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Seriously crap reporting from Indymedia

Last saturday, after months of organising, a huge event called Reclaim The Future took place in a squatted building on Holloway road. The event itself kicked off at 1pm and throughout the afternoon there were workshops and discussion on a wide variety of issues and campaigns. The events during the day are just part of the story. The previous days had seen large numbers of people self organising the space in order to be ready for the day - a real example of doing it for ourselves.

You'd have thought that the logistics of putting on an event like this - providing cheap food laid on for everyone - running a ten hour cinema - the specifics of a particular workshop etc. would have inspired somebody enough to write a report or upload some audio, perhaps recordings of the bands that played, photos of people fixing bikes, a report about how much money was raised or what campaigns would be getting it or whatever. But no.

Almost without exception, the only coverage on indymedia was of the disruption to the event by the police. In fact, even before the police began to prevent people from entering the party, the coverage on indymedia was about the fact that there were a few cops outside during the afternoon with CCTV camera vans. The only exceptions to this pitiful reporting was a post by the Space Hijackers documenting their workshop, yet there were dozens more workshops and many campaigns represented as info stalls. (

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/04/366791.html)

If you were to be looking on corporate owned user content sites like youtube a flikr then you'd find a nice set of photos taken at the RTF during the day (

http://www.flickr.com/photos/plasmatika/sets/72157600038736595/), but nothing but pictures of cops on indymedia. Is that all we are interested in? Is that what indymedia reporting is about? Does it really need specialist 'indymedia journalists' to parachute in to these events as a result of a phone call in order to get something resembling coverage?

Do the people who did all the work of organising the program of workshops and the lineup of bands etc. really want the event to be remembered only for the actions of the cops? Do the people who took the time to facilitate or take part in one of the many workshops feel that what they were doing was not equally or more significant than the presence of the police?

If we want to reclaim the future we know that it will require that we reclaim the media and frankly we don't seem to be doing much of a job of it right now. Indymedia is about all of us reporting the news as it relates to us, not simply allowing a few 'alternative journalists' to mediate the experiences for us. Indymedia is more than just a place to complain about the predictable behavior of cops and conflict but also a place to document and celebrate or daily practical resistance in all it's forms.

Where is our news?

hoping for better

Comments

Hide the following 15 comments

I totally agree, but

03.04.2007 17:33

I totally agree with what you're saying, but it all depends on who's there and takes the initiative to do the reporting. Your title 'Crap reporting FROM Indymedia' suggests you expect people 'from' Indymedia to come and cover the event. There is no such thing as the people 'from' Indymedia. Also the Indymedia ethos breaks down the traditional ways of 'being reported on'. Thus various people might post on the same event. In this case, the reports were the experiences of those people. Indymedia is all of us and thus it needs all of us to create it. If you don't like what you read, well don't complain, go and write a report yourself.

imc?

Do it yourself

03.04.2007 17:51

If you wanted to see an article about how good RTF4 was, then why didn't you write one?
Don't just complain and expect everything to be done for you. Get active. Do it yourself.

Bill

I agree

03.04.2007 18:08

I should have used the term 'on indymedia' as I was talking about indymedia as the news service rather than indymedia as being specific people. Indeed part of what I was try to express was a dissatisfaction with the idea of 'indymedia journalists' as being something separate and different from the people doing things. My main point was that 'we' (meaning people contributing to indymedia generally) apparently are no different from the mainstream media in that we focus on these sensationalist stories of conflict with the cops and completely miss the real story, the story of what WE did, not what the cops did.

And yes, I see that it might look like I am being somewhat hypocritical by complaining rather than writing something that covers my experiences of the event beyond just the cops, but actually, I just have ;-)

DIY culture

03.04.2007 18:31

Be the media :)

RTF

human

03.04.2007 18:33

Yes. I take on board that point. Even 'we' do sometimes take too much of a sensationalist approach to things. But isn't that something distinctly human?

imc?

reply to Bill

03.04.2007 19:14

I'm not saying I wanted somebody to write a report about how great the RTF was, what I wanted to see was people reporting back on the things they had done and experienced - specifically the workshops but also the whole self managed DIY organisational thing. One reason that I hoped that would happen was because I was unable to attend any of the workshops and therefore unable to report on them myself. I think it's really important that we (collectively and individually) do document things like these workshops and indymedia is perhaps the obvious forum for it. Hence, seeing so much attention being given to the actions of the cops and barely anything about the RTF itself, seems to me to be a lost opportunity and rather depressing.

helping people to be the media

03.04.2007 19:56

i wonder whether it'd be useful to have a pile of postcards or flyers printed, which could be handed out at events like this, with basic info about how to publish on indymedia and encouraging people to do this. i'm sure lots more people would post reports if they were invited to do so. maybe i'll start thinking about possible design/content...

the whole evening

03.04.2007 21:04

i have photo's from the whole evening but didn't think it would be the best idea to publish loads of them because there's always one or two people who wouldn't want to be photographed...

like... you know what i mean... people skinning up in the background, or drawing on walls.

the night was great though (i too missed the day's workshops) - i saw loads of incredible bands across all genres, i saw people dancing, laughing, talking and sharing, i saw people having genuine fun, and no matter what happened, people were enjoying themselves, and there was such a huge feeling of community and love that i personally had never felt on that scale before.

that king blues band or whatever they were called, were ace, and so were 52 commercial road. and that spoken word performer tempest... she kicked ass.

i'll try and get some photos on indymedia soon, other than the ones i already posted. i'll also try and figure out how to make them smaller, but give me a little time and some patience cos its difficult to transport my pictures to an internet machine at the moment.

neck
mail e-mail: searchingforthedawn@hotmail.com

Fair play to the rtf crew - fuck oscar beard

04.04.2007 09:21

Agree with the first [imc] response here, but i think it should be recognised that this method of information sharing is always going to be open to abuse by rabid egoists and their smug self important rants which, given its set up, indymedia is always going to attract.

