[MB: Under constant re-construction -- this archive of recommended resources for (re)thinking the world beyond the standard stories/narratives of the mainstream corporate media in the USA. It was originally conceived of as a guide for my HUM 221: Contemporary Perspectives on Peace & War and my ENG 102: Writing II courses. The initial prompt was students asking how they could begin to extend their knowledge about the world. Since I am building this as a research guide for learning/writing there is an emphasis on resources that disseminate/communicate in-depth knowledge, with identifiable authors, and/or documented sources. There is also an emphasis on providing a wide range of resources from different perspectives from around the world. Also, for American resources, I have, as much as possible, avoided those that engage in simplistic democrat vs republican (and vice versa) political propaganda. Information regarding films and film studies is posted at Dialogic Cinephilia. I post about these issues on Twitter @mdbento If you have a suggestion for a resource that should be included, leave a comment at the end of the post.]
AAIHS (African American Intellectual History Society)
["The African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) is a scholarly organization founded in January 2014 to foster dialogue about researching, writing, and teaching black thought and culture. African American intellectual history is a growing and thriving subfield and we believe that the AAIHS and its blog can play a role in fostering that growth for years to come. We are open to scholars in all disciplines, including but not limited to African American history, literature, philosophy, art, dance, and film. We also welcome scholars working on the African Diaspora."]
About-Face ("About-Face means a reversal of direction, attitude, or point of view. We equip women & girls with tools to understand & resist harmful media messages that affect their self-esteem & body image.")
Al Jazeera Documentaries ("Al Jazeera English is an international news channel with over sixty bureaus around the world that span six different continents. Since being established in 2006, it has continued to grow in reach and popularity due to its global coverage, especially from underreported regions. The channel currently broadcasts to over 250 million households across 130 countries.")
Baffler ("The Baffler is a journal of art and criticism ... The epigraph stamped on Baffler 1, from Arthur Rimbaud’s “Morning of Drunkenness,” introduced it as a punk literary journal. It was 1988, and founders Thomas Frank and Keith White were students at the University of Virginia. Three years later, The Baffler moved to Chicago. Thomas Frank moved into the role of Editor in Chief and oversaw 17 more issues, plus two anthologies, Commodify Your Dissent: The Business of Culture in the New Gilded Age (1997) and Boob Jubilee: The Cultural Politics of the New Economy (2003). The subject was big business—the way it talked to itself,revival the dogmas it generated in culture, the pathologies it produced in politics—but it was The Baffler’s high-toned satire that made it the most influential journal of the nineties. Most left-wing journals, then and now, offer wonkery, moralism, dialectical obfuscation, and other forms of boredom. The Baffler offered comic juxtapositions that suggested criticism could be a literary art, and drew in readers who did not typically read journals. In May 2011, John Summers purchased The Baffler on behalf of The Baffler Foundation, moved headquarters to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and took over as editor in chief. Summers then signed a contract with MIT Press that ended the journal’s irregular publishing history. The contract ensures publication through 2016 while also guaranteeing the independence of its editors, writers, and artists.")
Big Think ("We live in a time of information abundance, which far too many of us see as information overload. With the sum total of human knowledge, past and present, at our fingertips, we’re faced with a crisis of attention: which ideas should we engage with, and why? Big Think is an evolving road map to the best thinking on the planet — the ideas that can help you think flexibly and act decisively in a multivariate world.")
Blain, Keisha N. "Introduction to the #Blackpanthersyllabus." AAIHS (February 20, 2016)
The British Film Institute ("The BFI was founded in 1933. We are a charity governed by a Royal Charter. We combine cultural, creative and industrial roles, bringing together the BFI National Archive and BFI Reuben Library, film distribution, exhibition and education at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX, publishing and festivals. We award Lottery funding to film production, distribution, education, audience development and market intelligence and research.")
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ("A highly regarded resource written by international scientists and public policy makers, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has been published continually since 1945. It is the official online publication of the organization by the same name, providing analysis, interviews, and policy reviews on reducing nuclear weapons arsenals, controlling fissile materials, providing access to sustainable energy resources, and eliminating the use of harmful technologies in the life sciences. The Bulletin is an important source and forum for experts, policymakers, scholars, journalists, and concerned citizens who prize the ability to make rational policy decisions based on sound scientific information. 'The Bulletin brings substance and clarity to public debates. We need it.' Stephen Hawking, Theoretical physicist and member of the Bulletin's Board of Sponsors. ... Access to all of the ... articles published back to 1999 in each issue of the journal is free!")
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (Based at City University in London: "The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is an independent not-for-profit organisation. Established in April 2010, the Bureau is the first of its kind in the UK, where philanthropically funded journalism is rare. Our team of journalists bolsters original news by producing high-quality investigations for press and broadcast media with the aim of educating the public and the media on both the realities of today’s world and the value of honest reporting. Mission: The Bureau was formed and is funded on the assumption that investigative journalism is indispensible to democracy. As such the Bureau’s aim is to pursue and encourage journalism in the public interest. The Bureau works hard to further this cause and has spoken widely at events including: The Swedish Investigative Journalism Conference; Danish International Media Festival and the European Investigative Journalism Conference. The Bureau believes that as newsrooms struggle with reduced resources, alternative funding models are crucial to the survival of public interest journalism. The Bureau is campaigning for journalism in the public interest to be allowed charitable status in the UK, to broaden avenues of funding.")
Center for Economic and Policy Research ("The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) was established in 1999 to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. In order for citizens to effectively exercise their voices in a democracy, they should be informed about the problems and choices that they face. CEPR is committed to presenting issues in an accurate and understandable manner, so that the public is better prepared to choose among the various policy options. Toward this end, CEPR conducts both professional research and public education. The professional research is oriented towards filling important gaps in the understanding of particular economic and social problems, or the impact of specific policies. The public education portion of CEPR's mission is to present the findings of professional research, both by CEPR and others, in a manner that allows broad segments of the public to know exactly what is at stake in major policy debates. An informed public should be able to choose policies that lead to an improving quality of life, both for people within the United States and around the world. CEPR was co-founded by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot. Our Advisory Board includes Nobel Laureate economists Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz; Janet Gornick, Professor at the CUNY Graduate School and Director of the Luxembourg Income Study; and Richard Freeman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University.")
CHIASMOS ("For many years, the University of Chicago's Area Studies Centers have brought the world to the University's campus by sponsoring and organizing lectures, conferences, and performances by globally-recognized academics, political leaders, and artists. Today, the University of Chicago Area and International Studies Multimedia Outreach Source (CHIASMOS) aims to bring those events to students, teachers, and the general public in Chicago and throughout the world. The nickname of the project (from the Greek, meaning "crossing") is indicative of its collaborators' intent to cross not only international borders but also the boundaries that have traditionally separated universities from the general public. CHIASMOS is a collaborative project of the Center for International Studies, the Human Rights Program, the Center for East Asian Studies, the Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies, the Center for Latin American Studies, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the South Asian Language and Area Center, and the Chicago Media Initiatives Group.")
Christie Books ("anarchists, anarchism, libertarian ideas and history.")
Colorlines ("Colorlines is a daily news site where race matters, featuring award-winning investigative reporting and news analysis. Colorlines is published by Race Forward, a national organization that advances racial justice through research, media and practice. Colorlines is produced by a multiracial team of writers who cover stories from the perspective of community, rather than through the lens of power brokers.")
Common Sense (MB: Dan Carlin's Common Sense is my favorite political commentary podcast that is centered around the host's insights into current events. "The Common Sense podcast grew out of A.M. talk radio programs Carlin did on terrestrial radio in the 1990's. The topics discussed deal with politics and current events. Always non-partisan, and admittedly "America-centric", Carlin uses history and deep analysis to get to the heart of today's political and social issues. Dan has called his own political views 'Martian', but they often sound a lot like the views of the people who signed the U.S. Constitution.")
Consortium News ("From Editor Robert Parry: We founded Consortiumnews.com in 1995 as the first investigative news magazine on the Internet. The site was meant to be a home for important, well-reported stories and a challenge to the inept but dominant mainstream news media of the day. As one of the reporters who helped expose the Iran-Contra scandal for the Associated Press in the mid-1980s, I was distressed by the silliness and propaganda that had come to pervade American journalism. I feared, too, that the decline of the U.S. press corps foreshadowed disasters that would come when journalists failed to alert the public about impending dangers.")
CorpWatch ("CorpWatch: Non-profit investigative research and journalism to expose corporate malfeasance and to advocate for multinational corporate accountability and transparency. We work to foster global justice, independent media activism and democratic control over corporations.
We seek to expose multinational corporations that profit from war, fraud, environmental, human rights and other abuses, and to provide critical information to foster a more informed public and an effective democracy. ... Our guiding vision is to promote human, environmental, social and worker rights at the local, national and global levels by making corporate practices more transparent and holding corporations accountable for their actions. As independent investigative researchers and journalists, we provide critical information to foster a more informed public and an effective democracy. We believe the actions, decisions, and policies undertaken and pursued by private corporations have very real impact on public life – from individuals to communities around the world. Yet few mechanisms currently exist to hold them accountable for those actions. As a result, it falls to the public sphere to protect the public interest. In many cases, corporate power and influence eclipses even the democratic political process itself as they exert disproportional influence on public policy they deem detrimental to their narrow self-interests. In less developed nations, they usurp authority altogether, often purchasing government complicity for unfair practices at the expense of economic, environmental, human, labor and social rights. Yet despite the very public impact of their actions and decisions, corporations remain bound to be accountable solely to their own private financial considerations and the interests of their shareholders. They have little incentive, nor requirement, for public transparency regarding their decisions and practices, let alone concrete accountability for their ultimate impact.")
Counterpunch (MB: Incredibly productive and incisive... Muckraking, independent journalism, founded by Ken Silverstein, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair in 1994 and "noted for its critical coverage of both Democratic and Republican politicians and its extensive reporting of environmental and trade union issues, American foreign policy, and the Israeli-Arab conflict.")
Dandelion Salad ("News from around the world and videos, editorials, creative writing, photography and more. All volunteer staff and writers contribute to this blog. No one makes any money, no ads*, nor solicitations for money, all work done out of dedication to bringing news and politics from around the world not covered well in corporate run media.")
Davey D's Hip Hop Corner ("Davey D is a journalist and Hip Hop activist who is originally from the Bronx and now lives in Oakland where he does a daily radio show -Hard Knock Radio heard on KPFA 94.1 FM and writes a column for the San Jose Mercury news. Davey D also teaches a class on Hip Hop culture and politics at SF State.")
The Democracy Center ("Founded in San Francisco in 1992, The Democracy Center works globally to help citizens understand and influence the public decisions that impact their lives. Through a combination of investigation and reporting, advocacy training, and leading international citizen campaigns, we have worked with social and environmental justice activists in more than three-dozen countries on five continents. As The Democracy Center begins its third decade, a special emphasis of our work is strengthening citizen action on the global climate crisis and helping citizens challenge the power of corporations.")
