Chapter
Four: (Re)building the Cleveland IMC
4.0 Introduction
Moving
from the global to the local, I shift
to a study of the Independent Media Center in Cleveland, Ohio, which was
launched in September 2000, only to fold the next year due to organizational
problems. In early 2002, a new group of
activists, journalists, and independent media producers began the process of
re-building the IMC, hoping to avoid the mistakes of the previous collective. By December 2002, the new group was
officially admitted to the network, though their journey through the new-IMC
process was not without complications, some of which were still lingering at
the time of this writing (April 2003).
I began doing research on the
Cleveland IMC in November, 2002—first by participating in discussions on the
collective’s e-mail list and attending two of their regular meetings, then by
conducting a series of e-mail interviews with volunteers. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes
attributed to IMC members are taken from these interviews and listserv
discussions. Finally, I read through
the collective’s planning documents and surveyed content from both its Web site
and its weekly radio show. Having gone
in and out of the network before being reconstituted nearly from scratch, the
Cleveland IMC presented some unique research challenges and opportunities. I had to examine its brief initial phase,
about which there is little documentation.
Luckily, one member of the new collective had been involved with the
original group and provided much needed insight on what led to its
collapse. Another new member was also
familiar with the early history and shared his thoughts about what the new
group needed to do (or not do) to avoid a similar fate. Moving beyond this early period, I looked at
the reorganizing effort, which lasted almost a year and saw numerous volunteers
come and go. This was much easier to
study, though, as the new collective posts the minutes of all meetings on an
auxiliary Web site alongside copies of its policy statements and some e-mail
communication with global organizers (http://worldgain.com/imc/). Documentation from this period enabled me to
trace, from the applicant’s perspective, the various steps through the new-IMC
approval process. By observing the
communication flows and resource sharing between organizers at the local and
global levels, as well as the communication processes within the local
collective, I have also gained a better sense of the networking strengths and
weaknesses of Indymedia, which will be further discussed in chapter 5.
Before proceeding, I should note
that the structure and processes of the Cleveland IMC are not necessarily
representative of all local IMCs.
Indeed, given the network’s emphasis on decentralization and local
autonomy, there are different organizational models within in it—variations on
the same theme, if you will. Each IMC
responds to particular circumstances—local and national history, geography, and
culture, for example—and draws upon the creativity and personal experiences of
its individual members. Social values,
strategies, and resources may be shared openly across the network and many IMCs
may struggle with similar dilemmas, but in the end, local collectives are
responsible for developing specific policies which best enable them to serve
their communities. What follows, then,
is an account of how one node in the IMC network came into existence and how it
functions on a regular basis. Though it
obviously cannot stand as the definitive statement on local IMCs, or even the
Cleveland IMC,27 I believe this case
study can help illuminate certain qualities and experiences common to many
IMCs.
This chapter will be organized into
three sections, the first of which is a chronology of the Cleveland IMC’s
history up to its re-admission to the network. The second section will be a
summary of events during the collective’s first two-and-a-half months as a
fully operational IMC and a description of its decision-making processes,
administrative structure, and membership. The final section will focus on the
collective’s use of media technology and the content of its Web site and weekly
radio show.
4.1
History of Cleveland IMC
During the late summer and early
fall of 2000, activists in the global justice movement set their sights on
several cities worldwide that would be hosting conferences dealing with
biotechnology and global economic issues.
One of those cities was Cincinnati, Ohio, which was slated to host the
Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue (TABD), a gathering of corporate leaders from
the U.S. and Europe, that November. As
the Cincinnati demonstrations were being planned, independent journalists,
media producers, and computer technicians contacted Indymedia organizers in
hopes of establishing IMCs in the region.
This was during the first phase of the network’s growth when there were
no Principles of Unity or much in the way of a formalized process for
receiving, reviewing, and approving applications. In quick succession, IMCs were set up wherever major movement
events were planned. With the TABD
expected to draw large numbers of protesters from across Ohio, a local group of
media activists and journalists from Northeast Ohio was given the go-ahead to
officially launch the Cleveland Indymedia Web site on September 10, 2000.28
4.1.1 A
Sudden Rise and Fall
As with most other early IMCs, the
Cleveland was set up to run Active software, which enabled visitors to
post articles and comments directly to the Newswire. Files were stored one of the network’s first servers, named
Stallman in honor of free software pioneer Richard Stallman. Open publishing was utilized by members of
the collective and Web users to cover the TABD protests, which resulted in
numerous arrests and several incidents were police used tear gas, pepper spray,
and rubber bullets on protesters.29
After covering the TABD protests and a few
other events in Northeast Ohio, the collective soon began to fall apart. One member of the new collective, who was
also a member of the original Cleveland IMC, recalls that the group met
infrequently in person,30 failed
to draw up an editorial policy, and allowed only one member to have access to
computer codes and passwords needed to administer the Web site. When that person moved on to other projects
the collective was “left stranded.”
