Event: Rochester Indymedia

Location

Downstairs Office

Bottomliner

Ben, Ted, Susan, Andy, Dawn

When

• Every week at Thursday, 6:00pm - 9:00pm

Rochester Indymedia has its editorial meeting from 8-9pm and folks are more than welcome to attend. If people would like to work on projects instead of going to the editorial meeting, that is ok.

Website: rochester.indymedia.org

About Rochester Indymedia

In the winter of early 2002, a group of Rochester-area activists met to discuss ways to address disinformation in the corporate media and to move forward in building an alternative media project in Rochester. The impetus for the meeting was the stifling media environment in the post-9/11 atmosphere. Later that spring, the group calling itself the Rochester Media Collective became part of the network of Independent Media Centers or IMCs—also known as Indymedia.

TV Dinner and Rochester Indymedia joined forces in the summer of 2002. TV Dinner is a public access video group and Task Force of Metro Justice. TV Dinner has been producing local activist-oriented video as well as Metro Justice campaign-focused video work for cable access on Rochester Community TV (RCTV) since 1987. The combination of these forces seemed, at the time, natural as both parties wanted to collaborate on a local, independent, and alternative media project.

That being said, throughout 2006 and 2007 discussion occurred both formally and informally on the articulation of this relationship. These discussions helped us to visualize the gray areas of our relationship with Metro Justice as well as helped us to see how the decentralized, anti-capitalist, and autonomous nature of Indymedia’s Principles of Unity were directly classing with the more centralized, bureaucratic, and authoritarian practices of Metro Justice.”

So in the fall of 2007, Rochester Indymedia formally split with Metro Justice. During the time from 2007 to now, Rochester Indymedia has maintained a website and a video channel (at first on Blip.TV and now on YouTube.com) and continues to produce stories and video of and for the people of Rochester. We had our decade anniversary at our new home, the Flying Squirrel Community Space, during the summer of 2012.

Rochester Indymedia has been involved in many special events and conducted different kinds of coverage in the life of the collective.

• The 2003 Rochester Social Forum
• Coverage of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in Miami in 2003
• Extensive coverage of the Democratic (Boston) and Republican (NYC) National Conventions in 2004
• Coverage of the anniversaries of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
• Revolution, Resistance, Repression: The People’s Struggle for a Liberated Oaxaca (2006)
• Bulk Up Fest: a joint benefit for Food Not Bombs and Rochester Indymedia
• After [Critical] Mass Film and Discussion Series (2006 - 2007)
• Different editing workshops for video, audio, and writing over the years
• Coverage of the Democratic (Denver) and Republican (St. Paul) National Conventions in 2008
• IndyTV interview show hosted by the Barefoot Host at RCTV from 2008-2009
• Coverage of the G20 and G8 in Pittsburg (2009)
• Coverage of the anti-Olympic Demonstrations in Vancouver, BC in Canada (2010)
• Coverage of the anti-Mayoral Control struggle in Rochester (2010 - 2011)
• Coverage of the anti-NATO summit in Chicago (May 2012)
• Coverage of the Democratic (Charlotte) and Republican (Tampa) National Conventions in 2012
• Coverage of the George Zimmerman trial in Sanford, FL (2013)
• At different times we’ve put out a newspaper and have uploaded audio pieces
• Extensive coverage of police brutality and abuse in Rochester
• Extensive coverage of housing eviction defenses and related issues
• Extensive coverage of the anti-war movement in Rochester (Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, etc.)
• Coverage of the anti-fracking movement and other environmental issues
• Coverage of labor movement in Rochester and surrounding areas
• RIMC videos have been used to exonerate people accused of crimes
• We’ve also covered numerous speakers and events within Rochester
• Our work has been used on documentaries, newscasts, shown at City Council, and aired on Free Speech TV. We have also collaborated with many different IMCs and alternative and independent media outlets.

Mission Statement

The Rochester IMC is a non-commercial, democratic collective of Rochester area independent media makers and media outlets, and serves as the local organizing unit of the global Indymedia network.

Rochester IMC Principles of Unity

• We strive to provide an information infrastructure for people and opinions who do not have access to the airwaves, tools and resources of corporate media. This includes audio, video, photography, internet distribution and any other communication medium.
• We support local, regional and global struggles against exploitation and oppression.
• We function as a non-commercial, non-corporate, anti-capitalist collective.
• Rochester IMC involves volunteer participants and allied collectives organized along anti-authoritarian principles of open and transparent decision-making processes, including open public meetings; a form of modified consensus; and the elimination of hierarchies.
• Rochester IMC participants shall not act in a manner that endangers, intimidates, or physically harms any member of the group, including by sexual harassment or acts of violence. Indymedia members shall strive to act in a respectful manner to other members of the collective as well as the public.

Goals

• To encourage a world where globalization is not about homogeneity and exploitation, but rather, about diversity and cooperation.
• To cover local events that are ignored or poorly covered by corporate media.
• To provide edited audio, video, and print stories of the above on the internet for independent media outlets and the general public.
• To facilitate the networking and coordination for the coverage of local events as well as gather information about events to cover.
• To provide links to alternative media, activist, and research groups.
• To seek out and provide coverage underscoring the global nature of people's struggles for social, economic, and environmental justice directly from their perspective.
• To offer community classes for training in internet and media skills.
• To encourage, facilitate, and support the creation of independent news gathering and organizations.