CKUT to host Independent Media Conference
Next weekend, McGill campus and Montreal community radio station CKUT will be hosting the Independent Media Conference from Oct. 19 to Oct. 21.
Kicking off the conference on Friday evening is keynote speaker Amy Goodman, a member of the independent news service Democracy Now!.
The rest of the weekend's events will involve panels discussing democratic media and representation, as well as radio production workshops with titles like "How to put on a kick-ass music show," and "Sound editing 101."
"We hope this will be the first of many annual independent media conferences in Montreal," said Juliet Lammers, promotions and funding coordinator at CKUT. "With the focus on media democracy and representation in the media, the goal of the conference is to take a critical look at the media and offer information and hands-on skills to people which will allow them to effectively participate in the media."
McGill professors and students, as well as CKUT staff and volunteers, will be featured speakers, but the conference will also host several independent media researchers and practitioners from Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and New York.
Following a long day's work, there will be a dance party hosted at Cagibi on Saturday night, and quieting down on Sunday, a documentary screening of Un poquito de tanta verdad, or 'A little bit of so much truth,' a film about Mexican Oaxaca state's residents who took over 14 radio stations and a television station in 2006.
Lammers said she believes the conference will allow participants "the opportunity to learn to think about the media more critically, to learn about issues they had perhaps not previously considered, to consider their own lives vis-a-vis the media, to meet and speak with people directly implicated in the media and to gain some practical skills that could give them a voice in the media."
Advance tickets to the conference may be purchased at CKUT from Oct. 15 onwards in their office on 3647 University. Log on to http://www.ckut.ca/redefiningmedia.php, or tune into 90.3 FM for more information.
-Kristin Maich
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