Another member of the new collective, who was involved in protests
against the TABD and knew some of the original IMC volunteers, recalls that
they did very little outreach work, had few resources other than their Web
site, and seemed uninterested in, or unwilling to, cooperate with other
organizations. In addition, he suggests
they suffered from an affliction that other groups involved in the global
justice movement have suffered from—a narrow focus on a single issue or event.
The experience of the TABD demos also taught us a bit about organizing, too.... since they set-up the IMC to cover the events, we also set up a group called the “Coalition to Stop the TABD,” which of course, after the meetings ended, totally disintegrated. We named it the wrong thing, just as the IMC was formed for a reason without vision, too... there was no planning on what the do after the demos happened, and thus a lack of direction.
Long-time
IMC organizers say this experience was not unusual for many early IMCs, and
even some newer collectives. Making the
transition from an event-based news service to long-term community media
resource is a difficult process that requires a great deal of strategic
planning and organizing. This, in part,
led to the establishment of the new-IMC process. But even with a more formal entry process in place, organizers,
including some members of the new Cleveland collective, admit that it’s
difficult to spend much time and energy focusing on vision and strategy when
they face an immediate struggle to launch their IMC.
Over the next few months, attendance at meetings fluctuated from a high of about 20 to a low of four. During that time, members drafted a mission statement that defined the Cleveland IMC as a “not-for-profit, volunteer, and collectively-run organization working in solidarity with the international network of independent media centers to create a viable alternative to traditional media sources.” It also stated that the collective would “seek to empower people of our diverse communities by providing an alternative source of information and a forum for active participation.” Finally, the statement concluded, “We hope this resource will help people to make educated decisions that will affect their lives and communities in a positive way.”32 This statement and an application for admission were both sent to the global network in late March. Several members also reviewed readings on the history and structure of Indymedia and an online instructional devoted to consensus decision-making. The new-IMC process requires groups to have done a significant amount of organizing before being admitted. They must also be familiar with the consensus process—or at least some variation of it—develop an editorial policy, and agree to support the network’s Principles of Unity. The group in Cleveland was excited to be making so much progress in what appeared to be a very short time.
While most of the core members were drawn to the Indymedia project for similar reasons—i.e., frustration with the mass media and a desire to build participatory alternatives—their personal histories cover a rather broad terrain. A member named Andy, for example, was a “Teen Age Republican” in the mid 1960s before becoming radicalized (towards the left) and joining Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). In addition to participating in the anti-Vietnam war movement, including the march at Kent State in 1970, he was also involved in the radical underground press, which in many ways functioned like Indymedia, albeit with much more primitive technology.39 In the 1970s and 80s, Andy became involved in Central American solidarity work and organized labor. He currently works an industrial job and serves as an officer in his union. Andy “stumbled” upon Indymedia through a Web link and sees it as a “cross between an underground paper and samizdat. New technology filling a need and opportunity.”
Along with Andy, there was at least one other member, Debra, over 40 years of age. She has two children, a law degree, takes digital photos, and is currently working towards a teaching certificate in art education. Debra also discovered Indymedia while surfing the Web and noticed an announcement in the Features column about an upcoming meeting. Before attending, she had never posted anything to an IMC site, but within about a week of that first meeting, she was regularly posting photos and filing updates from anti-war marches and protests around Cleveland. During one particularly busy four-day period (March 19-23), she posted 33 photos to the Newswire, many of which ended up in the Features column. Debra feels that Indymedia sites can be an empowering media space that, in the words of the famous Quaker slogan, enables people to “speak truth to power,” or as she puts it, “tell the emperor he has no clothes.”
Among the younger members of the core group are two men, Dana and Kris, who have been involved in an organization called Food Not Bombs,40 which also espouses anarchist values and uses consensus-decision making. Both were acquainted with the struggles of the original collective and feel confident that the new group is much better prepared to make the Cleveland IMC a sustainable community resource.
