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November 30 was the 20th anniversary of the “Battle of Seattle” protests against the World Trade Organization ministerial meetings in that Pacific Northwest city. The broad array of groups and 80,000 people who assembled understood they would not receive a fair hearing in the mainstream press, so they built their own internet-based platform to instantly publish accounts from the street in words, sound, pictures and video. They called it Indymedia, sparking a citizen-journalism movement that quickly went worldwide before the invention of YouTube, Facebook or Twitter.
To mark this anniversary we return to our conversation with Slate journalist April Glaser, who was active in the Indymedia movement and low-power FM. Earlier this year April wrote a piece for Logic Magazine called, “Another Network is Possible,” observing how the path of what we now call “social media” is just one possible outcome, and that Indymedia was another possibility. That said, we discuss how the innovation and spirit of the movement lives on today.
Show Notes:
- “Another Network Is Possible” April Glaser’s article in Logic Magazine
- Radio Survivor’s coverage of Vanderbilt University college station WRVU
- A popular tweet Eric referenced on today’s show about the lack of evening community spaces in the U.S.
- Infoshop News compiled a list of articles reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the “Battle of Seattle”
- Last year our friends at Interference Archive released a podcast looking back on WTO Protests, Seattle 1999
