Gearing up for the Media Democracy Festival

Media that Matters, Issue #6: your fortnightly digest of the very best content from independent media publications up and down the UK.

Mar 7, 2023

Welcome to the sixth issue of the IMA’s newsletter, Media that Matters!

Over the last two weeks… our team has been busy reaching out to potential new members. We're on a mission to grow our community and are aiming to have 100 members total in the coming months.

Coming up… planning for our Annual General Meeting (AGM) begins! Read more about that below.

- Reece

The big event: Independent Media Association AGM 2023

The IMA’s biggest event of the year will be held at the Media Democracy Festival on Saturday 25 March 2023 at 1pm. Do come along, it'll be fun and a great place to share, meet, network and get support. If you can't make it but need anything please do get in touch.

Every year, the Media Democracy Festival brings together academics, activists and decision-makers to understand what’s going on in the media landscape, build connections and strengthen the movement for a transformed media.

Featuring keynote speaker Zarah Sultana MP, alongside contributions from leading media experts and campaigners, trade union representatives and social justice activists, this year’s Media Democracy Festival is set to be an uplifting, thought-provoking and urgent gathering.

Whether you’re a hardened media reform advocate or a curious media consumer, join us to learn how we can reshape the media to work for people, not profit. Our media is broken. Be part of the movement to fix it.

Member of the week

Green New Deal Media are a group of climate activists based in Greater Manchester. Since they started their podcast in March 2020, they’ve interviewed some of the leading politicians, academics and activists in the climate movement — from Asad Rehman to Julia Steinberger.

Their latest coverage includes:

Meet our new members

Gen-Z Talks Magazine: The editors of Gen-Z Talks created this online magazine to provide Gen-Zs with a platform to engage in important dialogue. With a strong focus on issues surrounding race, gender, politics and migration, we aim to enlighten and educate other Gen-Zs, opening their minds to the realities of the world around them and equipping them with the tools and knowledge to become agents of social change.

Lacuna Voices: this online magazine was formed to bridge a gap in the mainstream media for topics that matter to so many people, but are rarely given the column inches they deserve. Here, they give their interviewees and writers a space to speak their truth without a need for them, as the publisher, to set an agenda, use salacious headlines or produce a feature more outrageous than the last.

Our favourites

MPs and lords blast anti-strikes bill for breaching ‘human rights obligations’. The Tories’ anti-strikes bill has drawn significant criticism since its inception. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called it “draconian” and “spiteful” and says the government must ‘junk’ it. Now, the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) has said that the new anti-strikes laws are “not justified and need to be reconsidered” [The Canary].
The Dalits, relegated to the fringes of society. Citizens struggle to overcome an age-old dogma that keeps them unjustly pinned under the foot of social order [The Prisma].
Industrial Workers of the World are the trade union we all need. The IWW is one of the oldest unions in the world – and it’s urging collectivity and solidarity in this moment of crisis [NowThen].
Food corporations paid shareholders $53.5bn while millions went hungry. Without food sovereignty, private businesses will continue profiteering at the expense of the planet. [openDemocracy]
Against the world of prisons, colonisers and transphobes. Direct Action News, 13 to 19 February 2023 [Phoenix Media Co-op].

Awards and cash

European Local Cross-Border Journalism Fund. Up to €100.000 on offer, which can be used to cover costs of living, travel, interpreters, and more. [Closes 16 March]
National Endowment of Democracy Fund. Funding of up to $50,000 for organisations, including independent media outlets, to advance democratic goals. [Closes 20 March]
One World Media Fellowship. £1,000 grant for journalists and filmmakers who want to report on issues in the global south. [Closes 22 March]
McGraw Business Journalism Scholarship. Up to $15,000 to help fund a business story or investigation. [Closes 31 March]
European Cross Borders Grants. Four grants equalling €200,000 will be used to support professional journalists with strong ideas for cross-border investigations, with a focus on European topics. [Closes 24 April]

Upcoming events

Future of News: Media Freedom Conference 2023 (15 March 2023). The future of royal reporting, politics and the media and the opportunities for AI and engaging audiences are just some of the topics that will be discussed at the Society of Editors Future of News conference in March. The high-profile one-day event, which brings together more than 200 leading editors and journalists from all sectors of the UK news media.

Media Democracy Festival (25 March 2023). Every year, the Media Democracy Festival brings together academics, activists and decision-makers to understand what’s going on in the media landscape, build connections and strengthen the movement for a transformed media.

Your independent media briefing

Online Safety Bill: Where now? A quick update on what's happening with the Online Safety Bill with the Independent Media Association's Campaigns Secretary, Nathan Sparks from Hacked Off.
Introducing Beabee. Are you a journalist looking for a better way to manage and engage with your community? Look no further than Beabee, the open-source CRM designed specifically for community-centered approaches to journalism.
The Rise of AI and its Impact on Independent Media. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought both excitement and concerns to many industries, including independent media.
How to raise funds. A discussion with the Chicago Independent Media Alliance about how to raise money for independent media.
Investigative Journalism Toolkit. There are various tools and platforms available online that can help simplify and speed up your research and fact-checking.

Our to-do list

In an effort to be transparent and accountable to both its members and the public, the IMA publishes a brief to-do list in this newsletter. This list allows the IMA to show the efforts it’s taking and the progress it’s making towards its objectives. In the coming two weeks, Thomas and I will be focusing on the following tasks:

Further meet our member interviews
Sourcing further resources for members
Filming discussions with PINF for the website
Onboarding new members, including some well-known publications
Planning Media Democracy Festival / IMA AGM
Working with the Campaigns working group to plan the next campaign
Producing some resources about the NUJ for IMA members