Democracy Now (MB: this is my favorite daily news show. Solely funded by listener contributions it puts to shame all corporate media pretending to cover world news/events. "Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the U.S., Democracy Now! is broadcast on Pacifica, NPR, community, and college radio stations; on public access, PBS, satellite television (DISH network: Free Speech TV ch. 9415 and Link TV ch. 9410; DIRECTV: Free Speech TV ch. 348 and Link TV ch. 375); and on the internet. DN!’s podcast is one of the most popular on the web. Democracy Now!’s War and Peace Report provides our audience with access to people and perspectives rarely heard in the U.S.corporate-sponsored media, including independent and international journalists, ordinary people from around the world who are directly affected by U.S. foreign policy, grassroots leaders and peace activists, artists, academics and independent analysts. In addition, Democracy Now! hosts real debates–debates between people who substantially disagree, such as between the White House or the Pentagon spokespeople on the one hand, and grassroots activists on the other. WHY INDEPENDENT MEDIA ? For true democracy to work, people need easy access to independent, diverse sources of news and information. But the last two decades have seen unprecedented corporate media consolidation. The U.S. media was already fairly homogeneous in the early 1980s: some fifty media conglomerates dominated all media outlets, including television, radio, newspapers, magazines, music, publishing and film. In the year 2000, just six corporations dominated the U.S. media. In addition, corporate media outlets in the U.S. are legally responsible to their shareholders to maximize profits. Democracy Now! is funded entirely through contributions from listeners, viewers, and foundations. We do not accept advertisers, corporate underwriting, or government funding. This allows us to maintain our independence.")
Dialogic Cinephilia (The Dialogic film studies blog.)
Der Spiegel (International edition in English of the German publication. Founded in 1947 "Der Spiegel (... "The Mirror") is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.")
Dissent ("Dissent is a quarterly magazine of politics and ideas. Establishing itself as one of America’s leading intellectual journals in 1954, it has since published articles by Hannah Arendt, Norman Mailer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Ellen Willis, Richard Wright, George Packer, and many others. A rare internationalism has always been central to Dissent’s mission. The magazine published dissident work from the Eastern Bloc and now reports on politics and social movements with a recent focus on the Middle East and China." Also the Dissent blog.)
Dissident Voice ("Dissident Voice is an internet newsletter dedicated to challenging the distortions and lies of the corporate press and the privileged classes it serves. The goal of Dissident Voice is to provide hard hitting, thought provoking and even entertaining news and commentaries on politics and culture that can serve as ammunition in struggles for peace and social justice.")
Documentary (" Documentary storytelling expands our understanding of shared human experience, fostering an informed, compassionate, and connected world. The International Documentary Association (IDA) is dedicated to building and serving the needs of a thriving documentary culture. Through its programs, IDA provides resources, creates community, and defends rights and freedoms for documentary artists, activists, and journalists.")
Earth First! Newswire ("The Earth First! Newswire has been launched as a project of the Earth First! Journal, and serves to provide news and information about direct action in defense of living systems and the natural world.")
Electric Sheep (Based in the United Kingdom: "Electric Sheep is the online magazine for lovers of offbeat, left-field and cult cinema. It celebrates the celluloid dreams of the most outlandish, provocative and visionary directors, the marginal and the transgressive, the poetic and the subversive.")
Electronic Frontier Foundation (MB: Operating on the frontlines of the open source/knowledge movement. "From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990—well before the Internet was on most people's radar—and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.")
Empire (Al Jazeera's documentary series that examines global political struggles.)
Entitled Opinions (Radio/podcast show from Stanford University, hosted by Robert Harrison professor of Italian Literature. Wide ranging, in-depth, discussions with scholars from the Stanford community on culture, the arts, history and philosophy.)
Everyday Feminism ("Everyday Feminism strives to end the everyday violence, dominance, and silencing used against people due to their gender, sexual orientation, race, and class and make self-determination and loving communities a new norm. We take an inside-out approach to social change because we believe that personal transformation and social transformation are interdependent. People who have internalized society’s messages about not being good enough and deserving to be oppressed, violated, exploited discriminated against are not likely to rise up to change the system. But the more people can free themselves of these messages and believe in their inherent self-worth, the more they are able to come together to stand up for broader social change. This belief informs our unique approach in the feminist movement. We help people in applying feminism to work through issues, stand up for themselves, live their truth, and take collective action. Through our online platform, we give people the concrete knowledge, practical skills, and community support to help them create change in their own lives and communities. In June 2012, we launched the online magazine and currently have 150-200,000 average monthly visitors and a Facebook page of over 45,000 fans. In April 2013, we launched radio talk show, forum, and online courses.")
Fare Forward ("Fare Forward is a quarterly Christian review of ideas and cultural commentary launched in the summer of 2012 and written and produced by young adults. As undergraduates, the founding editors and writers of the journal worked with the Augustine Collective, a loose collection of college-based Christian journals like The Dartmouth Apologia. The Collective’s success and our understanding of our cultural moment inspired the editors to create FF. We aim to connect emerging Christian thought leaders and spiritual seekers to each other over rigorous reflection on faith, reason, and vocation. Fare Forward is deeply ecumenical, drawing writers and editors from all denominations around a common creedal vision. We are united by our shared theological embrace of Christian orthodoxy, rather than by agreement on concrete political questions. The common vision of Fare Forward is what we call “thick doctrine, deep practice.” Thick doctrine points to the rich, historical depths of Christian belief, while deep practice refers to the embodied practices and visible habits that make up the Christian life. ... The name ‘Fare Forward’ is taken from “The Dry Salvages”, the third quartet of T.S. Eliot’s masterpiece, Four Quartets. “The Dry Salvages” is a reflection on time, eternity, and humanity’s place in between. We chose our name to reflect this awareness of the transhistorical, incarnational nature of human experience and to affirm our commitment to acknowledging both the richness of Christian tradition and our faith’s vital creativity.")
Faultlines ("We live in a world run through with Fault Lines. Al Jazeera's Fault Lines takes you beyond the headlines and holds the powerful to account, as we examine the US' role in the world.")
Feminist Frequency: Conversations with Pop Culture ("Anita Sarkeesian is a media critic and the creator of Feminist Frequency, a video webseries that explores the representations of women in pop culture narratives. Her work focuses on deconstructing the stereotypes and tropes associated with women in popular culture as well as highlighting issues surrounding the targeted harassment of women in online and gaming spaces. Anita earned her bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies at California State University Northridge and her Master’s degree in Social and Political Thought at York University." Here is the website's YouTube video series)
Feministing ("Feministing’s Community blog exists to provide a platform for feminist and pro-feminist writing, to connect feminists online and off, and to encourage activism. We hope that the Community blog will be a forum for a variety of feminist voices and organizations.")
Films for Action (MB: one of the best places to access documentaries online. "Films For Action uses the power of film to raise awareness of important social, environmental, and media-related issues not covered by the mainstream news. Our goal is to provide citizens with the information and perspectives essential to creating a more just, sustainable, and democratic society. Our website has cataloged over 900 of the best films and videos that can be watched free online.")
Film Studies for Free (MB: Catherine Grant does a great service by creating handy archives of resources centered around themes, journals, and filmmakers. " A pluralist, pro bono, and purely positive web-archive of examples of, links to, and comment on, online, Open Access, film and moving image studies resources of note. FSFF is lovingly tended (in a personal capacity) by Catherine Grant, of Film Studies at the University of Sussex. She always wanted to be a Borgesian librarian when she grew up.")
Floating Sheep ("There is an increasing amount of data on the Internet that is geo-coded to a particular spot on the earth. This has huge implications for how we interact with our surroundings and each other. This site is dedicated to mapping and analyzing user generated geocoded data. The results provide one glimpse of what internet users (in the aggregate) think about particular places. Where are people posting placemarks about swine flu? Which places are considered to be "fun" by the collective intelligence of the Internet users? We view this new cloud of user generated data as cyberscape which provides an additional layer for human interaction. In addition to our five senses we can now access cyberscapes of information (see our visualization below) as a digital sixth sense. We can look around a physical corner and see what online information has been tied to that location. Since a large amount of this information is created by users we are no longer limited to the stale monotony (or security) of business directories or phonebooks. People can document their memories, feelings, biases and reactions to places and share them with the world.")
Free Speech Radio (MB: grassroots reporting on civil/human rights issues from around the world. "Free Speech Radio News (or FSRN) is an independently produced half hour daily national and international radio news program focusing on peace and social justice issues in the US and around the world. FSRN is collectively run by its workers and reporters. ... Hosted by Danny Wood, the newscast relies on more than two hundred freelance reporters, 'on every continent except Antarctica,' who use the Internet to deliver their audio reports.")
Frontline ("Since 1983, FRONTLINE has served as American public television’s flagship public affairs series. Hailed upon its debut on PBS as “the last best hope for broadcast documentaries,” FRONTLINE’s stature over 30 seasons is reaffirmed each week through incisive documentaries covering the scope and complexity of the human experience. When FRONTLINE was born, however, the prospects for television news documentaries looked grim. Pressure was on network news departments to become profitable, and the spirit of outspoken journalistic inquiry established by programs like Edward R. Murrow’s See It Now and Harvest of Shame had given way to entertainment values and feature-filled magazine shows. Therefore, it fell to public television to pick up the torch of public affairs and carry on this well-established broadcast news tradition. Since its inception, FRONTLINE has never shied away from tough, controversial issues or complex stories. In an age of anchor celebrities and snappy sound bites, FRONTLINE remains committed to providing a primetime venue for engaging reports that fully explore and illuminate the critical issues of our times. In the 2010-2011 season, the series expanded to a year-round broadcast presence that now includes several magazine-format programs, which have enabled FRONTLINE to respond more quickly to breaking news stories. To support the creation of these new segments and programs, FRONTLINE has begun deepening its existing partnerships with ProPublica, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and other respected news organizations. New partnerships with NPR, Planet Money, and other news outlets, meanwhile, are supporting FRONTLINE’s efforts to cultivate a new, younger generation of producers and reporters. Over the years, FRONTLINE has built a reputation for powerful reporting that tackles the tough, controversial, and complex stories that shape our times. From Martin Smith’s on-the-ground reporting in Obama’s War to Michael Kirk’s investigation into the hidden history of the financial crisis; from Ofra Bikel’s examination of America’s racial divide over the O.J. Simpson verdict, to special reports like The Age of AIDS or Bush’s War, and provocative journeys like Hedrick Smith’s search for the answer to the question, Is Wal-Mart Good for America? FRONTLINE gives its award-winning journalists and filmmakers the time needed to thoroughly research a story and the time on-air to tell the story in a compelling way. Credible, thoughtful reporting combined with powerful narrative, a good story well told: That is at the heart of FRONTLINE’s commitment to its viewers.")
The Funambulist ("The Funambulist is a daily architectural platform edited by Léopold Lambert. Its name is inspired by a reflection on the line as the architect's medium. In fact, this line on the white page that ends up spliting two milieus from one another, controls the access of the bodies. The act of walking on the line (funambulist is another word for tight-rope walker) thus becomes an act of freedom. It also refers to Philippe Petit crossing illegally the space between the two towers of the World Trade Center in 1974 and the funambulist in Nietzsche's Zarathoustra who dies peacefully as he died from the danger he dedicated his life to.")
