Mass media determine public consciousness. But in the US, where mass media are owned and operated almost entirely by and in the interest of a greedy and irresponsible corporate elite, who keep the issues of control and governance of the internet, cable, broadcast and other media off the table. Potential growth of the media justice movement into an arm of a broad and popular social movement is a clear and imminent threat to the nation's bipartisan elite. And it's the only hope for many millions of Americans currently unable to speak with or hear their own voices, or to realize their own power.

The Racial Equity Theory of Change (RETOC)-- developed by the Aspen Roundtable on Community Change -- is a step-by-step guide designed to help community groups define the necessary interim and early outcomes required to reduce racial disparities in neighborhoods and regions in the long-term.

Dismantling Structural Racism: A Racial Equity Theory of Change

Progressive Communicators Network offers a wealth of tools for getting
your message out; shared, indexed and ranked by the community of
progressive media strategists.

This easy-to-use online toolbox includes guides for strategic communications for racial justice, storytelling & social change worksheets and much more.

The Progressive Communicators Network exists to strengthen and amplify the power, voices, and vision of grassroots movements that are working for racial, social, economic, and environmental justice. Network members use communication strategy, framing and messaging, and media tools to: 1) enhance the influence of social change movements on public policy and opinion; and 2) realize a world without poverty, racism, and other forms of oppression. The Network is a project of Spirit in Action, a movement-building support organization located in western Massachusetts.

A
New Weave of Power, People & Politics:

The
Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation

by
Lisa VeneKlasen with Valerie Miller

A New Weave of Power,
People & Politics provides
a well-tested approach for building people’s participation and
collective power that goes beyond influencing policy and politics to
transforming public decision-making altogether. Based on 25 years of
participatory research, community development, neighborhood organizing,
legal rights education, and large-scale campaign advocacy experiences
worldwide, A New Weave combines concrete and practical action
“steps” with a sound theoretical foundation to help users understand
the process of people-centered politics from  planning to action.
Published in 2002 and reprinted in 2007, the guide is unique in its
emphasis on power and constituency-building discussed through the lens
of gender/race/class and based on the concrete experiences of social
change in dozens of countries worldwide.

Read reviews of the book in Popular Education News, by John Ruthrauff, for InterAction, and other praise.

Translations of A New Weave are available in Spanish, Russian, Bahasa Indonesia, and (soon) French. (more)

In the early months of the 2008 presidential campaign, the media had already winnowed the race to mostly five candidates and offered Americans relatively little information about their records or what they would do if elected, according to a comprehensive new study of the election coverage across the media.
The press also gave some candidates measurably more favorable coverage than others. (see link for entire report)

Learning Race and Ethnicity

Youth and Digital Media

Edited by Anna Everett

It may have been true once that (as the famous
cartoon of the 1990s put it) "Nobody knows you're a dog on the
Internet," and that (as an MCI commercial of that era declared) on the
Internet there is no race, gender, or infirmity, but today, with the
development of web cams, digital photography, cell phone cameras,
streaming video, and social networking sites, this notion seems
quaintly idealistic. This volume takes up issues of race and ethnicity
in the new digital media landscape. The contributors address this
topic--still difficult to engage honestly, clearly, empathetically, and
with informed understanding in twenty-first century America--with the
goal of pushing consideration of a vexing but important subject from
margin to center.

Learning Race and Ethnicity explores the intersection of race
and ethnicity with post 9/11 politics, online hate-speech practices,
and digital youth and media cultures. It examines universal access and
the racial and ethnic digital divide from the perspective of digital
media learning and youth. The chapters treat such subjects as racial
identity in the computer-mediated public sphere, minority technology
innovators, new methods of music distribution, digital artist Judy
Baca's work with youth, Native American digital media literacy, and
minority youth technology access and the pervasiveness of online health
information.

Contributors:
Ambar Basu, Graham D. Bodie, Dara N. Byrne, Jessie Daniels, Mohan J.
Dutta, Raiford Guins, Guisela Latorre, Antonio López, Chela Sandoval,
Tyrone D. Taborn, Douglas Thomas.

About the Editor

Anna Everett is Professor of Film Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Our five years of conducting communications for grassroots organizing
campaigns is captured in this comprehensive how-to toolkit, Communicate
Justice 101.   This is the organizers’ essential guide to strategic
communications.  Need to challenge racist bias, develop media
materials, or run a media campaign from start to finish?