Another young core member, Laura, was introduced to Indymedia by a family member involved in the San Francisco IMC. She is quite familiar with Indymedia processes and the role the network plays in the broader global justice movement. Like Debra, she specializes in photography, carrying a “digital camera, a simple first-aid kit, and mini cassette recorder” when covering events. She says her goal is to “collect as much information and do what is necessary in the streets to report back to Indymedia.” When asked via e-mail whether she thought participatory media networks could one day replace mass media, Laura answered with an emphatic “YES! This is the future. We have the technology to communicate globally as individuals. Like minded persons now have an opportunity to organize” that hasn’t previously existed.
Two other members, Steven (Stav) and Patrick, have been very active in the collective since it began organizing in February 2002. Stav is a computer programmer and serves as the group’s tech representative. He discovered Indymedia while participating in protests at the 2002 World Economic Forum (WEF), a gathering of corporate leaders and economic ministers from around the world, held in New York City. Unlike many of the other members, Stav considers himself new to political activism. As he self-deprecatingly puts it, “I was pretty ignorant of the ways of the world before this year.” Being involved in Indymedia, he adds, has been both challenging, especially with regards to the old software and server, and rewarding. “Getting involved in projects at the ‘ground level’ is powerful,” he told me via e-mail. Patrick’s media background is in graphic design and animation. He also shoots digital video and has expressed interest in being more involved in global Indymedia projects, but with so many local issues to deal with, it’s been difficult.
Despite their varied backgrounds, the collective reflects a certain homogeneity that is common to IMCs, and many segments of the global justice movement in the U.S., especially those that have participated in direct action and civil disobedience.41 Put simply, the majority of the core members are men, all of them are white, and most had access to higher education and have experience using computers and other digital media technology. Lack of racial and gender diversity was a genuine concern for the collective, though they’ve been slow to begin a major outreach campaign. This was partly due to the newness of the IMC, the size of the collective, and the fact that everyone is a volunteer. But perhaps the greatest obstacle hindering outreach was the Web site itself, which the collective was struggling to upgrade during the entire time of my research. Without the ability to add new features such as a contact page with meeting information, or an interactive community calendar, it was difficult to give Newswire users critical information about the collective. At the same time, the sluggishness of the site often made it difficult to use the open publishing system in the first place. Members worried that users would be turned-off by the slow, cumbersome site, making them less likely to publish their own stories or join the collective. Thus, major outreach efforts geared towards encouraging people to participate in Indymedia via the Web were put on hold pending the upgrade of the site.
As luck would have it though, the collective was able to gain access to a major communications resource that might prove to be their most promising information and outreach vehicle. In February, the “Cleveland IMC Radio Hour,” produced by three members of the collective, began airing on WRUW-FM, a 1,000-watt radio station located on the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. This weekly program has enormous potential to reach diverse audiences in the metropolitan area and can serve as a vital link between the local IMC and those who do not have, or do not feel comfortable using, computers to communicate. I will return to the radio show in a later section.
Before moving on, though, it is important to note that reaching and empowering people through media technology is only half the deal. In order to become sustainable community resources, local IMCs must build a social infrastructure that complements, perhaps even surpasses, their communications infrastructure. Face-to-face meetings and other social gatherings in which attendees have opportunities to speak as well as the responsibility to listen are vital. “The most important thing,” said one Cleveland member, “is to make new people feel welcome and LISTEN. Listening is an art. That way when ‘diverse’ people show up, they stay.”
On another level, the consensus process, if poorly facilitated, can be abused by disruptive participants or small groups determined to block a proposal that has majority support. Ideally, one should block a proposal only when it so contradicts the basic principles of group unity that he or she could not be part of a group that adopted it. But problems and abuses can arise, and for that reason, many IMCs take a flexible approach to consensus, modifying it for certain types of decisions that may require technical expertise or, as in the case of some editorial matters, may need to be made quickly. IMCs can also delegate authority to working groups within the collective. The Cleveland IMC did this by empowering three members with editorial control over the radio show. Though all members may recommend stories or interview guests, the producers have a larger measure of power because they spent time learning how to work the radio “board” and are responsible for being at the studio each week to put the show on the air. The collective also allowed three members to have computer passwords, which enable them to maintain the Features column on the Web site. This does not, however, give them more control over choosing what goes in the column. The editorial policy still requires that stories be nominated and seconded before being approved as Features. To avoid repeating mistakes of the original Cleveland collective, current members may want to consider a rotating system for handling computer passwords—as well as the possibility of changing passwords periodically for security reasons. In addition to balancing power relations within the group, rotating tasks and responsibilities allows members to learn new skills.
4.3.1 Web
Site
The Cleveland IMC was plagued by
technical problems during its re-organization and throughout its first three
months as an active Indymedia affiliate.