Gawker ("Gawker has adopted a number of different personalities over the course of its 10 (ish?) year history, from sneering New York media outsider to sneering New York media insider to sneering enfant terrible to sneering group lifecasting blog to sneering national news site. But at its core, it has always been committed to stripping back the veneer and assailing shibboleth. We have the advantage of independence, and an institutional aversion to cozy relationships with our peers, and when we're at our best we deploy both to say things that others are unable or unwilling to say. Hamilton Nolan, our longest-serving staffer, is a far better writer than me (or you), so I'll let him say it: The thing I like most about Gawker is that we are able to dispense with all of the politesse bullshit that surrounds so much establishment journalism and just speak the truth (as we see it, at least). We’re not required to hem and haw and couch what we want to say in euphemisms. If something is bullshit, we can say “this is bullshit." I think that this is ultimately Gawker’s most important role in the media. Amid all the funny things and time-wasting things and ridiculous things we publish, we tell the truth, in far more direct way than readers can find in most other places. And I sincerely believe this is noble, even if we sometimes surround it in a bunch of cat videos. One of the old proposed but not adopted slogans for the site was, “Honesty is our only virtue.” I like that. Consider that slogan adopted. We will continue to publish ridiculous, time-wasting things because we are ridiculous people who like to waste time, ours and yours. But we will continue to try to puncture egos and butcher sacred cows and jump on radioactive stories without regard to consequences, careers, or the intricate ethical straitjackets so many in our profession impress themselves with. We won't always be right, but we will always be honest.")
Genders ("We publish essays about gender and sexuality in relation to social, political, artistic, and economic concerns.")
Global Issues (MB: Anup Shah has compiled a tremendous amount of information on a wide range of vitally important topics and fully cites where it all originated. "This web site looks into global issues that affect everyone and aims to show how most issues are inter-related. There are over 550 articles on this site, mostly written by [Anup Shah]. The issues discussed range from trade, poverty and globalization, to human rights, geopolitics, the environment, and much more. Spread over these articles, there are over 7,000 links to external articles, web sites, reports and analysis to help provide credence to the arguments made on this web site.")
Global News ("The best stories, interviews and on the spot reporting from around the world. Listen to up to 30 minutes of highlights from Newshour, Newsday and The Newsroom. Compiled twice a day from the 24 hour News coverage from BBC World Service.")
Global Research (Based in Montreal, Canada. "Since 2001, Global Research has established an international network of authors, scholars and investigative journalists. Global Research counts among its regular contributors a number of prominent writers, researchers and academics as well as several promising young authors. The underlying concept is the “democratization” of research and media reporting, while maintaining high standards of investigation and analysis.")
Global Voices (MB: a truly great service is being done by this global collective effort to make available in English translation the voices of people speaking to/about events and experiences in their part-of-the-world. "Global Voices is a community of more than 700 authors and 600 translators around the world who work together to bring you reports from blogs and citizen media everywhere, with emphasis on voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media. Global Voices seeks to aggregate, curate, and amplify the global conversation online – shining light on places and people other media often ignore. We work to develop tools, institutions and relationships that will help all voices, everywhere, to be heard. Millions of people are blogging, podcasting, and uploading photos, videos, and information across the globe, but unless you know where to look, it can be difficult to find respected and credible voices. Our international team of volunteer authors and part-time editors are active participants in the blogospheres they write about on Global Voices. Global Voices is incorporated in the Netherlands as Stichting Global Voices, a nonprofit foundation. We do not have an office, but work as a virtual community across multiple time zones, meeting in person only when the opportunity arises [usually during our Summits]. We rely on grants, sponsorships, editorial commissions, and donations to cover our costs.")
Green is the New Red ("Will Potter is an award-winning independent journalist based in Washington, D.C. He is the author of Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege. This site is about how animal rights and environmental activists are being targeted as "eco-terrorists," and what that means for our safety and freedom.")
The Guardian (MB: My favorite newspaper and I'm grateful that it is available online free-of-charge. Essential resource for following global events as well as American news. In developing their online presence they have embraced the potential of disseminating news through individual news reports while building in-depth subject archives. Truly a model for other newspapers seeking to develop an Internet presence. ")
Guernica Daily ("Guernica is an award-winning online magazine of ideas, art, poetry, and fiction published twice monthly. Guernica Daily, the magazine’s blog, is updated every weekday.")
History Commons ("The website is a tool for open-content participatory journalism. It allows people to investigate important issues by providing a space where people can collaborate on the documentation of past and current events, as well as the entities associated with those events. The website can be used to investigate topics at the local, regional, or global level. The data is displayed on the website in the form of dynamic timelines and entity profiles, and is exportable into XML so it can be shared with others for non-commercial purposes. What kind of information is available on this website? Information about specific events. There are currently 20,723 events profiled in our database. Visitors can view these events by searching the database, or by browsing through timelines. Information about specific entities. More than 5,000 entities are currently in the database. They include individuals, organizations, businesses, etc. For each entity there is an entity profile page which includes (1) information about the entity; (2) links to related entities; and (3) a chronology of all events in which the entity was an active participant. Visitors can view entity profiles by searching the database, or by clicking on one of the entity links at the bottom of an event.")
History News Network ("Welcome to George Mason University's History News Network (which is popularly known as HNN). Our mission is to help put current events into historical perspective. Given how public opinion is shaped today, whipsawed emotionally on talk shows this way and that in response to the egos of the guests, the desire for ratings by the hosts and the search for profits by media companies and sponsors, historians are especially needed now. They can help remind us of the superficiality of what-happens-today-is-all-that-counts journalism. Each week HNN features up to a dozen fresh op eds by prominent historians. Our archives, extending over the past decade, include thousands of well-researched pieces. Even those who profess utter indifference to history are beholden to it. History is inescapable. Who we are and how we react to events depends, to a great extent, on our past. As Eugene O'Neill has a character in Long Day's Journey into Night exclaim, at a critical juncture,"The past is the present, isn't it? It's the future, too. We all try to lie out of that but life won't let us." Our motto at HNN reflects O'Neill's insight:"History News Network ... Because the past is the present, and the future, too." Journalism is said to be the first draft of history. But journalists traditionally have had little use for historians. The list of occasions on which journalists feel compelled to call upon historians is short. Though a select number of historians recently have become media stars, the fact remains that few are publicly quoted, and hardly any are given the public platform regularly awarded economists, political scientists or pollsters. The last historian trusted to take a large and visible role in a national administration was Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and that was some fifty years ago.Among the many duties we assume are these: To expose politicians who misrepresent history. To point out bogus analogies. To deflate beguiling myths. To remind Americans of the irony of history. To put events in context. To remind us all of the complexity of history. Because we believe history is complicated our pages are open to people of all political persuasions. Left, right, center: all are welcome.")
Informal Encyclopedia of Education ("infed (the informal education homepage and encyclopaedia of informal education) was established in 1995 at the YMCA George Williams College, London as an open and not-for-profit site. Put together by a small group of educators ... Our aim is to provide a space for people to explore the theory and practice of informal education, social action and lifelong learning. ... Our aim is to provide a space for people to explore the theory and practice of informal education, social action and lifelong learning."]
Infoshop News ("Infoshop.org is an online resource of news, opinion and information on anarchism and many other topics." You can also find a lot of information, news and publications at the main page for Info Shop)
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ("The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is an active global network of 160 reporters in more than 60 countries who collaborate on in-depth investigative stories. Founded in 1997, ICIJ was launched as a project of the Center for Public Integrity to extend the Center’s style of watchdog journalism, focusing on issues that do not stop at national frontiers: cross-border crime, corruption, and the accountability of power. Backed by the Center and its computer-assisted reporting specialists, public records experts, fact-checkers and lawyers, ICIJ reporters and editors provide real-time resources and state-of-the-art tools and techniques to journalists around the world.... The need for such an organization has never been greater. Globalization and development have placed extraordinary pressures on human societies, posing unprecedented threats from polluting industries, transnational crime networks, rogue states, and the actions of powerful figures in business and government. The news media, hobbled by short attention spans and lack of resources, are even less of a match for those who would harm the public interest. Broadcast networks and major newspapers have closed foreign bureaus, cut travel budgets, and disbanded investigative teams. We are losing our eyes and ears around the world precisely when we need them most. Meanwhile, in many developing countries, investigative reporters are killed, threatened, or imprisoned with alarming regularity. Amazingly unbowed by these life-and-death realities, journalists are in dire need of help from colleagues abroad, many of whom do similar work and can offer support")
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy ("The purpose of the IEP is to provide detailed, scholarly information on key topics and philosophers in all areas of philosophy. The Encyclopedia’s articles are written with the intention that most of the article can be understood by advanced undergraduates majoring in philosophy and by other scholars who are not working in the field covered by that article. The IEP articles are written by experts but not for experts in analogy to the way the Scientific American magazine is written by scientific experts but not primarily for scientific experts.")
Jacobin (MB: Jacobin reversed the current trend for magazines by starting out online in 2010 and then expanding to print editions in 2011. "Jacobin is a magazine of culture and polemic that Edmund Burke ceaselessly berates on his Twitter page. Each of our issue’s contents are pored over in taverns and other houses of ill repute and best enjoyed with a well-shaken can of lukewarm beer. Published in New York City four times per year, we feature a wide-range of writers and artists who aim to inspire critical dialogue in the age of Fukuyama.")
Jadaliyya ("Jadaliyya is an independent ezine produced by ASI (Arab Studies Institute), the umbrella organization that produces Arab Studies Journal, Tadween Publishing, FAMA, and Quilting Point. Jadaliyya provides a unique source of insight and critical analysis that combines local knowledge, scholarship, and advocacy with an eye to audiences in the United States, the Middle East and beyond. The site currently publishes posts both in Arabic, French, English, and Turkish. Jadaliyya is run and produced on a primarily voluntary basis by an editorial team and expanding pool of contributors committed to discussing the Arab world on its own terms. Where others see only a security threat, conflict, or data on a graph, we see a region inhabited by living communities and dynamic societies.")
Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology ("The Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology (JQCJC) is a peer-reviewed, international journal dedicated to the qualitative interpretation and analysis of deviance, law, policy, and social control. The journal features both theoretical and analytical research, as well as manuscripts based on qualitative methodology such as interviewing, participant observation, ethnography, historical analysis, content analysis, and others which do not rely primarily on numerical data. JQCJC welcomes submissions from a variety of perspectives focusing on the qualitative study of crime and society, including criminological, criminal justice, sociological, historical, philosophical, cultural, political, psychological, anthropological, and jurisprudential approaches.")
Jump Cut ("Taking an explicit political stand as a nonsectarian left, feminist, anti-racist and anti-imperialist publication, JUMP CUT is committed to presenting and developing media criticism which recognizes: (1) media in a social and political context; (2) the political and social needs and perspectives of people struggling for liberation — workers, women, oppressed minorities, people in the developing world, gays, lesbians and queers; (3) the interrelationship of class, race, and gender oppression; (4) new theoretical and analytic perspectives. We stress contemporary media but we are open to publishing material on older films, tapes, and programs when the article involves a significant reevaluation or uses a well-known example to develop a critical or theoretical point. Our range is all types and forms of media from Hollywood's commercial dramatic narrative to independent documentary and experimental work. We are especially interested in neglected areas such as educational media, children's programs, animation, intermedia and mixed media, new technologies, consumer formats, etc., and related areas of radical cultural analysis such as photography and popular music.")
