Know the Media. Be the Media. Change the Media. These are the principles of the Media Democracy Project, which hosts Media Democracy Days on November 2 and 3, 2012, at the Vancouver Public Libary. The two-day event features plenary sessions and workshops about the power and role of media.
Media Democracy Days, Nov 2, 3
http://mediademocracyday.org/
As independent media, CityHallWatch and MetroVanWatch will have a table at the exhibition. Come and visit us and see our display, especially a short presentation at 1 pm about Vancouver municipal issues. Many neighbourhoods struggle to get fair (or any) media coverage of their issues and perspectives. Among “developed” countries, Canada has the highest concentration of media into the smallest number of hands. Is the public relationship with the media a victim of that control and concentration? CityHallWatch has witnessed enough in recent years to convince us that media literacy is important –the public must take a greater interest in who owns and runs the mainstream media, and be active to ensure that they truly serve the public interest. In this endeavour, independent media have an important role to play.
http://mediademocracyday.org/about/mdd-2012-programming/programme-snapshot/
See the whole program
All of the presentations, forums, and workshops look interesting, but we particularly find this one intriguing — about Big Data and Political Marketing, at 1:15 pm on Saturday. CityHallWatch has witnessed specific cases of what could be easily have been or become the mining of personal data in Vancouver for political gain by powerful civic parties.
http://mediademocracyday.org/2012/10/24/new-trends-in-political-marketing-highlighted-at-media-democracy-days-2012/
See us listed among the participants
http://mediademocracyday.org/about/mdd-2012-programming/media-fair-participants-2012/
Excerpts from the program:
Media Democracy Days is organized by the Media Democracy Project, a group of people from both the academic and activist communities who are committed to democratizing the media.
We believe that the media are central to democracy for at least three reasons: (i) They are a significant source of political and cultural information for Canadians. (ii) They make some perspectives or messages part of the public discourse and neglect or omit others. And (iii) they are increasingly owned by large corporate conglomerates, who wield significant political and economic power. Our project is to promote democracy both within the media system and through the media, and focus on three principles,
Know the media | Be the media | Change the media
BELOW is the CONTENTS page of the program, as an appetizer. We encourage you to view the official program on the official website.
Media Democracy Days 2012 Overview
Friday Afternoon: Plenary Session & Vancouver Youth Digital Media Ecology Research Symposium, Julian Sefton-Green
Friday Afternoon: Workshops
- Promoting Missing Stories
- Making Radio for Social Change: A Hands On Workshop
- Media, Revolutions and Regimes
Friday Evening: Opening Keynote & Film Screening
- Keynote Talk: Sunera Thobani
- Film: Words of Witness (2012) [Documentary | Directed by Mai Iskander]
- MDD Opening Reception Sponsored by Vancity
Saturday: Opening Plenary
- Keynote Talk: Ricardo Dominguez
Panel Topics: Overview
Panels:
- ‘Keeping the Media Public’
- ‘Big Data and Political Marketing’
- ‘Muzzling the Scientists’
- Programme Snapshot
- ‘Decolonizing Media’
- ‘Who’s Watching You? The Politics of Surveillance’
- ‘Working in the Communications and Creative Industries’
Saturday: Closing Plenary
Media Fair Participants
CounterCulture Series: Upcoming Event
MDD Sponsors and Supporters
Here’s a not yet reported story:
From the Saturday 27 October 2012 edition of the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong:
“Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah said he was taking “extraordinary measures under exceptional circumstances” because hot money was flowing into the city faster than before. He imposed a new stamp duty of 15 per cent on non-locals and companies who buy homes – a measure market watchers described as tough.
“The government also raised by 5 percentage points an across-the-board “special stamp duty” on sellers to curb speculation, and extended its effect on resales from two to three years. Duty of 10 to 20 per cent of the price is payable if the property is resold in that period.
“The new rule sets non-local and corporate purchases of homes apart from those made by permanent residents, who will still pay between HK$100 and 4.25 per cent of the sale price.
“The 15 per cent Buyer’s Stamp Duty exempts permanent residents who buy homes under their own names, meaning it affects all those who make deals through companies.
“The levy is higher than the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty introduced in Singapore last year, under which foreigners and non-individual buyers are levied 10 per cent of a home’s value.
“Buyers who were not permanent residents accounted for 19.5 per cent of new-home purchases (in Hong Kong) last year, up from 5.7 per cent in 2008.”
The “hot money” from China, described above, will be diverted from Hong Kong to which destinations? Not Australia where there are restrictions on foreigners purchasing, not Singapore where special levies are already in place against foreign speculators. I predict a lot of it will flow quickly into free and open Vancouver. If City Council wants to encourage affordable housing in this city they need to control offshore demand by increasing taxes on foreign owned property and lobbying the federal and provincial governments to assist them by adjusting the federal and provincial tax codes. And the restrictions need to be done quickly – like the bike lanes were installed. No number of laneway houses and thin street row houses will balance this demand.