The Web site was hosted on an old and overloaded server and was running
old software. To make matters worse,
organizers only had access to the Features column; they did not have the
ability to change the site’s layout, add design elements, or create special
sections where stories could be organized by topic rather than in reverse
chronological order. In addition, users
could not search the site for old Features, though old Newswire posts could be
located. It was hoped that by January
or February 2003, new software would be installed and the site would be moved
to a new server. But by April 2003,
this had not occurred. Despite their
frustration over these matters, members did their best to provide the community
with a platform for open reporting and discussion.
4.3.1 (a) Features
Through
their contacts within the progressive community, the collective was able to
publish some stories early on that no local mainstream outlets covered. One contact, in fact, yielded a series of
articles written by a local activist who, at the time, was serving a
three-month stint as a street medic with the International Solidarity Movement
(ISM) in Israeli-occupied Palestine.44 His weekly dispatches, in the form of
journal entries, were either posted directly to the Web site by friends in the
U.S., or e-mailed to IMC volunteers who would post them. This underscores the importance of having
horizontal communication links to movements, activists, and other local media
producers whether they be directly involved in Indymedia or not. Ideally, this is how much of an IMC’s
content would be generated; core members would serve primarily as facilitators,
providing the media platforms as well as technical and social support for journalists,
artists, and activists either covering or actively engaged in movements for
social change. The original Seattle IMC
followed this model and the Cleveland volunteers hoped to replicate it locally
as best they could. As one member put
in an e-mail interview, “People just think that we're going to do all the
reporting and we're like ‘no, you do it, that's the point’. I don't mind doing a lot of reporting, but I
can't cover everything, and I don't even want my views to be the primary views
writing this stuff. It’s not my soap box, so the idea is definitely
empowerment.” However, members often
spent the early months doing much of the reporting. This did begin to change by March as more people involved in the
peace movement started posting their own news accounts and commentaries.
Returning
to the stories from the activist in Palestine, one could find elements of
justice journalism in them—that is, if one finds the struggle of the
Palestinians against occupation to be a just cause. In one particular report, dated January 2, 2003, he described the
scene as night fell in the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, very close to where
he and other activists had helped get medical supplies through an Israeli army
checkpoint earlier in the day.
As I write this, we're staying in a quite dangerous
house tonight. The family has abandoned it, but we're staying in it to
keep it up and to protect the next line of houses (and families) as well.
We've already heard several very close shots. They may try to scare us
away tonight, which won't make for a very comfortable sleep, but I sincerely
doubt they'll try to demolish the place. Even still, I'm sleeping in my
clothes with my bag ready to go.45
According to his next report, the young activist and
his co-workers were rudely awakened that night by gunfire and explosions. The neighborhood was, indeed, being attacked
by Israeli forces, and several homes were bulldozed the next day. The house he was staying in was not damaged
and his group was moved to another occupied town.46
Putting
accounts such as this on the front page of their Web site without editing the
content reflects not only the social values of Indymedia organizers, but also
their respect for the storyteller. In
this case, a passionate—rather than impassionate or neutral—observer describing
in his own voice what he sees and hears.
This is in stark contrast with much of the bland, voiceless (third
person) reporting in the mass media.
Aside
from this rare report from a local resident overseas, most other Features dealt
with stories about the “war on terrorism” and the peace/anti-war movement. These could be organized into three general
categories: (1) accounts of local marches, rallies, and other movement events
(including stories that announced upcoming events); (2) accounts of national
and international anti-war events; and (3) articles about issues related to the
war, such as treatment of Arab Americans and civil liberties. Stories in the first category far
outnumbered those in the other two, which reflects both the emphasis on local
news and the tendency of Indymedia sites, especially new ones, to be
event-oriented. This is largely due to
the direct links between IMC volunteers and groups that organize protests,
teach-ins, and rallies. As collectives
diversify and volunteers become more experienced news gatherers and community
media organizers, they tend to produce a greater variety of reporting.
It
should also be noted that there are essentially two ways a story could get to
the Features column. The first is
through an internal method whereby a member of the collective sends a story he
or she has written to the e-mail list and asks that it be nominated, approved,
and posted. If the story is approved
and the member proposing it is in the editorial working group—with passwords to
edit the center column—he or she can then publish it. The second method involves Newswire posts that someone in the
collective nominates to be a Feature.
If it is approved, one of the members of the editorial group will
publish it. Early on, the core
volunteers were writing most of the Features.
By March, however, traffic on the Newswire had picked up considerably
and members were able to serve more as an editorial board, nominating,
approving, and then publishing stories by others. Again, this is ideally how Indymedia sites would function. By providing an accessible platform, the
collective would empower people in the community to tell their own stories.