Latin Radical ("LatinRadical is a weekly radio program broadcast on NIMFM Community Radio , Nimbin, NSW, Australia. LatinRadical is an interview format program that focuses on Latin American politics. It also addresses current events in Timor Leste.")
Law and Disorder Radio (MB: My favorite legal radio show, originating on WBAI in New York City. "Law and Disorder is a weekly, independent radio program airing on several stations across the United States and podcasting on the web. Law and Disorder gives listeners access to rare legal perspectives on issues concerning civil liberties, privacy, right to dissent and the horrendous practices of torture exercised by the US government. This program examines the political forces and legislation that are moving the United States into a police state. Three of the top progressive attorneys and activists host the program and bring an amazing, diverse line up of guests from grassroots activists to politically mindful authors. Most importantly, Law and Disorder brings access to attorneys who give insights to some of the most controversial cases.")
Libcom ("libcom.org is a resource for all people who wish to fight to improve their lives, their communities and their working conditions. We want to discuss, learn from successes and failures of the past and develop strategies to increase the power we, as ordinary people, have over our own lives. ... The name libcom is an abbreviation of "libertarian communism", the political idea we identify with. Libertarian communism is the political expression of the ever-present strands of co-operation and solidarity in human societies. These currents of mutual aid can be found throughout society. In tiny everyday examples such as people collectively organising a meal, or helping a stranger carry a pram down a flight of stairs. They can also manifest themselves in more visible ways, such as one group of workers having a solidarity strike in support of other workers as the BA baggage handlers did for Gate Gourmet catering staff in 2005. They can also explode and become a predominant force in society such as in the events across Argentina in 2001, and in Greece today, in Kwanju, South Korea in 1980, Portugal 1974, France 1968, Hungary '56, Spain 1936, Russia 1917, Paris 1871… We identify primarily with the trends of workers' solidarity, co-operation and struggle throughout history, whether they were self-consciously libertarian communist (such as in the Spanish revolution) or not. We are also influenced by certain specific theoretical and practical traditions, such as anarchist-communism, anarcho-syndicalism, the ultra-left, left communism, libertarian Marxism, council communism and others. We have sympathies with writers and organisations including Karl Marx, Gilles Dauvé, Maurice Brinton, Wildcat Germany, Anarchist Federation, Solidarity Federation, prole.info, Aufheben, Solidarity, the situationists, Spanish CNT and others. However, we recognise the limitations of applying these ideas and organisational forms to contemporary society. We emphasise understanding and transforming the social relationships we experience here and now in our everyday lives to better our circumstances and protect the planet, whilst still learning from the mistakes and successes of previous working class movements and ideas. The site contains news and analysis of workers' struggles, discussions and a constantly growing archive of over 10,000 articles contributed by our 10,000+ users ranging from history and biographies to theoretical texts, complete books and pamphlets. We have incorporated several other online archives over the years, and in addition have hundreds of exclusive texts written or scanned by or for us. We are completely independent of all trade unions and political parties; the site is funded entirely by subs from our volunteer administrators and donations from users.")
Lifehacker ("Tips, tricks, and downloads for getting things done.")
London Review of Books ("The London Review of Books was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at the Times. For the first six months, it appeared marsupially in the New York Review of Books. In May 1980, the London Review of Books jumped out of the parental pouch and became a fully independent literary paper. ... The special appeal of the London Review of Books lies in the way it combines topicality with depth and scholarship with good writing, and isn’t afraid to challenge received ideas. The generous space given to contributors means that, when they write for the LRB, they are not only giving valuable assessments of new work, but contributing new work themselves.")
London School of Economics and Political Science ("A collection of podcasts and videos from LSE's programme of public lectures and events.")
Los Angeles Review of Books ("The Los Angeles Review of Books is a nonprofit, multimedia literary and cultural arts magazine that combines the great American tradition of the serious book review with the evolving technologies of the Web. We are a community of writers, critics, journalists, artists, filmmakers, and scholars dedicated to promoting and disseminating the best that is thought and written, with an enduring commitment to the intellectual rigor, the incisiveness, and the power of the written word. LARB was created in part as a direct response to the disappearance of the traditional newspaper book review supplement, and with it the great tradition of the comprehensive American book review, dedicated to full-range, long-form coverage of everything from architecture to young adult fiction, academic monographs to genre fiction, from the latest publications to classic texts. In our new, swiftly transforming world of books and publishing, the Los Angeles Review of Books stands for curated, edited, expert, smart and fun opinion written by the best writers and thinkers of our time. We seek to revive, and reinvent, the book review for a new generation. LARB was created as both a literary and cultural arts magazine, publishing not only traditional long-form essays on books and literature, but also reviews of art, music, theater, and film; exclusive journalism and commentary on key issues of the day; on-location reporting from political hotspots around the nation and worldwide; editorials and commentary on politics, culture and society; audio and video interviews of artists, writers, philosophers and politicians, and much more. ... The Los Angeles Review of Books is proud to be partnering with KCRW-FM (89.9) to advance literacy and the ongoing promotion of the cultural arts through joint events, a podcast series, and the regular KCRW segment “Reviews with the Los Angeles Review of Books.” To hear our segments on KCRW, please go to www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bk ")
Making Contact (MB: a shining example of citizen media on a global scale. "Our Mission: International Media Project/National Radio Project heightens public consciousness, broadens debate on critical social issues and encourages civic participation, by giving voice to diverse perspectives and opinions underrepresented in the mass media. Our goal is to produce media that informs, inspires, and moves people to take action. Our Core Activities: National Radio Project produces Making Contact, an award-winning, 29-minute weekly magazine/documentary-style public affairs program heard on 140 radio stations in the USA, Canada, South Africa and Ireland. National Radio Project distributes Making Contact to non-commercial radio stations and online listeners without charge. We train independent journalists and community members in radio skills, improving popular access to the media. Through our community collaborations, National Radio Project increases the media capacity of community groups and helps amplify the voices of those working and organizing for social justice. Making Contact is committed to in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. Showcasing voices and perspectives rarely heard in mainstream media, Making Contact focuses on the human realities of politics and the connections between local and global events, emphasizing positive and creative ways to solve problems. Making Contact is FREE to noncommercial stations. In-depth reports on political and social issues, trends and events, contributed by journalists from around the globe. Ordinary people talk about how public policy affects their daily lives, families and communities. Speeches by social activists and advocates share a vision of a better world. Special mini-series, such as How We Survive.")
Marxists Internet Archive ("The Marxists Internet Archive is an all-volunteer, non-profit public library, started more than 20 years ago in 1990. ... In 2007, MIA has 62 active volunteers from 33 different countries. MIA contains the writings of 592 authors representing a complete spectrum of political, philosophical, and scientific thought, generally spanning the past 200 years. MIA contains these writings in 45 different languages, comprising a total size of over 53,000 documents and 29 GB of data, all created through the work of volunteers around the world. MIA abides by seven fundamental tenets found in our Charter: (1) We will always be 100% Free; (2) We will always be a non-profit organization; (3) We will always be based on democratic decision making; (4) We will always have full disclosure; (5) We will always remain politically independent; (6) Our priority is to provide archival information; (7) We will present content in a way that is easy to access and understand.")
Matt Bors ("Matt Bors is a nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist and editor based in Portland, OR. He was a 2012 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for his political cartoons, which appear regularly in The Sacramento Bee, Portland Mercury, Pittsburgh City Paper, and on Daily Kos. In the summer of 2010, Bors traveled to Afghanistan to draw comics and serves as the comics journalism editor for Cartoon Movement where he is currently editing a project on reconstruction efforts in Haiti. His work has been published by The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Village Voice, The Daily Beast,and dozens of other print and web publications. In 2012, Bors was the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for his editorial cartooning. His first graphic novel, War Is Boring, a collaboration with journalist David Axe, was published in 2010 by New American Library.")
Media Lens ("Since 2001, we have been describing how mainstream newspapers and broadcasters operate as a propaganda system for the elite interests that dominate modern society. The costs of their disinformation in terms of human and animal suffering, and environmental breakdown, are incalculable. We show how news and commentary are ‘filtered’ by the media’s profit-orientation, by its dependence on advertisers, parent companies, wealthy owners and official news sources. We check the media’s version of events against credible facts and opinion provided by journalists, academics and specialist researchers. We then publish both versions, together with our commentary, in free Media Alerts and invite readers to deliver their verdict both to us and to mainstream journalists through the email addresses provided in our ’Suggested Action’ at the end of each alert. We urge correspondents to adopt a polite, rational and respectful tone at all times – we strongly oppose all abuse and personal attack. We also publish Cogitations, exploring related personal and philosophical themes. In 2007, Media Lens was awarded the Gandhi Foundation International Peace Prize.")
The Medium and the Message (The BBC documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis' website. "This is a website expressing my personal views – through a selection of opinionated observations and arguments. I’ll be including stories I like, ideas I find fascinating, work in progress and a selection of material from the BBC archives.")
Minor Compositions ("Minor Compositions is a research – theorizing – publishing project that is located, at the moment, within the London metropolitan basin of collective intelligence. Its main aim is to bring together, develop, and mutate forms of autonomist thought and practice, avant-garde aesthetics, and an everyday approach to politics. To take up a useful distinction made by Alan Toner, this is to see not from a position of ‘producer consciousness’ (“we’re a publisher, we make books”) but rather from a position of protagonist consciousness (“we make books because it is part of participating in social movement and struggle”). So the production of a text is not something that is thought in isolation but how it connects and develops moments of thinking collectively. This draws a good deal of inspiration from the autonomist notion of militant research and workers’ inquiry, expanding it beyond inquiry into particular bounded workplaces into a more general investigation of cultural labor, social reproduction, and the relationship between antagonistic energies and attempts to govern them.")
SIFTING
Mondoweiss ("Mondoweiss is a news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish perspective. It has four principal aims: To publish important developments touching on Israel/Palestine, the American Jewish community and the shifting debate over US foreign policy in a timely fashion. To publish a diversity of voices to promote dialogue on these important issues. To foster the movement for greater fairness and justice for Palestinians in American foreign policy. To offer alternatives to pro-Zionist ideology as a basis for American Jewish identity. This blog is co-edited by Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz. Weiss is 56 and lives in New York state. Horowitz is 39 and lives in Atlanta. We maintain this blog because of 9/11, Iraq, Gaza, the Nakba, the struggling people of Israel and Palestine, and our Jewish background.
This site aims to build a diverse community, with posts from many authors.")
Monthly Review (MB: My favorite political magazine. Essential for understanding economics -- historical and contemporary. "In May 1949 Monthly Review began publication in New York City, as cold war hysteria gathered force in the United States. The first issue featured the lead article Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein. From the first Monthly Review spoke for socialism and against U.S. imperialism, and is still doing so today. From the first Monthly Review was independent of any political organization, and is still so today. The McCarthy era inquisition targeted Monthly Review’s original editors Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman, who fought back successfully. In the subsequent global upsurge against capitalism, imperialism and the commodification of life (in shorthand “1968”) Monthly Review played a global role. A generation of activists received no small part of their education as subscribers to the magazine and readers of Monthly Review Press books. In the intervening years of counter-revolution, Monthly Review has kept a steady viewpoint. That point of view is the heartfelt attempt to frame the issues of the day with one set of interests foremost in mind: those of the great majority of humankind, the propertyless. ... On July 14th, 2006 we began a daily web magazine, MRzine, featuring a broad range of articles, reviews and commentary.")
