Welcome to the first ETS! MediaWatch column, collaboratively written by MediaWatch, the group. Several folks in the ETS! collective have gotten together with other interested print, radio, and video activists and decided to get organized and deconstruct the "mainstream" media. We will be irascible and irritating, and if we get the local press and newsoids pissed at us, so much the better. Maybe they'll decide to retire early. We are planning on running a regular MediaWatch column in ETS! as well as taking advantage of local airtime, cable access, and other outlets. We hope to involve many people in this effort which means we want your input and ideas! This is an open invitation for you to join in.

"Mainstream" media is more and more an arm of corporate and political entities. Who owns the radio station you listen to? Do they really care about what you want to hear, or are they just interested in selling you a product? A high percentage of news stories are supplied by corporations and organizations and stress a particular political, economic, and cultural bias. Why does Boeing get two or three front page articles a week in Seattle anyway? Corporate media mergers limit the spectrum of viewpoints and compromise the integrity of local, national, and international journalism. We need to hear all sides of the story to draw our own conclusions.

In the future MediaWatch will look at how to take apart the news that we see and hear, and how news and entertainment have co-mingled until it's damn near impossible to tell the difference. We will analyze local media and track who owns what and how that affects the stories that get ink and airtime. And how about the news that has been missed or misreported? We will talk about bias, self-censorship, and advertisers' influence on content.

One of the main goals of MediaWatch is to give people the tools to analyze the media and to offer sources for alternative views and visions. Another is to offer a forum for an open discussion of the media in all its guises. We plan on using all our resources and are working on several different projects that involve print, radio broadcasts, and video technology. We want to hear from you!! There are several ways for you to join in. You can send in ideas or stories to: MediaWatch, P.O. Box 95113, Seattle, WA 98145 or if you want information on meetings and events you can call us at 206-632-2954 or e-mail us at slr@scn.org.

For those into electronic info exchange MediaWatch has started an e-mail list to post stories, discuss the latest "if it bleeds it leads" broadcast, and analyze what we see and hear. We will use the list as an organizing and communication tool. This list will be unmoderated and everyone is invited to submit stories and ideas. We are also developing a web page and hope to link stories and resources. To subscribe to the MediaWatch list send a message to: listproc@u.washington.edu; in the body of the message write

subscribe mediawatch your name.

You do not have to be a list member to submit items to the list. E-mail to: mediawatch@u.washington.edu.