Features
not dealing with war-related issues were rare, but not absent. Of those I encountered between January and
March, two stand out because they help show how and why stories get
approved. The first, titled “Dennis
Kucinich Considering Presidential Bid,” was a news report/commentary about the
possibility that the Cleveland Congressman would run for President, which he
later decided to do. It was submitted
to the e-mail list by someone unknown to the collective who had trouble posting
it to the Newswire. The writer opines,
“As crazy as it sounds, the man who was once ‘Boy Mayor’ of Cleveland, Dennis
Kucinich (D-OH), quite possibly offers the best hope for the Democratic Party
and the American left to dethrone King George.”47 Members approved it due to its local
relevance, though they were careful to let the writer know that they didn’t
endorse candidates or political parties, not so much for “objectivity” reasons,
but because Indymedia purposely favors movements over institutions, especially
mainstream ones such as political parties.
The
other story dealt with sexual violence against women. It was a short article with an announcement about an upcoming
conference. The author, a man
identified only by the letter “J,” wrote, “It’s time that we took a stand as
men who want nothing to do with the oppression of women and everything to do
with playing the role of comrade and brother in our human struggle for
liberation.”48 This story was actually one of three reports
dealing with the same conference addressing sexual violence. The three items had been posted separately
on the Newswire and it was proposed that they be bundled together as a single
Feature. Members quickly approved the
proposal due to their support for the conference and their interest in
attracting more stories about issues such as sexism, racism, and homophobia.
4.3.1 (b)
Newswire
Technical limitations also prevented the collective from organizing their Newswire in a more user-friendly fashion. Most other IMCs use newer versions of Active or customized software developed by their own tech groups. This gives them the ability to organize recent Newswire posts into categories such as “Local News,” “Global News,” and “Other Breaking News,” all of which are accessible from the front page. A few even use an audience ratings system (Buzi, “The Indymedia Ratings…”) that places the highest rated new posts at the top of Newswire. By contrast, all posts on the Cleveland IMC Newswire were displayed in reverse chronological order. Unless the author specifically referred to a local event in the title, there was no way to know whether a post was locally, nationally, or internationally focused until one read it. In addition, the front page only accommodated links to about 15 posts, again with only the most recent appearing. During times of heavy activity, Newswires can become inundated with posts. Often the top 15 items will have been posted in the last day or even the last few hours, causing other, less-recent posts to get pushed off the front page no matter how relevant or compelling they are.
As
with the Features section, the Cleveland collective made the best of the
situation. Members took great care to
notify others of particularly relevant or interesting posts that they thought
might be good candidates for the center column. The editorial policy also allowed members of the editorial group
to pull certain posts off the general Newswire and place them in a “hidden”
file, which was still accessible to users, though they had to link to a page
called “articles” and select the option “search all articles.” Types of posts deemed eligible for hiding
included: duplicate posts; spam; commercial solitications or advertisements;
messages with technical errors making them unreadable; and messages deemed to
be threatening to specific individuals.
Luckily, in the time I observed the e-mail list and the Newswire, no cases
in the latter category came up. There
were, however, a few posts that could be considered as hate speech, consisting
primarily of slurs against Jews or Muslims, and at least one other post that
might be considered pornographic. This
caused some concern among members who decided to keep the site open with the
exception of the categories just mentioned.
It’s impossible to say how they’ll react in the future if the problem
becomes more common. One point of
reference might be the experience of the Vancouver IMC. When faced with an onslaught of hate speech
that threatened to drive many regular users away from the site, members there
took the approach that the Newswire was to be treated as a public commons
governable by the rules of the user community. Specifically, they drew up a policy for the Newswire that
permitted the hiding of posts that “use language, imagery, or other forms of
communication which promote racism, fascism, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, ageism
or any other form of discrimination” (Uzelman 59).
The
Newswire was similar to the Features section in topical areas. Most of the
posts were related to the war and the peace
movement, with a large number accompanied by photos. I surveyed all the (non-hidden) Newswire posts for the week of
March 16-23, 2003 and tallied them according to subject matter (see Table.