Moyers & Company (MB: "Continuing his long-running conversation with the American public, Bill Moyers returned to television in January 2012 with Moyers & Company, a weekly series of smart talk and new ideas aimed at helping viewers make sense of our tumultuous times through the insight of America’s strongest thinkers. The program also features Moyers’ hallmark essays on democracy." ... "Bill D. Moyers (born June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the Johnson administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public television, producing documentaries and news journal programs. He has won numerous awards and honorary degrees. He has become well known as a trenchant critic of the U.S. media. Since 1990, Moyers has been President of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy.")
Murugan, Jeff and Amanda Weltman. "Why it’s crucial that young scientists are taught the value of being wrong." The Conversation (February 29, 2016)
Mute ("Mute is an online magazine dedicated to exploring culture and politics after the net. Mute combines biannual issues dedicated to specific topics (Precarious Labour, The Knowledge Commons, etc) with regularly updated articles and reviews. The site also features ongoing coverage of relevant news and events contributed by ourselves and our readers. As well as the online magazine, Mute also publishes a biannual magazine in print (aka Mute Vol. 3), which features selections from current issues together with other online content, specially commissioned and co-published projects. Our history... Mute magazine was founded in 1994 to discuss the interrelationship of art and new technologies when the World Wide Web was newborn. But, as mass participation in computer mediated communications has become more integral to contemporary capitalism, its coverage has expanded to engage with the broader implications of this shift. Mute’s investigation of the social, economic, political and cultural formations of ‘network societies’ maintains an accent on the relationship between technology and the production of new social relations. At the same time, the magazine’s remit has grown broader and now includes analyses of geopolitics, culture and contemporary labour that, while necessarily inflected by contemporary developments in technology, go far beyond this. While Mute was born out of a culture that celebrated the democratising potential of new media, it becomes ever more apparent that we need to critically engage with the ways in which new media also reproduce and extend capitalist social relations. Mute invites its readers and writers to consider new possibilities for resistance to hegemonies wherever they find them, from socio-economic and technical structures, to codes of representation and enunciation, to the production and articulation of psychic experience and beyond. We also welcome critiques of the contemporary fetishisation of ICT as either inherently progressive or entirely reactionary. Finally, Mute hopes to stimulate approaches to art and politics that challenge the orthodoxies of both the constituted left and ‘critical’ new media culture. Mute in context: From its inception, Mute* has regarded message and medium, content and carrier as inherently linked. This approach has forced a constant reinvention of our publishing format (we are now on our sixth!) and, more generally, never taking theory's relationship to practice for granted. As a collaborative entity operating within the network paradigm, Mute has a tacit function as a test site: we feature and review innovative and radical cultural practices, but also participate in them, court infection and reflect their evolution within our own. One promise of 'many to many' media was that it would upturn the traditional broadcast model of mainstream media and deliver unto the world a multitude of active producers, narrowcasting personalised media to each other and cutting out the middleman. For all their associations with empowerment, participation, and the agency of the small, the 'prosumer' figure associated with this discourse is an infinitely ambiguous entity - certainly no guaranteed counterforce to capitalism-as-usual. Other standardbearers of democratisation, to be found travelling under banners like 'Grow Your Own', 'DiY media' and 'citizen journalism', have done more to alter the media power im/balance, even if their often homogenous social composition troubles any ultimate claims for a revolution.")
n+1 ("n+1 is a print magazine of politics, literature, and culture founded in 2004 and published three times yearly." A couple articles from each print issue are made available online.)
Naked Capitalism ("Naked Capitalism is a blog published by Susan Webber, the principal of Aurora Advisors, Inc., a management consulting firm. Webber authors the blog under a pen name, Yves Smith. The blog deals with finance and economic news and analysis, with a focus on legal and ethical issues of the banking industry and the mortgage foreclosure process. The blog reports on the worldwide effects of the Banking crisis of 2008, the 2007–2012 global financial crisis, and the aftermath of all related events. Naked Capitalism has been critical of economic inequality, American politics, and Marxism. Webber's use of Quelle surprise... (What a surprise!) has been cited as her catch phrase to voice her tongue-in-cheek disbelief of the actions that have become the subject matter of her blogs.")The blog was ranked seventh in business authority by Technorati in 2011. During 2011, Naked Capitalism was the third most visited business and economics blog on the web."
National Center foe Case Study Teaching in Science (MB: Amazing collection of case studies, in other words, research, into an incredible range of topics. "CASE STUDIES have a long history in business, law, and medical education. Their use in science education, however, is relatively recent. In our 20 years of working with the method, we have found it to be a powerful pedagogical technique for teaching science. Cases can be used not only to teach scientific concepts and content, but also process skills and critical thinking. And since many of the best cases are based on contemporary, and often contentious, science problems that students encounter in the news, the use of cases in the classroom makes science relevant. We have also found the method to be extraordinarily flexible. We have seen it used as the core of entire courses or for single experiences in otherwise traditional lecture and lab courses. Moreover, cases can be presented in a variety of formats and taught in a variety of ways, ranging from the classical discussion method used in business and law schools to Problem-Based Learning and Team Learning, with their emphasis on small-group, cooperative learning strategies. The mission of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science at the University at Buffalo is to promote the development and dissemination of materials and practices for case teaching in the sciences. Our website provides access to an award-winning collection of peer-reviewed case studies. We offer a five-day summer workshop and a two-day fall conference to train faculty in the case method of teaching science. In addition, we are actively engaged in educational research to assess the impact of the case method on student learning.")
National Film Board of Canada (NFB) ("Films on this site can be streamed free of charge, or downloaded for your personal use for a small fee. We also offer educational works on a subscription basis to schools and institutions. Our collection includes documentaries, animations, experimental films and fiction. We showcase films that take a stand on issues of global importance that matter to Canadians—stories about the environment, human rights, international conflict, the arts and more.")
National Lawyers Guild ("The NLG is dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system. We seek to unite the lawyers, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers to function as an effective force in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests. Our aim is to bring together all those who recognize the importance of safeguarding and extending the rights of workers, women, farmers, people with disabilities and people of color, upon whom the welfare of the entire nation depends; who seek actively to eliminate racism; who work to maintain and protect our civil rights and liberties in the face of persistent attacks upon them; and who look upon the law as an instrument for the protection of the people, rather than for their repression.")
The National Police Misconduct Reporting Project (NPMRP) ("No one disputes the idea that police misconduct is wrong, but reasonable people do disagree about the scope of the problem and how it ought to be addressed. The purpose of this project is to gather reports of credible allegations of police misconduct so policymakers (and others) can make informed assessments of the nature and circumstances of police misconduct, and consider proposals that can minimize wrongdoing. Individuals who are victimized by police misconduct should expect a review process that will seriously investigate complaints. Police officers accused of wrongdoing should expect to be treated fairly and with due process. Our objective is to identify policies that consistently uphold high standards of ethics, honesty, and professionalism from police officers and critique the policies that do not. We believe good policy analysis can improve governmental decisionmaking. The National Police Misconduct Reporting Project (NPMRP) was first established in 2009 by David Packman, a private researcher. In April 2012, Mr. Packman announced that he could no longer devote the necessary time to maintain his project and asked for a person or organization to assume responsibility for the reporting project. The Cato Institute expressed an interest, and Mr. Packman subsequently agreed to transfer his ownership interest to Cato with no qualifications whatsoever. In May 2012, Cato relaunched the reporting project ... Our reporting analyzes media reports each day to locate news stories of police misconduct, records those reports in a database, and then transmits details about each report in a publicly available social media news feed on Twitter. At the end of each quarter the database is scanned to ensure all recorded reports are not duplicates of reports already gathered and meet all criteria for valid police misconduct reports. Those reports are then categorized and analyzed to produce quarterly and annual police misconduct statistical reports that are then posted on this site along with a copy of the database entries for that report to ensure that the data used for the reports is transparent and publicly reviewable. At the end of each year a special aggregate statistical report is generated and posted to the site to examine long-term statistical information gathered by the NPMRP with additional detailed analysis including localized misconduct ranking information and statistical trending data. The annual aggregate reports include detailed per-capita misconduct rates and comparisons between law enforcement agencies for analysis as well.
The National Security Archive ("Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents -- "the world's largest nongovernmental collection" according to the Los Angeles Times, leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, public interest law firm defending and expanding public access to government information, global advocate of open government, and indexer and publisher of former secrets.")
NewBlackMan (In Exile) ("Mark Anthony Neal is Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African and African-American Studies at Duke University, where he won the 2010 Robert B. Cox Award for Teaching. Neal has written and lectured extensively on black popular culture, black masculinity, sexism and homophobia in Black communities, and the history of popular music. Neal is the founder and managing editor of the blog NewBlackMan. Neal hosts the weekly webcast, Left of Black in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University (/). A frequent commentator for National Public Radio, Neal contributes to several on-line media outlets, including Huff Post Black Voices and SeeingBlack.com")
New Politics ("New Politics is an independent socialist forum for dialogue and debate on the left. We support unions and workers’ struggles throughout the world. We are committed to the advancement of the peace and anti-intervention movements. We stand in opposition to all forms of imperialism and oppression, and we are uncompromising in our defense of the rights of women, people of color, lesbians, gays and the transgendered. In our pages there is broad coverage of labor, social movements, and the international scene, as well as emphasis on cultural and intellectual history. Above all, New Politics insists on the centrality of democracy to socialism and on the need to rely on mass movements from below for progressive social transformation.")
