Monday, May 12, 2008
Indymedia
Before this morning, I had never before visited an IndyMedia website. As a Portlander, I spent some time cruising through the Portland IndyMedia site (which I had never heard of), and read several articles, including the one about the murdered sea-lions and past articles about the 9/11 attacks. Both articles demonstrate the very "lefty" Portland tendencies, and I found it refreshing to read such an open point of view. However, I found the format of the site more interesting than the content itself. I loved that, at the end of each article, there were links to allow readers to contribute to the article and/or comment on it. These options made the material and sites more participatory than simply spewing information to the public. I also clicked on the "volunteer" link to find that the site encourages the public to become independent reporters, to share their insight about events they have attended or witnessed. This site provides a unique avenue for people who have something important to share, something they're passionate about, to potentially reach a lot of people. I struggle with the idea of using the Blog to reach a wider audience with injustices or inequities I have seen around the world - issues that need to be addressed - so this legitimate site seems to be the ideal answer. It acknowledges the public's insight and knowledge.
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I also had never been to an Indymedia site. I went to indybay.org and read about the South Bay. I thought that it was a great format and really easy to see. I read about the May 1st protests in san jose (which I went to) which I thought was cool because it had a much more...personal stake, rather than a big news corp that is just reporting what is on cuecards. I love that the site seemed to focus on injustices around the world, which i would argue are the root of many (if not all) of the problems we face.
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