2). This was not done as a part of
quantitative content analysis using sophisticated coding techniques; rather I
used the somewhat crude technique of sorting stories based on my interpretation
of the content. This was simply an
attempt to get a rough snapshot of the Newswire during a period of heavy
activity. While war-related reports
also dominated mainstream mass media outlets with Web sites in Cleveland the
focus was on Bush’s ultimatum, the beginning of the war itself, and Ohioans
called to duty.49 Very little news with anti-war voices was
featured—the exception being a handful of stories on demonstrations and the
arrests of protesters. The general tone
of coverage, as one might expect, was far different from that of Indymedia
posts, which were overwhelmingly first-hand accounts of anti-war demonstrations
and opinions strongly against the war.
Table 2. Cleveland IMC
Newswire posts for the week of March 16-23, 2003
Subject No. of posts*
|
Anti-war |
67 |
|
Announcements |
14 |
|
Anti-Bush |
6 |
|
Rachel Corrie# |
6 |
|
Mainstream
Media Criticism |
6 |
|
Activism/Protest (general) |
4 |
|
Politics (general) |
3 |
|
State budget |
2 |
|
Pro-war |
2 |
|
Supreme Court
Justice Scalia (Cleveland visit) |
2 |
|
Total |
112 |
*There were actually more that 112 total
posts, but the table only includes story categories in which there were two or
more posts.
#American activist killed by Israeli
bulldozer in Gaza Strip
If nothing else, the results reinforce the
argument that Indymedia sites serve as “alternative public spheres” (Morris,
“Globalization and Media Democracy…”) or “media commons” (Uzelman 57-60) where
dissident or underrepresented groups are encouraged to present their views in
their own voice using their own cultural symbols. Somewhat surprisingly, few of these posts received comments from
other users. According to IMC
volunteers, the comment feature in general had been used infrequently, which
was discouraging to them. Perhaps the
lack of use was due to the newness of the collective and the relative
uniformity of opinion about the war within the dissident/progressive community
normally attracted to Indymedia sites.
Through personal contacts and by visiting IMC sites regularly, people
within these social circles tend to know when an Indymedia collective becomes
active in their area. As Indymedia
sites become more widely known outside their core community, they typically see
an increase in content diversity, including posts from oppositional groups and
movements. At some future point, say
six months to a year, it would be worth re-visiting the Cleveland site to conduct
a thorough content analysis and study other aspects of its organization.
4.3.2 IMC
Radio Hour
Members of the Cleveland IMC were fortunate to have access to a local college radio station, which included a prime slot for their public affairs program. In February 2003, the “Cleveland IMC Radio Hour” began airing on Tuesday nights from 6-7pm on WRUW-FM (91.1), a 1,000-watt station located on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. The station is on the air 24 hours a day and offers a wide range of public affairs and cultural programming. It has consistently been a popular listener-supported station in the Cleveland area.
The three members of the editorial group, two of whom were official members of the station’s volunteer staff, took responsibility for producing the show. Their basic format was to broadcast a half hour of local news culled mainly from their Web site, followed by a half hour of national/international news gathered from the global Indymedia site. Producers also played taped interviews recorded by IMC volunteers at local events and conducted a few in-studio interviews with guests. Audience participation was low, consisting of short call-in segments. Given the newness of the show and the fact that it ran in a time slot formally devoted to a popular polka music show, it was not surprising that there were few phone calls.50 As producers continued to get more comfortable on the air, they made plans to promote the show more frequently on the Web site and solicit more live audience participation. It could be argued, however, that even without live forums the show was participatory. Of the local stories read on the show, many were drawn from the Indymedia Newswire thus incorporating the experiences and opinions of many people into the overall content.
There was one development involving the show that concerned the collective. One member reported to the group that the station’s new public affairs director, a volunteer who hosted a “pro-militia” show that appeals to a right-wing audience, had been hostile in her attitude towards the IMC show. In an effort to strengthen the show’s standing, this member appealed to friends in the activist community to make donations to the station—and mention their support for the show—during an upcoming pledge drive.
4.4 Conclusion
The Cleveland IMC represents a unique case in the network’s history. Due to poor organization, the original collective disbanded, leaving a Web site that sat dormant for almost a year. A new collective formed and began the task of reapplying to the network. They endured a long complicated readmission process. Ten months after first organizing, the new collective was officially admitted to the Indymedia network.
While this struggle stands as a testament to the patience and good humor of a core group of members who continued organizing even when their status was in doubt, it also highlights some of the weaknesses within the Indymedia network. Communication between global organizers and the Cleveland collective was often poor, with long gaps between connections. This was due in large part to the network’s lack of a coherent process for re-admitting cities, and the high number of applications for new IMCs flooding the network, which placed a heavy workload on the small group of volunteers in the new-IMC working group. Though not exactly related to this dilemma, the Cleveland group also had problems getting new software from the global tech group. Communication links with their tech liaison were strong initially, but there was a breakdown just after the collective was re-admitted. New software that had been promised had not been installed, leaving members to struggle with a poorly functioning Web site.
