(a cross between a newspaper office, a public square and a speakeasy)

national | arts and media | opinion/analysis Tuesday April 05, 2005 02:29 by an indymedia ireland volunteer

Dear Sir or Madam,

Someone sent me a list of questions about working with indymedia. they're writing about it for a college thesis. if they do well we might give them a job ;-). these are my own opinions and not necessarily those of the indymedia ireland collective. I hated to spend an hour of unpaid labour on something that'll probably rot in a library so here you go. copyleft of course. i hereby submit this for publication under a copyleft arrangement ;-). any takers vincent? madam? donal? for your blogging programme david?

yours sincerely,

an indymedia ireland volunteer

1 Why did you decide to get involved with Indymedia?

I saw 'them' at work during the protests in Prague in september 2000 and was amazed at the ambition of what they were doing. 'They' were an international ragbag of people with cheap computers and cameras outdoing the mainstream media and i just fell for the idea of open publishing. I had been involved in mainstream television previously and knew how hard it was to actually get permission from a broadcaster to tell any kind of story about political issues and political conflict. These people weren't asking for permission - they were actively taking their right to communicate globally in a differently organised way to that of the traditional and commercial media. (prague.indymedia.org)

2 How important is it to have an outlet like this?

Very Important. Indymedia ireland for example was the conduit through which (over a long period of time before it was covered properly in the mainstream media here) it became clear that the US Military were using shannon airport in a big way in the buildup to the war in Iraq with the knowledge and secretive connivance of the government here.That became a huge national debate and was in a direct way courtesy of some curious planespotters in shannon who could publish what they were finding out on the indy site without asking anyones permission. (search - tim hourigan)

3 What is your opinion of mainstream journalism? For example in terms of objectivity, the stories covered, the quality of coverage etc.

It is lousy and owned lock stock and barrel for the large part by a small number of corporations. It is an increasingly unreal medium through which to view the world. Two peoples deaths have absolutely saturated the media for the last three weeks and the fact that a hugely significant report was released saying 2/3 of the earths resources have been chewed up and spat out in 100 years and that the race as a whole are living seriously beyond their means is ignored.

IT and RTE cover the hill of tara story without researching the landowners who will benefit and their political connections. The first large immigrant driven walkout from work in Ireland happened today and it has barely been covered in the irish media.

Indymedia Ireland was the only organisation with a coherent story published about the recent deportation and the horrible situations being created by it before the plane left ireland. All the other media organisations were informed of the facts but chose to cover it after the plane had left. Specifically RTE did not carry it on their news bulletins in the several hours after being informed and before the plane left. INN hung up on someone from indymedia when informed about the situation only saying they would call the guards and call back if the story checked out. They never did call back. Indymedia has no resources to speak of but it is an open system and the news came pretty much directly to indymedia from the mobiles of those being deported and their friends. Indymedia people actively then took that and gave it to mainstream journalists.

4 How does the fact that Indymedia is a non-profit, voluteer based organisation affect the workings of Indymedia overall and its content?

Well it is pleasurable to be involved in something that people aren't in for the money. The people who work on indymedia for the most part treat it as a pleasurable and productive activity. There are enough people involved at the level of maintaining the site technically and editorially that if some want to take it handy indefinitely they know others will pick up the slack and there is no guilt involved. It never becomes labour. You work as hard as you want. No-one tells you to work. No-one stops you from working.

It's content is uninfluenced by the dictates of commercialism and advertising. There is no other news organisation in ireland of which the same can be said. The content reflects this. The main criterion I can see with the thousands of contributions that are the real engine of the site is that they are usually written by an individual wanting to communicate something they think is important on their own behalf or on behalf of others they know or work with. I like to hear from people who want to tell me something important rather than from a journalist dressing up ideological editorial lines and 'trusted sources' as balanced reporting and as news. I think the others like providing an infrastructure for this to happen too but I won't presume to speak for them.

5 How do you decide what stories to put on the main page?

Things we think are important. Viewpoints we haven't seen anywhere else. It works by consensus. Any editor can pick a story that a user has submitted to the newswire and ask for approval to build it into a feature and pre-publish it. If two editors approve and no-one disapproves it is published on the front page. Also any editor can generate features and submit them for the same approval process. It again is driven by interest on the part of those who have to do the work. We used to refer to the organisational model as a 'dictatorship of the doers'.

6 Mainstream news outlets usually say that a reporter has to at least try to be objective and should always be an observer rather than a participant. What do you think of this?

Until I have read the views of citizen participants in an event or situation I am not happy. Generally I find that reuters or ap or rte or it do their best to hide the views and perceptions of citizen participants from me. That is not the way to objectivity. If it is i don't want it.

7 What do you think the function of journalism should be?

It should actively facilitate the telling of peoples stories in their own words not in words supplied by and literally owned by multinationals and commercial interests. News is generally on planet earth in 2005 owned lock stock and barrel by corporations and if not by them then by advertisers and by the property Industry. People should have a sense of control over their own stories and indymedia has that potential built into it's structure. Indymedia Ireland at this stage has far more contributors than any other irish publications. That's a start but I think the real crunch point is to attempt to mainstream this kind of model. Blogs are being talked up at present like internet stocks before the .com crash as doing that but personally I think the Indymedia Model will be the more revolutionary in the long run. Blogs to me are more like lots and lots of tiny subdivided suburban lots. Indymedia is more a cross between a newspaper office, a public square and a speakeasy where anyone can walk in at any time and stage a friendly temporary takeover with no mess to clean up afterwards. Where would you rather be?

Related Reading:
"There is Difficulty Lower Down Whereby Sometimes Unauthorised Items Appear"
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?search_text=white+nigger