The New York Review of Books ("With a worldwide circulation of over 135,000, The New York Review of Books has established itself, in Esquire‘s words, as “the premier literary-intellectual magazine in the English language.” The New York Review began during the New York publishing strike of 1963, when its founding editors, Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein, and their friends, decided to create a new kind of magazine—one in which the most interesting and qualified minds of our time would discuss current books and issues in depth. Just as importantly, it was determined that the Review should be an independent publication; it began life as an independent editorial voice and it remains independent today. The New York Review’s early issues included articles by such writers as W.H. Auden, Elizabeth Hardwick, Hannah Arendt, Edmund Wilson, Susan Sontag, Robert Penn Warren, Lilian Hellman, Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Saul Bellow, Robert Lowell, Truman Capote, William Styron, and Mary McCarthy. The public responded by buying up practically all the copies printed and writing thousands of letters to demand that The New York Review continue publication. And Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein continued as co-editors of the Review until Barbara’s death in 2006; Robert Silvers continues as editor. Within a short time, The New York Times was writing that The New York Review “has succeeded brilliantly,” The New Statesman hailed its founding as “of more cultural import than the opening of Lincoln Center,” and the great English art historian Kenneth Clark observed, “I have never known such a high standard of reviewing.” The unprecedented and enthusiastic response was indicative of how badly America needed a literary and critical journal based on the assumption that the discussion of important books was itself an indispensable literary activity. From the 1960s into the 21st Century, The New York Review of Books has posed the questions in the debate on American life, culture, and politics. It is the journal where Mary McCarthy reported on the Vietnam War from Saigon and Hanoi; Edmund Wilson challenged Vladimir Nabokov’s translations; Hannah Arendt published her reflections on violence; Ralph Nader published his “manifesto” for consumer justice; I.F. Stone investigated the lies of Watergate; Susan Sontag challenged the claims of modern photography; Jean-Paul Sartre, at 70, described his writing and politics, and how he felt about his blindness; Elizabeth Hardwick addressed the issues of women and writing; Gore Vidal hilariously lampooned bestsellers, Howard Hughes, Teddy Roosevelt, and the Reagans; Felix Rohatyn made the case for a national industrial policy in an influential series of articles; Peter G. Peterson showed why the present Social Security program can’t last; Joan Didion described, in a firsthand account, the situation in El Salvador; McGeorge Bundy, George Kennan, and Lewis Thomas outlined the nuclear threat; Nadine Gordimer and Bishop Desmond Tutu wrote from South Africa on the conflict over apartheid; Vaclav Havel published his reflections from the Czech underground; Timothy Garton Ash reported on the new Eastern Europe; Mark Danner reported on torture from the CIA black sites; Ronald Dworkin wrote of how George W. Bush’s two Supreme Court appointees have created an unbreakable phalanx bent on remaking constitutional law; Freeman Dyson described the scientist as rebel; David Cole revealed how the Bush Justice Department allowed America to become a nation that disappeared and tortured suspects; articles by Paul Krugman, George Soros, Joseph Stiglitz, and Jeff Madrick explained America’s failing economy; Tom Powers described the George W. Bush administration’s fundamental shift from diplomacy to military action; Martin Filler wrote on the many makers of modern architecture; and where Bill Moyers described the threat to the environment presented by Evangelical Christians. It is the journal where the most important issues are discussed by writers who are themselves a major force in world literature and thought. Every two weeks, these and other writers publish essays and reviews of books and the arts, including music, theater, dance, and film—from Woody Allen’s Manhattan to Kurosawa’s version of King Lear. What has made The New York Review successful, according to The New York Times, is its “stubborn refusal to treat books, or the theatre and movies, for that matter, as categories of entertainment to be indulged in when the working day is done.”)
North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) ("The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1966 that works toward a world in which the nations and peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean are free from oppression and injustice, and enjoy a relationship with the United States based on mutual respect, free from economic and political subordination. To that end, our mission is to provide information and analysis on the region, and on its complex and changing relationship with the United States, as tools for education and advocacy - to foster knowledge beyond borders. We believe that knowledge is essential for change, so we use a unique combination of information/media activism and popular education to provide people the tools they need to understand the world in order to change it. We’ve been doing just that for more than four decades: from the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965 to the U.S.-backed coup in Chile in 1973; from Washington’s support for brutal repression in Central America in the 1980s to the Washington Consensus on neoliberal austerity in the 1990s; NACLA has been, for the last 40 years, the premiere source of information—providing English-language news and analysis not found anywhere else—for journalists, policymakers, activists, students and scholars in North America and throughout the world.")
North of Center (MB: An independent, community-supported, Lexington, KY, newspaper with a critical focus.)
Notebook on Cities and Culture ("Colin Marshall hosts and produces the podcast Notebook on Cities and Culture [RSS] [iTunes], a twice-weekly long-form conversation with cultural creators, internationalists, and observers of the urban scene around Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Osaka, Kyoto, and beyond. It evolved from the public radio program The Marketplace of Ideas, which aired on KCSB-FM in Santa Barbara from 2007 to 2011. He also writes essays on on literature, film, cities, Asia, and aesthetics for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Bookforum, Open Culture, Put This On, The Japan Foundation, The Millions, 3Quarksdaily, The Quarterly Conversation, and Maximum Fun. He makes films and field recordings as well.")
OAPEN Library ("The OAPEN Library contains freely accessible academic books, mainly in the area of Humanities and Social Sciences. OAPEN works with publishers to build a quality controlled collection of Open Access books, and provides services for publishers, libraries and research funders in the areas of dissemination, quality assurance and digital preservation.")
On Being (MB: This is my favorite radio show that deals with spiritual, and philosophical perspectives. I appreciate how it starts from a place of questioning and how it does not shut down the possibilities of other ways of being/perceiving when discussing a faith/belief. The host Krista Tippett is perfect for this particular show and the people/discussions encourage many considerations/insights about our world. "On Being is a spacious conversation — and an evolving media space — about the big questions at the center of human life, from the boldest new science of the human brain to the most ancient traditions of the human spirit. The program began as an occasional series on Minnesota Public Radio in 1999, then became a monthly national program in September 2001, and launched as a weekly program titled Speaking of Faith in the summer of 2003. On Being, as the show was re-named in 2010, is now heard on hundreds of public radio stations in the U.S. and globally via Internet and podcast. In 2008, the program was awarded the highest honors in both broadcasting and electronic media — our first Peabody and our second Webby Award. On Being is the only public radio program in the U.S. to achieve this distinction. Krista envisioned a program that would draw out the intellectual and spiritual content of religion that should nourish our common life, but that is often obscured precisely when religion enters the news. Our sustained growth as a show has also been nurtured by a cultural shift that seeks conversation, shared life, and problem-solving within and across religious traditions and across categories of belief and non-belief. On Being has both responded and contributed to a growing acknowledgement that there are basic questions of meaning that pertain to the entire human experience. The particular dramas and dynamics of the 21st century — ecological, political, cultural, technological, and economic — are bringing this into relief. From physics (“Uncovering the Codes for Reality”; “Mathematics, Purpose, and Truth”) to parenting (“What we Nurture”); from civil society (“The Inward Work of Democracy”; “Words that Shimmer”); to aging (“The Far Shore of Aging”; "Contemplating Mortality”); from yoga (“The Body’s Grace”; “Meditation in Action”) to neuroscience (“Creativity and the Everyday Brain”; “Investigating Healthy Minds”), from urban renewal (“Becoming Detroit”; “Evolving a City”) to farm to table food (“Driven by Flavor”); from “The Last Quiet Places” to ocean exploration; and from Desmond Tutu to Rosanne Cash and from the Dalai Lama to Rumi - what we cover as "conversation about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas" drives towards ancient, animating questions at the heart of the great traditions and beyond them: What does it mean to be human? What matters in a life? What matters in a death? How to love? How to be of service to each other and to the world? We explore these questions in all the variety, richness, and complexity with which they find expression in contemporary lives. We pursue wisdom and moral imagination as much as knowledge; we esteem nuance and poetry as much as fact. Our guests as well as our radio listeners, podcasters, and readers span many traditions and the spectrum of devotion and agnosticism. We keep finding new ways to listen to them, and they keep teaching us where to go with this adventure.")
Online University of the Left ("Karl Marx's ideas are a common touchstone for many people working for change. His historical materialism, his many contributions to political economy and class analysis, all continue to serve his core values--the self-emancipation of the working class and a vision of a classless society. There are naturally many trends in Marxism that have developed over the years, and new ones are on the rise today. All of them and others who want to see this project succeed are welcome here.")
Open Culture ("Open Culture brings together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community. Web 2.0 has given us great amounts of intelligent audio and video. It’s all free. It’s all enriching. But it’s also scattered across the web, and not easy to find. Our whole mission is to centralize this content, curate it, and give you access to this high quality content whenever and wherever you want it. Free audio books, free online courses, free movies, free language lessons, free ebooks and other enriching content — it’s all here. Open Culture was founded in 2006.")
Organizing Upgrade ("Organizing Upgrade is a forum for innovative progressive and left organizers to engage in dialogue about big-picture political strategy. We aim to promote a strategic approach to left organizing that is truly mass in character and that aims to win. Towards that end, Organizing Upgrade hosts feature essays, strategy analysis, high-profile blogs, and news aggregation on today’s pressing issues and questions. Initiated by Sushma Sheth, Harmony Goldberg and Joseph Phelan in 2009, Organizing Upgrade began by asking three key questions: Current Conditions: What do you think are the most significant shifts happening right now, and how do they change the context of our work? Strategic Priorities: What are the key interventions that community organizers should make in this moment? Are there particular contributions that left organizers should be making? Changing Orientation: What are old strategies that organizers should turn away from? What new tools and ideas are you experimenting with? After two and a half years of great thinking by left organizers around the country, we decided to take the conversation to the next level by going deeper within different movements and sectors: the labor movement, the immigrant rights movement, the Black organizing community and more.")
The Other Journal ("The Other Journal is a publication that promotes vibrant discourse at the intersections of theology and culture. The Other Journal aims to create space for Christian interdisciplinary reflection, exploration, and expression. Attempting to remain a step or two more popular than the typical scholarly journal and a step or two more scholarly than the typical popular magazine, our goal is to provide our readers with provocative, challenging and insightful Christian commentary on current social issues, political events, cultural trends, and pop phenomena. Each issue of The Other Journal is organized around a particular theme, and includes sections dedicated to: Theology :: articles, essays, interviews; Creative Writing :: creative nonfiction, personal essays, short stories, and poetry; Art :: art exhibits; Perspective :: personal essays reflecting on academic books, literature, film, music; Praxis :: activism, justice, praxis essays and interviews.")
Oxford English Dictionary ("The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from those of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find these in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to films scripts and cookery books. The OED started life more than 150 years ago. Today, the dictionary is in the process of its first major revision. Updates revise and extend the OED at regular intervals, each time subtly adjusting our image of the English language.")
People and Power (Al Jazeera documentary series)
People's Assemblies Network ("The People’s Assemblies Network is an informative and resource platform to support the ongoing democracy protests and open, democratic assemblies in the UK, Europe and throughout the world.")
Photography is Not a Crime ("Photography is Not a Crime aka PINAC was launched in 2007 after Miami multimedia journalist Carlos Miller was arrested for taking photos of five Miami police officers while working on an article for a local news site. Charged with nine misdemeanors, Miller created the blog to document his trial, thinking he would run it for a few months at the most. But as his trial was prolonged for longer than a year in a series of rejected plea deals, judicial resignations and prosecutorial scandals, the blog grew in popularity with readers from around the country sending him stories of photographers getting arrested, which he documented on the blog, revealing an epidemic crackdown against citizens with cameras. By the time he went to trial a year later, he was acquitted of all charges except resisting arrest, a conviction he had overturned on appeal by representing himself. He has been arrested a couple of more times since then, beating those charges as well, earning the nickname, the “Teflon Photographer” from the South Florida Daily Blog.")
The Pinocchio Theory (MB: As a Humanities graduate student, Steven Shaviro, through his print and online writings, taught me that critical theory did not have to be a dry, dessicated, dead process. Over the years he has continued to blow my mind. I think Jeff Noon's quote from the novel Vurt sums up my appreciation for Shaviro's work: "You have come for knowledge. There will be pleasure. Because knowledge is sexy. There will also be pain. Because knowledge is torture.")