Perhaps this too was a byproduct of the unusual status of the Cleveland IMC. If so, then it may just be an aberration. However, interviews with several global organizers, and a review of e-mail messages, suggest that communication breakdowns between local IMCs and global working groups occur frequently. It appears as though this problem can be traced to several sources, most of which involve network structure and communication among global organizers. I’ll pick up those matters in the next chapter. For the rest of this section, I’ll concentrate on communication, structure, and content on the local level.
First and foremost, it is important to remember that Indymedia is made up of volunteers. All the members of the Cleveland collective spend a good deal of their free time doing Indymedia work. They do it because they see a need for open media platforms in their community, and they enjoy being a part of a movement that experiments with radical new ways of making media and empowering people. But with so much of their time spent dealing with local matters, there is little time or energy for establishing strong ties to various global working groups. With time, and more members, this may become easier.
Volunteerism also affects opportunities for personal contact on the local level. Working without an office and living in different neighborhoods, Cleveland IMC members depended primarily on e-mail communication to exchange information and make decisions. Members said this was fine for approving stories and conducting routine business, but not for addressing administrative or structural issues, or building strong, trusting relationships. Several volunteers wanted to find ways to create more opportunities for face-to-face contact, perhaps by holding meetings more frequently or organizing social gatherings or periodic retreats. “Face to face gatherings are very important,” one member said, “because we are people, not disembodied intellects.” Another commented on the advantages of personal contact when recruiting new volunteers. “Anyone can post to the Cleveland IMC Web page,” he commented, “but to actually participate beyond that level.... most people like to know the faces behind the screen names and email addresses.” Having a permanent office or workspace would help, but acquiring one in the short-term would be difficult due to the small size of the active membership and the costs involved.
Regarding content issues, the primary concern appears to be the amount, diversity, and quality of local reports. In an effort to generate more original local news, one member suggested at a monthly meeting that the group should have at least one volunteer in each city ward responsible for covering events and issues. Another expressed interest in recruiting local activists, artists, and writers to produce regular features on the issues they organize around. With proper outreach there’s no reason to think that it can’t be done. The trick is in making those horizontal links to people in all corners of the city and creating a series of media skills workshops that introduce people to the concept of Indymedia and show them how to join the e-mail list and post articles.
Despite numerous setbacks and technical constraints, members of the Cleveland IMC were optimistic about the future of their collective. To begin with, they had fairly strong connections to many segments of the progressive community—labor, peace and justice groups, and small anarchist collectives. Through the anti-war movement, they were beginning to establish valuable contacts with other groups, opening the possibility of becoming more culturally diverse. While much of their optimism may have come from the natural excitement people feel when starting a new project, I suspect that much of it had to do with the nature of the Indymedia experiment—the opportunity to participate in something vastly different from other forms of “work”, a project consistent with their social values.
27 While I have attempted to provide a thorough,
honest and critical study, it can certainly be argued that those best qualified
to tell this story are the organizers of the Cleveland IMC themselves. In the
spirit Indymedia, I encourage them, and members of other local IMCs, to prepare
their own individual and collective accounts of the journey.
28 An Ohio Valley IMC covering Cincinnati and Louisville was also established at about the same time. It provided extensive coverage of the TABD protests, but was eventually shut down in 2001. This was due in part to controversy over a post on its Newswire that authorities claimed was a direct threat on the life of a Cincinnati police officer who had been indicted on misdemeanor charges after shooting a young African-American man to death. Authorities issued a subpoena to appear before an Ohio grand jury, but IMC members refused to appear. Eventually the offending post was removed and the small collective abandoned its Web site, which was shut down.
29 See the November 22-29 issue of City Beat
(Cincinnati, OH) online http://citybeat.com/2000-11-22/cover.shtml.
30 A visit to the online archives of the Cleveland IMC e-mail list reveals that the collective rarely ever used this tool for communicating, even during November 2000 at the height of the TABD protests. The archive is available at http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-cleveland/.
31 The building, called “The Men’s Action Center,” is operated by a group of men working to raise awareness about patriarchy and sexual violence. Their community access show is called “Liberation Brew.” They have allowed the IMC to use their building free of charge.
32 See Appendix II for the complete text of the Mission Statement.
33 Though meetings were held during May, no minutes are available. There are also no minutes available for meetings on April 28, June 9, July 21, and August 4—all in 2002.
