This can be anything from your local corporate paper to a radio show, a favorite blog or other website. Anything that you read, watch, or hear is media. I prefer the kind that doesn't have to hustle for advertising (PBS, NPR, and independent alternative media) but all of it is important, because it shapes the world in which we live.
Columnists, reporters and anchors have enormous sway on the public consensus. If you can get your message into the mainstream, either by whipping up such a huge public outcry that they have to cover it, or by creating your own media that supplants that of the big corporations, you have power. And that power is what drives the political will of the nation.
This is why you have to write letters to the editor. This is why you have to send out press releases about your groups' activities. This is why you have to put out newsletters and posters and stickers and signs and flyers. Getting your message into the public consciousness is key to making change.
But sometimes we aren't pushing our own message. A lot of times, we find ourselves disgusted by something we see in the news or the lack of substantive coverage of an issue we care about. That's what the letter to the editor is all about. When you contact a media source that has disappointed you or raised your hackles up on an issue they may decide to print your letter. If they do, that raises the issue again. The more people that do that, in more and more media outlets, the more an issue can resonate with the public consciousness, and thusly enter into the minds of the people that produce the media. Then, if you're very lucky, the bigtime media folks might cover the issue in a fairer and more substantive way. At the very least, you'll have done your part in advancing the causes you care about most.
What kind of media can you access in our area? Here's a short list:
Print Media:
The Tacoma News Tribune - owned by McClatchy
The Tacoma Weekly
Real Change - Seattle - distributed by homeless folks to help them earn an honest living
Street Pulse - Tacoma's own weekly homeless advocacy paper
Eat the State! - Geov Parrish's indie paper
Seattle PI/Seattle Times
The Olympian - Olympia - also owned by McClatchy
Peninsula Gateway - Gig Harbor - also owned by McClatchy
Washington Free Press - Seattle-based indie, comes out every couple of months
Works in Progress - awesome indie out of Olympia
Radio:
AM 1090 KPTK - Seattle's Progressive Talk
94.9 KUOW - NPR - Seattle
91.3 KBCS - Community Radio out of Bellevue Community College
710 KIRO - mainstream political talk plus other stuff - Seattle
Democracynow.org - Democracy Now's streaming audio/video website
90.3 KEXP - Seattle, they have a public interest block Saturday Mornings 6-10 PM
TV:
TV Tacoma - Channel 12 for Click! subscribers
CSPAN
TVW - Washington State's version of CSPAN
Free Speech TV - Satellite channel, carries Democracy Now!
LinkTV - satellite channel, carries Democracy Now!
plus all those mainstream channels like KIRO 7 and KING 5
Internet:
Your favorite blogs
CNN.com
google.com - check out news on any subject
yahoo.com - also gathers news
Democraticunderground.com
The American Peoples' Congress - Tahoma Chapter - bookmark it!
Newsletters:
Your union newsletter
any other publication that accepts reader submissions
Other media:
Blank walls in need of posters, stickers, graffiti, etc.
Bulletin boards around town and at work
Billboards, Bus-wrap signs, plus anything else people read while out and about.