PLOS Blogs ("PLOS (The Public Library of Science) is a non profit publisher and advocacy organization on a mission to lead a transformation in research communication. From its start, PLOS has engaged in debate about science and medicine. Beginning with the launch of our main blog, plos.org, back in 2006, PLOS quickly realized how informal communication can catch readers’ attention and help share and explain important scientific ideas. PLOS ONE then launched their journal blog, everyONE in March 2009. Two months later, the editors of PLOS Medicine started Speaking of Medicine to interact with those interested in global health. The PLOS Blogs Network has been set up to bring a select group of independent science and medicine bloggers together with the editors and staff who run our journals and blogs. Our independent network is made up of writers who love science and medicine, and scientists and physicians that love to write. Here, you’ll find an equal mix of blogs from journalists and researchers tackling diverse issues in science and medicine. The shared mission of our contributors is to promote greater understanding of breakthrough science for a variety of reader types, including policy makers, the academic science community, researchers, medical and mental health practitioners, journalists and the general public.")
Police State USA ("Our mission is to educate and inform the public about issues that endanger our rights and liberties, and to work to fix them through non-violent means. A complete paradigm shift will be necessary to save this country’s freedom. A necessary part of this involves a massive information campaign to expose the crimes of the police state and promote freedom-based alternatives. We are part of that information campaign. All aspects of the police state will be covered. These include a spiderweb of bad laws, unaddressed corruption, rampant police brutality, the militarization of law enforcement, systematic civil rights infringements, prohibition of non-violent/victimless behavior, destruction of property rights, outlawing of arbitrary items, invasions of privacy, surveillance & spying, governmental double standards, indoctrination & propaganda campaigns, fascist economic policies, aggressive foreign policy, centralization and federalization of government, the rigged political system, the false Left/Right Paradigm, globalism & world government, and more.
What we are Not - Police State USA does not promote the idea that all police officers are devils. We do not intend to use a broad brush and blindly bash every cop. We do not use popular acronyms like “FTP” and “ACAB.” Our outrage is targeted specifically individual people and individual policies that are responsible for corruption and abuse. We recognize that police are only human and no more corruptible than anyone else. However, that corruption will not be tolerated. While we offer some stinging criticisms of the laws and individuals who are supporting the police state, we recognize that there are some honorable, compassionate police officers out there who themselves are fighting corruption from within the system. We value the role of true peace officers in society and we are happy to hear from current and former police officers who want to speak out against the transformation of their profession and the blue wall of silence that protects bad officers from being removed from their duties. We support Oath Keepers who refuse to enforce oppressive, unconstitutional laws.")
Practical Ethics ("Welcome to Practical Ethics where you can find daily ethical analysis of news events from researchers in four centres based at the Philosophy Faculty, University of Oxford. We focus on current events with practical ethical relevance, including developments in science and technology, environmental policy, public health, and information ethics.")
Press Think (Website of Jay Rosen, Journalism professor at New York University: "I am a press critic, an observer of journalism’s habits, and also a writer trying to make sense of the world. I am interested in the ideas about journalism that journalists work within, and those they feel they can work without. I try to discover the consequences in the world that result from having the kind of press we do. I call this blog PressThink because that’s the kind of work I do. The title points to forms of thought that identify “journalism” to itself— but also to the habit of not thinking about certain things. The subatomic force that holds the pack of reporters together as they swarm around a story, there’s an example of pressthink. Without it there could be no pack; the pieces would come flying apart. There is a strange energy there, holding smart people to dumb practices. The mind of the press is under strain these days. Part of it comes from citizen critics who are gaining some of the tools to do what professional journalists have always done. Often, they don’t think the way the pros do, which is fortunate… more or less. Another strain involves turnover in the technology platform on which mainstream journalism has rested for so long. The supremacy of the “one to many” media system has ended, and vastly different patterns are emerging. Another source of strain, of course, is the gradual state of tending toward Absolute Commercialization, (AC) which is present in almost all media environments. AC is a dark force in journalism, a hollower out. It chills and empties. And a fourth strain on press thinking is there because the professional culture of the press is not as open (about journalism) as it might be, even though individual journalists are quite aware of what’s happening and bear a sophisticated sense of their profession’s role in it. So “pressthink” exists. At least I say it does. The burden on PressThink is to illustrate this claim and be entertaining about it. Ideas saying what a press is for created the one we have today. Ideas about what journlism essentially is keep it the way it is. Press thinking is under pressure today and more in motion. No one knows where the next wave is supposed to come from. Key symbols are up for grabs. And “who is a journalist?” is asked with a vengeance— especially online. Which gets to why I call this blog PressThink, and not mediathink. Today we say media instead of “the press.” But I don’t recommend it. I think it was a mistake when we began to do that— call the people who were the press something else, more modern, abstract, inclusive, elastic, and of course more commercial, The Media. This is a habit we imported into our national language, but nations can get that kind of thing wrong. We need to keep the press from being absorbed into The Media. This means keeping the word press, which is antiquated. But included under its modern umbrella should be all who do the serious work in journalism, regardless of what technology they use. The people who will invent the next press in America—and who are doing it now online—continue an experiment at least 250 years old. It has a powerful social history and political legend attached.")
Prison Radio ("Prison Radio's mission is to challenge unjust police and prosecutorial practices which result in mass incarceration, racism, and gender discrimination. We do this by bringing the voices of men, women, and kids into the public debate and dialogue on crime and punishment. Our radio broadcasts help spur the public to examine core issues that create crime and heighten disenfranchisement. Our educational materials serve as a catalyst for public activism, strengthening movements for social change. Prison Radio’s productions illustrate the perspectives and the intrinsic human worth of the more than 7.1 million people under correctional control in the U.S, and those not served by the justice system.")
Progressive Geographies ("My name is Stuart Elden and this is a site about politics, interesting books, my own writing and whatever else comes to mind. I’m a Professor of Political Geography at Durham University, UK, with a training in politics, history and political theory. At Durham I am one of the Directors of the Institute of Advanced Study and the Academic Director of the International Boundaries Research Unit. From September 2013 I will be Professor of Political Theory and Geography at the University of Warwick, in the Politics and International Studies department. In that role I will also be spending two months a year at the Centre for Urban Science and Progress - a partnership with New York University among others – and at Monash University as part of the Monash-Warwick Alliance. My interests range fairly widely between philosophy, politics, geography, literature and history. I’m the author of four books and the editor of seven. My next book, The Birth of Territory, is forthcoming with University of Chicago Press. My articles have appeared in journals in a range of disciplines, and some have been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Croatian, Russian and Hebrew. You can find a list of future talks here and free downloads here. I am currently working on projects on Shakespeare, Foucault and concepts of the world and earth. I also edit the journal Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, which now has an open site parallel to the print and online journal.")
Progress Lex ("ProgressLex’s mission is to nurture and sustain a thriving, diverse and beautiful Lexington that talented and creative people are happy to call home. We organize events, share ideas, and foster community around a people-centered and progressive vision of Lexington.")
Project Censored (MB: Project Censored is a national network of faculty, students and citizens that collectively research important news stories and how they are covered, or not covered, in the mainstream media. They provide an essential annual report on the top 25 censored news stories. "At Project Censored, we examine the coverage of news and information important to the maintenance of a healthy and functioning democracy. We define Modern Censorship as the subtle yet constant and sophisticated manipulation of reality in our mass media outlets. On a daily basis, censorship refers to the intentional non-inclusion of a news story – or piece of a news story – based on anything other than a desire to tell the truth. Such manipulation can take the form of political pressure (from government officials and powerful individuals), economic pressure (from advertisers and funders), and legal pressure (the threat of lawsuits from deep-pocket individuals, corporations, and institutions). WHAT IS MEDIA ACCOUNTABILITY?: In our view, the only valid justification for declining a news story is that in a medium limited by time and space, another news story was simply more important to the people of the community, whether local, national or international. While admittedly a subjective process, it is nonetheless, a process to be undertaken by the news people themselves (the investigative journalists and editors), NOT by the managers and CEOs of their “parent company.” No professional journalist or researcher should ever have to face the destruction of his or her career (or life) simply because they wanted to tell the truth. While no two people will always agree on what story is more important than another, a system where the working reporters and editors run the newsroom would at least provide a fertile environment for debate, dissent and critical thinking. The growth of independent media and journalism in recent years shows that people throughout the world yearn to hold not only their leaders accountable, but their media sources as well. For that reason, the Project Censored research program continues, in its small way, to support and highlight those who tell the truth about the powerful (no matter the consequences) and are relentless in their quest to hold Big Media accountable for their decisions.")
Pro Publica (Founded in 2007: "The Mission: To expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business, and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing. ... ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Our work focuses exclusively on truly important stories, stories with “moral force.” We do this by producing journalism that shines a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them. Investigative journalism is at risk. Many news organizations have increasingly come to see it as a luxury. Today’s investigative reporters lack resources: Time and budget constraints are curbing the ability of journalists not specifically designated “investigative” to do this kind of reporting in addition to their regular beats. New models are, therefore, necessary to carry forward some of the great work of journalism in the public interest that is such an integral part of self-government, and thus an important bulwark of our democracy. ProPublica was founded by Paul Steiger, the former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. It is now led by Stephen Engelberg, a former managing editor of The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon and former investigative editor of The New York Times, and Richard Tofel, the former assistant publisher of The Wall Street Journal.")
Public International Radio ("At Public Radio International, we invite listeners to hear a different voice with content that provides unique perspectives on our interdependent world. Partnering with public media's most talented producers and hosts, we offer distinctly global voices on PRI's "The World" and CBC shows like "As it Happens" and "Q with Jian Ghomeshi." We offer singular, diverse voices on "The Tavis Smiley Show." We present voices of culture, contemporary American life and artistry on "This American Life" and "Studio 360 from PRI and WNYC." And we provide decidedly fresh takes on "WireTap" and "The Sound of Young America." Mission: Public Radio International's mission is to serve audiences as a distinctive content source for information, insights and cultural experiences essential to living in our diverse, interconnected world.
Core principles - Public Radio International recognizes as core principles: > the central role played by diversity in our nation's past and its importance to our future > the urgent need to understand connections between American life and cultures around the globe > the responsibility of public media to encourage the exchange of ideas and search for common principles fundamental to a civil society and > the power of sound and of the spoken word to engage the mind and nurture the human spirit.")
Pussy Goes GRRR ("This is a blog built by love. The mortar was our mutual cynicism. The bricks were our shared fondness for metaphors that are extended too far. Pussy Goes Grrr began in April 2009 as a joint outlet of expression for Andreas and Ashley. Since then, it’s blossomed into a little outpost for rants, reviews, and critiques, with an emphasis on how culture interacts with gender and sexuality. Feel free to drop by, peek around, leave some comments, and have an all-around good time!")
Radical Criminology ("In this period of state-sponsored austerity and suppression of resistance there is a great need for criminologists to speak out and act against state violence, state-corporate crime, and the growth of surveillance regimes and the prison-industrial complex. Criminologists also have a role to play in advancing alternatives to current regimes of regulation and punishment. In light of current social struggles against neo-liberal capitalism, and as an effort to contribute positively to those struggles, the Critical Criminology Working Group at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Vancouver has initiated the journal Radical Criminology. We now welcome contributions.")
Radiolab ("Radiolab is a show about curiosity. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience.")
Radio Open Source (MB: My favorite culture/humanities podcast. Christopher Lydon has mastered the interview. "An American conversation with global attitude, on the arts, humanities, and global affairs, hosted by Christopher Lydon.")
