Of course, not all alternatives deal directly with environmental concerns. Many are interested with news accuracy, or media bias, or tackle the question of consumption and only implicitly acknowledge its effects on the environment, or simply provide alternative news and entertainment. Hundreds of individuals and organizations around the country are working to increase media literacy and enact change in the media environment.

The biggest groups are national or international, but many smaller groups exist to enact change in the local state and community. In New Jersey, the largest media literacy and education organizations are those related to Rutgers University (indeed, Consuming Environments was published by Rutgers University Press), most notably the New Jersey Communication Association (NJCA) and the New Jersey Media Literacy Project. The former provides annual conferences on the media, with themes ranging from local initiatives to broad research. This year’s conference, held on March 25, included such topics as “Cultural Jamming”, “Doing Research on Race and Ethnicity”, “Media, Mass Media, and Music”, and “Television Advertising and the Battle for the Presidency in the 21st Century”. The NJCA also addresses communication education and research.

The New Jersey Media Literacy Project (NJMLP), a venture by the Center for Media Studies at Rutgers University, aims at “help[ing] enable New Jersey’s students to become ‘media literate,’ i.e., able to access, evaluate, analyze, and produce both electronic and print media.” By educating parents, teachers, and students, the NJMLP hopes to reach admirable goals. Media education has numerous benefits, but most importantly it helps people to “become more discriminating in the use of mass media, distinguish between reality and fantasy and separate fact from fiction, think critically about media messages, [and] consider whether media values are their values” (emphasis in original). The NJMLP website also provides access to articles on media studies, as well as links to other media literacy websites.

However, not all movements are so formal. Indymedia.org offers state-specific subsections, offering an alternative to mass media news. New Jersey’s Rutgers Culture Jam and the Cicada Corps of Artists are two underground organizations involved in media sabotage. Usually referred to as “culture jamming”, this action first involved reworking billboards to undermine the original message and present a (usually) educational message. For instance, the group Billboard Liberation Front “liberated” a cigarette billboard in 1997 by changing the writing from "I'm realistic, I only smoke Fact..." to "I'm real sick, I only smoke..." These days, culture jamming refers to any subversion of the symbols and tools used by corporations and governments. Unfortunately, even this media alternative is in danger as more and more corporations turn to so-called “guerilla advertising” to spread their product, co-opting culture jamming techniques for themselves.

Although numerous initiatives exist in-state that deal with the media environment, they are increasingly be accompanied by groups and publications that transcend borders. Adbusters is one of the most popular of these publications. The Vancouver based magazine, now with its 65th issue, is the culture jammer magazine. A self-proclaimed “anti-consumerist magazine… famous for their spoof ads,” Adbusters publishes magazines filled with alternative news articles, essays on media and commercial consumption, and other related writing. In addition to their spoof ads, Adbusters is best known for their creation of Buy Nothing Day. Becoming increasingly widespread, Buy Nothing Day occurs on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and generally the busiest shopping day of the year, and urges consumers to suspend their shopping for the day. This “holiday” has become extremely popular in the tri-state area, especially in downtown New York City.

Besides magazines such as Adbusters, the Internet has become the best source for alternatives and exit-signs. Consuming Environments portrays access to the Internet as expensive, but technology prices have dropped heavily since the book’s publication in 1999. Now, Internet access is quickly reaching the pervasiveness of television. Furthermore, even those who do not have Internet access in their homes can find free connections at libraries, schools, and wireless “hot-spots”. As computer and Internet access prices continue to drop, the Internet will increasingly become a haven for true democratic proliferation of ideas.

Consuming Environments touches on the importance of the Internet, but with only a couple of paragraphs on the subject, much is left unmentioned. The authors rightly say, “[t]he Internet and the World Wide Web are opening whole new worlds of possibility, including decentralizing and democratizing communication on a global scale” (182). The Internet works in two ways to provide a new, liberating medium for media education. First, it enables individuals and organizations, from solo culture jammers to large groups like Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, to reach an audience far greater than once possible. In doing so, the Internet removes boundaries and creates global identities for even the smallest media critic. In addition, even the messages are unencumbered by traditional boundaries. As easily as they can be simply text, statements can combine audio and visuals to provide a fully multimedia form through which to transmit ideas.

Even more revolutionary is the emergence of hundreds of amateur journalists, using so-called “blogs” to comment and report on various happenings around the world. Blogs, some individually driven and some community-driven, are websites with frequently posted columns on a variety of topics ranging from environmentalism to entertainment, from politics to physics. Because of the Internet’s global nature, these blogs are available to users around the world, and provide an exit from the mainstream media that many are unable to find in their own community. The amateur, and sometimes even semi-professional, journalism is one of the most promising alternatives available on the Internet.

The second way in which the Internet provides new alternatives and exit-signs for communities around the globe is by connecting people. Online forums have been around for decades, and work to gather people so they can share and discuss their ideas. Such forums are a good way to discover ways to decrease consumption and remove the influences of the media environment. While forums connect people online, some websites, most notably Meetup.com, exist to connect people offline. Those unable to participate in online forums, or looking for the benefits of human interaction, can subscribe to specific Meetup groups and get in contact with other members. The Adbusters Meetup group has over 50 members, with meetings organized monthly around the state.

As media continues to gain a stronger presence in our lives, it will become more difficult to rid ourselves of its influence. Concerns arise over the media’s role in increasing consumption, and subsequently the destruction of the natural environment. Advertisers’ goal of conditioning audience members to become active consumers of their products is a fact acknowledged by more and more people everyday. This education is made possible by the various individuals and organizations working to assist people in becoming more aware of how media affects their lives.

name:
mail:	(optional)
smile:
Enter this code validate comment: (note! case sensitive! if you enter code incorrectly, you will lose your comment!) Remember Me | Forget Me