34 This event, now called the Allied Media Conference, consists of panel discussions and workshops for small, alternative media outlets. It is sponsored by Clamor magazine, a bi-monthly journal that covers radical politics and culture.
35 These included a visit to Northeast Ohio by President Bush and a rally by the Promise Keepers organization. IMC members produced a video of these and a few other events, which was aired on local cable access TV.
36 The full text of the Cleveland IMC’s Editorial Policy appears in Appendix II.
37 This is not to say that all members consider themselves to be anarchists—most, in fact, do not—but rather to suggest that the structure of the local collective, like the larger network, embodies anarchist values.
38 A case study of the IMC in Vancouver, B.C. conducted by Uzelman (2002) indicates that the core membership was roughly the same size as Cleveland’s.
39 In an e-mail interview Andy asked me, in jest, if I was interested in obtaining “a couple of old mimeo machines and some Press-Type.” For an excellent history of the 1960s underground press, see Abe Peck, Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press. New York: Citadel Press, 1991.
40 Food Not Bombs’ (FNB) primary function is to recover food that would otherwise be thrown away and cook vegetarian meals, which are then served to hungry people in public parks and other locations free of charge. More information about the group can be found at http://www.fnbnews.org/, a Web site, which was created with a version of Active software used by many Indymedia sites.
41 For an excellent critique of the movement’s lack of diversity, see Martinez (2000).
42 Appendix II includes a decision-making flowchart developed for this model by Butler and Rothstein.
43 See “Alternative Papers Reach Settlement on Collusion Charges,” Associated Press News Industry Summary, week of Jan 20-27, 2003.
44 From the organization’s Web site, http://www.palsolidarity.org/: “The International Solidarity Movement is a Palestinian-led movement of Palestinian and International activists working to raise awareness of the struggle for Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli occupation. We utilize nonviolent, direct-action methods of resistance to confront and challenge illegal Israeli occupation forces and policies.”
45 “NE Ohio Activist in Palestine—Update #4,” Cleveland Indymedia, posted Jan. 5, 2003. http://cleveland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2725&group=webcast.
46 This story checks out as far as I could tell. While I could not find any news reports in U.S., European, or Middle East media that specifically referred to gunfire or demolitions in Rafah on January 2, 2003, I did find a report from an organization called the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) indicating that 25 houses in Rafah were destroyed by Israeli forces on that date. Of the houses demolished, 14 were reported to be in “Block J” where the activist writing for Indymedia was staying. See the PCHR press release http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2003/01-2003.htm. Furthermore, members of the Cleveland IMC, whom I have no reason to doubt, consider him to be very reliable. I add this note due mainly to the arguments many “counter-posters” have made on IMC sites claiming that stories about Israeli actions are false and suggesting that criticism of Israeli military policy is tantamount to anti-Semitism. Others have implied that Indymedia stories in general are unreliable because they are not vetted by “professional” news editors before publication.
47 Posted January 22, 2003, see http://cleveland.indymedia.org/print.php3?article_id=2860.
48 “Sexual violence affects us all,” posted January 26, 2003, http://cleveland.indymedia.org/print.php3?article_id2900.
49 During the same week, I surveyed the Web site of one local TV station (the NBC affiliate WEWS, www.newsnet5.com) and the site of the major daily newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I typed “anti-war” and “antiwar” into the TV site’s search engine and found 3 stories of local/state interest. One was about plans by anti-war groups to demonstrate on the day the Iraq invasion started, one was about the AFL-CIO’s opposition to the war, and the other was a story about a protest in southern Ohio. The site also featured a front-page announcement urging visitors to send e-mail messages about “pro-war rallies” happening in their communities and a “War Room” page that encouraged visitors to share stories of “strength, fear and concern and love.” I repeated my search procedure on the Plain Dealer’s site, www.cleveland.com, and found 3 stories on the anti-war movement, including a long (800-word) report about protests that took place on March 20. The site also had a “support the troops” chat forum and a “war in Iraq” forum.
50 One night after attending an IMC meeting, I had dinner with some of the volunteers. The subject of the polka show came up, and members talked about the popularity of polka music in Northeast Ohio’s Polish, German, and Slavic communities, saying they clearly did not want to upset the audience from the show they had replaced. In fact, they wondered if there was a way to appeal to them and get them interested in Indymedia. It was even suggested that someone try to find a radical polka song—or actually write an original song about radical media or politics set to a polka beat—that could be played as an introduction to their show. I use this anecdote simply to illustrate the good humor, community spirit, and appreciation for diverse cultures that I encountered while interacting with IMC members.