.”

While the Globe and Mail likely isn’t checking over their shoulder too often just yet, Jay says that the growth of The Dominion, which has some 4500 email subscribers and between 30 000 and 60 000 unique visitors to its website depending on the month in addition to a few hundred print subscribers, has shown there is room for alternative voices in the media landscape.

Moving the project to the next level is the motivation behind The Dominion’s current month-long cross-Canada “Own Your Media” tour, which hits Edmonton on Mar 22.

“What we want to do is continue the expansion towards a grassroots Canada-wide newspaper, something that can challenge the corporate media on its coverage and provide serious alternative coverage,” explains Jay over the phone from Guelph.“And the way we’ve gone about doing that is by setting up a media co-operative.

“The main idea is to spread the media co-op as far as possible by having local chapters in cities and communities across Canada,” Jay continues. “By having a whole network as opposed to just isolated media co-ops in each city we’d be able to first of all increase the distribution of The Dominion substantially but also put together a grassroots reporting network that would make sure that we had a thumbnail sketch at all times of what stories are going on across Canada.”

The concept, he explains, is to build a model of media ownership that is responsive and accountable to the people who have a stake in The Dominion—whether through producing it or reading it—rather than the corporate shareholders and advertisers who control major national media corporations.

As opposed to the more common consumer or worker co-op models, organizers have set up what they call a “solidarity co-op” to allow for three different classes of members—readers, writers and editors—giving each different rights and responsibilities while still ensuring that each can influence how the co-op functions and the kinds of issues it tackles.

It’s a model, Jay says, that has few parallels in North America. “As far as we know this kind of spin on the model is pretty much unique. We’ve certainly seen worker co-ops that do media, but in terms of bringing the readers on board as partners and participants in a grassroots news gathering and distribution enterprise, as far as I know it’s unprecedented.”

Part of the long-term goal is to bring more readers to the range of alternative media that already exists in communities across the country.

“I think there’s a huge amount of room for cooperation. With any of the local media co-ops ... a large part of the mandate would be to direct as much attention as possible to the independent media that already exists. So whether that’s Vue or somebody’s zine that they publish out of their basement or local blogs or whatever, that’s something we want to be able to put front and centre and help promote.

“What we’re trying to set up is a way that independent media can both have a wide reach and be effective but also be democratically accountable and have a level of transparency that’s unheard of in the corporate media.” V

Sat, Mar 22 (7 pm)
Own Your Media Tour
check dominionpaper.ca for details

ed's website

Don't hate the media, own the media