Getting rid of this oscar beard character would be a start, but certainly not a solution.

Sadly gresham's law comes into play when we observe indymedia [uk] in action in 2007.

clean shaven

adding to the debate ...

04.04.2007 15:02

I completely agree with ´hoping for better´´ comment above. but as another imcista has also said here, if you (´we´ as a broad movement) recognise the need for our forms of autonomous sel-infraestructure, then we all have to play a part on it. In my view indymedia is just that, and hoping that someone else will ´do it for you´ (i.e. report, cover events, and so on) it´s just the opposite to what this project is really about.

If you (´we´ as a broad movement) want reports on the positive sides of what we are doing, then we´ll have to do it ourselves, no professional imcista will do it for you. If there was so many great stories to tell both during the run up and preparations fro the event, and during the day´s workshops, why are these not written and posted to indymedia?

Is indymedia taken for granted? Is it seen as the ´movement of movement´s´ professional reporting machine? Or is it on the contrary one of the expressions of the movement´s autonomy or self-infraestructure?

After the experience of last summer´s Climate Action Camp, some of us wanted to address exactly these same questions, both the one´s posted by the original poster of this thread and the ones I am raising here. There were put together in this text, but it seems that we keep tripping over the same stone, don´t we?

Indymedia at the Camp for Climate Action 2006: Report & Personal View

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/10/352449.html

maqui

Beer ,Beer. beer,

04.04.2007 18:04

I wish to make a couple of observervations re RTF4.
Firstly,not all reporting on Indymedia has been sensationalist and about the Police appearance.

I read a report filed by Lu-Key at 5am . Where it was mentioned the good organisation, good food , workshops and entertainment before the article went on about the police (in a non sensationalist style).

Secondly.I was most dissapointed and annoyed about the Obsession with the selling of Beer at RTF4 without giving a choice of other drink (T and coffee etc) and lack of food once the beer was for sale.

I went to the food stall and was told by the vegans that they had orders to stop selling food and tea as to make way for the beer.

I think this stinks...why should it be assumed that everyone wants beer and nobody wants to eat.

Also..The beer ( a mountain of it ) was unload at the front of the building on Holloway rd in full view of Locals and Police video van.
Could this be the reason all those Police arrived ? any one witnessing the beer delivery and unloading could see that it was not to be a Ping Pong tournament.

Beer,Beer Beers......I thought we are supposed to be doing something Alternative to straight society !!!

Midnight
XX

Midnight

??????????????what r u talking about????????

05.04.2007 11:26

"Does it really need specialist 'indymedia journalists' to parachute in to these events as a result of a phone call in order to get something resembling coverage?"

What the heck is this on about???

Get some perspective!

05.04.2007 11:45

Quite frankly I don't want to read about every sodding detail about this workshop or that workshop, and no doubt some of the participants wouldn't want to think that anything they may say, may then get taken down, and used as news for indymedia.

If the event had gone off without any incident then I'm sure you'd have seen some reports about how great it was. But that was not the case was it. The police disrupted the party and arrested some people. This was pretty well reported is you ask me. Indeed I don't even think it was sensationalist - if you read the report about the police action and the results it seems pretty fgactual to me.

PLUS to be honest, this was just an afternoon of workshops and a (half completed) party. If people want to find out about such things the best way is to attend them, and not read about them / complain about them on indymedia.

Anyway, it's always difficult to get qood quality reports from workshops / conferences unless either the organisers try and build in some provision / encouragement for this or you have a sorted crew of people who do it (always checking of course that people are cool with such a write up being published).

BTW the link to the nice set of daytime pics on flickr was also quickly posted to IMC. There were also loadsa people with cameras taking pics all day. I also know for a fact that some of the night time ones are being held back from indymedia as they may help in a legal case or two.

Finally - the first post is basically slagging off the core RTF crew for not writing up a report (on things only they could know) - sod that, they made the event happen in the first place and muchos thanks to them. I wonder if the author of the first post ("hoping for better") was actually at the RTF event, and if so, why didn't they write up a report instead of moaning that no one else did to their liking? Can you answer that?

who is hoping for better?

pretty rubbish really

09.04.2007 10:31

I went down for a bit in the afternoon and there was very little goin on in terms of workshops / cinema etc. there were some very bored kids playing on wheelie chairs and lots of macho crusty blokes running around with the sound system crashing into everyone, shouting and drinking beer. (i'd hoped that the "crusy oblivion rave" chic of the nineties had died out, sadly not.)

more positively, the indymedia dvd stall was great and the tea and cakes were delicious. (sad to hear that they were moved out of the way to make room for boozing)

squidder

Just to say...

17.04.2007 10:47

the kids weren't bored. They loved the wheelie chairs and wanted to take them home. What was boring was the lack of anything else for them to do and the disappearance of the cafe to make way for the bar.
last time we came to an RTF party we brought a load of stuff for a kids space but were told there was no room for it. If I'd known about this one sooner I'd have got my act together and done the same again. It's not hard... a load of cardboard boxes, poster paint glue and brushes etc...
Remind me again, who the future is being reclaimed for?

Parent

UK Indymedia