Women and Independent Media

Discussion about the independent media I should start by showing how much the media (in USA) is corporate world. There is an organization called Project Censored. They says that their mission is to “teach students and the public about the role of a free press in a free society – and to tell the News That Didn’t Make the News and Why.

The organization researched Corporate Media Ownership and shows that main source of news for most Americans is owned by ten big media organizations, who also own “almost everything” (you can read more on here).

The Project Censored is great organization, but their goals are not releted directly to women’ or minorities’ issues. I mentioned them because when they show relations of news to politycs and big corporate world (“money”), they also list some independent news sources, and because the Project Censored operates for more than 30 years, they are good reference.

In their list I found link to Women’s E-News website. Their slogan is “Covering Women’s Issues – Changing Women’s Lives”. This is non-profit organization which is daily internet-based news service. They tries to cover hard to get news which concern women and their lives (about Women's eNews). The editors of Women’s E-News are freelance writers from around the world. The news are published or the website, but also can be subscribe (by e-mail). The organization is coming out from Barbara Lee Family foundation (1996) and became independent on January 1, 2002. Very positive is fact that Wonen’s eNews has its Arabic version. The organization have won 3127 award between 2004 and 2008.

They have a few interesting sections. One touches issue of marriage and divorce from women’s point of view. Going thru this section I found interesting article about fight against forced marriages, which are still practice in many countries in the world.

The other interesting section is Uncovering Gender. The topics of the articles are from all aspects of our lives, from politics to justice, from business to environment. For everyone who is interested in women’s issues should subscribe them.

There is one more organization I want to write about in a few words. The IWPR (Institute for War and Peace Reporting). This organization unite independent reporters in different part of the world, who fight for peace and democracy. This non-profit organization built whole network of for these reporters, and help them to develop skills and professionalism. Their website is great source of news from all places where war has place. I wrote about them, because right now they are building new media pipeline for reporters who works with them, and I am small part of it.