Radio West ("A radio conversation where people tell stories that explore the way the world works.")
Reader Supported News ("Reader Supported News is a new service by the creator of Truthout, Marc Ash. I started Truthout in downtown Los Angeles in the summer of 2000, as the Democratic convention unfolded a few blocks away. I did so without realizing that I would fail, and as a result, I succeeded. Truthout built its following among readers who wanted to better understand the most important stories of the day, but had grown tired of the hype and sales-pitching of the big corporate outlets. Reader Supported News (RSN) will carry forward the core concept that the reader is best served by financial control of the news service they depend on. No outside investment capital was used in the startup of RSN. No advertising money will be accepted by RSN. No grants will be sought by RSN. We like having the reader as our boss. The service is free to all - even if you cannot contribute, we are honored to have you join us as a reader. RSN will not be a non-profit.")
The Real News ("The Real News Network is a television news and documentary network focused on providing independent and uncompromising journalism. Our staff, in collaboration with courageous journalists around the globe, will investigate report and debate stories on the critical issues of our times. We are viewer supported and do not accept advertising, government or corporate funding. What's Real About Us: We won't blindly follow wire services or official press releases that attempt to set the news agenda. We will cover the big stories of the day, but we will broaden the definition of what's important. The Real News will investigate, report and debate stories that help us understand the critical issues of our time. The movements for the rights of working people, women, children, immigrants, indigenous people, for freedom of religion and conscience, for moral and spiritual values and for peace and against racism are news. The health of our planet will be a story, day after day. Who's a Newsmaker?: We will cover people in high office, but we won't limit our news to official positions or the partisan horse race for power. We think that people who fight for human rights and work for solutions are newsmakers. Bias, Accountability and Transparency: We all have interests. We recognize that bias will affect the elements in a story we choose to highlight, the facts we consider important and the sources we decide to trust. To be human is to have bias. The answer is transparency; The Real News will create forums for questioning, debating and criticizing our work. Targeting a Mass Audience: We will make stories that matter dramatic and engaging. We will combine sizzle with substance, understanding that craft and entertainment values are critical to winning a large audience. Daring Debate: Many sides of an issue will be explored, taking debate beyond narrow partisanship. Guests will have deep knowledge and investigated opinions. Debate will be lively and witty and will resist personal attacks, talking points and empty rhetoric. Back to Basics: The Real News relies on verifiable journalism, seeking truth without bowing to pressure and fearlessly following the evidence wherever it leads.")
Religion Dispatches ("Religion Dispatches is a daily online magazine that publishes a mix of expert opinion, in-depth reporting, and provocative updates from the intersection of religion, politics and culture. RD provides a forum for journalists, scholars and advocates to share their expertise and inform the conversations that shape our lives and our democracy. Because we’re observers (but not necessarily observant), respectful but not reverent, we tackle stories that others can’t, or won’t. Dispatches is our official blog, featuring fast-moving, on-the-ground, insider perspectives on today’s top religion stories.")
ROAR (Reflections on a Revolution) ("Reflections on a Revolution (ROAR) is an online magazine of radical critique and revolutionary imagination that seeks to amplify the voice of our generation amid the clamorous cacophony of a rapidly changing world. ROAR aims to bring you some of the world’s most inspiring news, stories, analysis, ideas, actions, books, poems, tunes, photos, videos and doodles from the front-lines of the Real Democracy Movement. ROAR was founded in Oakland, CA., in 2010 as an alternative media collective that seeks to contribute to the ongoing wave of global uprisings by freely sharing information and breathing inspiration into the Creative Commons. ROAR is edited by Jérôme Roos, a writer, activist and filmmaker from Amsterdam and a PhD Researcher at the European University Institute in Florence. Our contributions come from volunteers around the world.")
Revolution by the Book (MB: I value the efforts of AK Press so much that I became a regular subscriber 5 years ago. This is the blog for AK Press: "The purpose of Revolution by the Book ... is to inform people about anarchist publishing in general and AK Press in particular. We will post interviews with AK authors, reviews of and excerpts from AK books, and reports on the events at AK. We will also post news about other anarchist publishers and booksellers, translations, interviews with activists behind other projects, and lists of relevant conferences. We will use video and audio whenever possible." ... "AK Press is a worker-run collective that publishes and distributes radical books, visual and audio media, and other mind-altering material. We're small: a dozen people who work long hours for short money, because we believe in what we do. We're anarchists, which is reflected both in the books we provide and in the way we organize our business. Decisions at AK Press are made collectively, from what we publish, to what we distribute and how we structure our labor. All the work, from sweeping floors to answering phones, is shared. When the telemarketers call and ask, "who's in charge?" the answer is: everyone. Our goal isn't profit (although we do have to pay the rent). Our goal is supplying radical words and images to as many people as possible. The books and other media we distribute are published by independent presses, not the corporate giants. We make them widely available to help you make positive (or, hell, revolutionary) changes in the world. As you probably know, the stuff we carry is less and less available from the corporate publishers and their chain stores.")
Richard D. Wolff ("Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. He also teaches classes regularly at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan. Earlier he taught economics at Yale University (1967-1969) and at the City College of the City University of New York (1969-1973). In 1994, he was a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Paris (France), I (Sorbonne).")
RSA Animate (MB: essential site for introducing complex ideas and theories to people for the first time. I especially enjoy the breakdown of complex concepts through visual animation and the engaging humor with which it is done. "The RSA Animate series was conceived as an innovative, accessible and unique way of illustrating and sharing the world-changing ideas from the RSA's free public events programme. ... The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce): an enlightenment organisation committed to finding innovative practical solutions to today’s social challenges. Through its ideas, research and 27,000-strong Fellowship it seeks to understand and enhance human capability so we can close the gap between today’s reality and people’s hopes for a better world.")
Scarleteen (MB: This is the best site for finding specific and factual information about sex & sexuality. "Scarleteen is an independent, grassroots sexuality education and support organization and website. Founded in 1998, Scarleteen.com is visited by around three-quarters of a million diverse people each month worldwide, most between the ages of 15 and 25. It is the highest-ranked website for sex education and sexuality advice online and has held that rank through most of its tenure.")
Schermer, Michael. "When Science Doesn't Support Beliefs." The Work of Michael Schermer (October 2013)
Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze ("Secrecy For Sale: Inside The Global Offshore Money Maze is one of the largest and most complex cross border investigative projects in journalism history. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists collaborated with more than 86 journalists in 46 countries in an attempt to strip away the biggest mystery associated with tax havens: the owners of anonymous companies. Our aim is to allow the public to see inside the offshore world in a way that has never before been possible. Perhaps most surprising is that much of what we will be revealing over the next few months is perfectly legal. The extreme secrecy offered by tax havens also facilitates the use of anonymous entities to commit crimes, evade taxes, hide assets from creditors and avoid regulations. This secrecy can ultimately undermine democracy by granting a certain class of individuals the ability to play by a different set of rules. One of the main investigative tools we are using – and which was donated to us free-of-charge – is specialist software from the Australian-based company NUIX, which allows for the processing, managing and searching of large volumes of unstructured data. The reporting is based on 2.5 million secret files related to 10 offshore centers. The files contain detail on more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts and nearly 130,000 individuals and agents, in more than 170 countries.")
Security and Liberty (MB: Glenn Greenwald's column Security and Liberty is essential reading for anyone concerned with civil/human rights issues. "A critical, campaigning column on vital issues of civil rights, freedom of information and justice – and their enemies, from the award-winning journalist, former constitutional litigator and author of three New York Times bestsellers." Hosted by British newspaper The Guardian.)
SCOTUSblog ("SCOTUSblog is devoted to comprehensively covering the U.S. Supreme Court without bias and according to the highest journalistic and legal ethical standards. The blog is provided as a public service and is sponsored by Bloomberg Law. Tom Goldstein and Amy Howe, husband and wife, founded the blog in 2002. Reporter Lyle Denniston joined a few years later. Other permanent and part-time staff members have joined over time. Significant contributions have come from other lawyers at Tom and Amy’s law firm, as well as their students at Stanford and Harvard Law Schools. Now more than twenty people work on or write for the blog. The blog generally reports on every merits case before the Court at least three times: prior to argument; after argument; and after the decision. In certain cases, we invite the advocates to record summaries of their arguments for podcasts. The blog notes all of the non-pauper cert. petitions that seek to raise a legal question which in Tom’s view may interest the Justices; Lyle gives additional coverage to particularly significant petitions. For the merits cases and the petitions we cover, we provide access to all the briefs. Many of the blog’s posts go beyond coverage of individual cases. Each business day, we provide a “Round-up” of what has been written about the Court. We regularly publish broader analytical pieces. Lyle also comprehensively covers litigation relating to detainees in the “war on terrorism” a topic of recurring interest at the Court. The blog carries significant analysis of nominees to the Court. In addition, various special projects such as our thirty days of tributes to Justice Stevens may span several weeks. Significant books related to the Court are the subject of our “Ask the author” series. A calendar lists significant dates for activity at the Court and programs relating to it. We also regularly publish statistics relating to the Term. All of the material we collect and publish is easily accessible on the blog.")
Skeptoid (Hosted and produced by Brian Dunning: "Skeptoid is a weekly science podcast dedicated to furthering knowledge by blasting away the widespread pseudosciences that infect popular culture, and replacing them with way cooler reality. Each weekly episode focuses on a single phenomenon — an urban legend, a paranormal claim, alternative therapy, or something just plain stupid — that you've heard of, and that you probably believe in. Skeptoid attempts to expose the folly of belief in non-evidence based phenomena, and more importantly, explains the factual scientific reality.")
Smiley and West ("Smiley & West is an energetic fusion of thought provoking, intelligent and stimulating dialogue on every subject from news and politics to entertainment and culture. The one-hour weekly show attracts a broad spectrum of compelling guests and asks questions that solicits newsworthy discussions. Each week, Smiley and West engage in deep dialogue in the "Hot Stuff" where the duo reflect on the biggest stories of the week and those being left behind. The most engaging portion of the show encourages audience interaction in "Take 'Em to Task" when a caller debates Smiley & West on a political or social issue. The Conversation, the longest uninterrupted interview on national public radio, features icons and issue-makers including the great thinkers and doers of our time.")
Socialist Worker ("The powers that be have media outlets to tell their side of the story. We need ours. SocialistWorker.org aims to be a place to find news, analysis and commentary from the left. SocialistWorker.org began as the online version of the weekly Socialist Worker newspaper, founded in 1977 and published by the International Socialist Organization. ... As a newspaper and now a daily Web site, Socialist Worker has been committed to giving a voice to those struggling for a better world. We've sought out the stories of labor struggles that are seldom reported in the mainstream media--and never reported on from the point of view of those fighting back. From interviews with striking miners in Kentucky in the 1970s to a day-by-day account of the Republic Windows & Doors factory occupation in Chicago in 2008, we've tried to bring workers' experiences and opinions to a wider audience. We've reported on campaigns for social change and economic justice in the U.S. and around the world--from the movement against South African apartheid in the 1980s to the one against Israel's apartheid against Palestinians today; from the soldiers' resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan to the LGBT movement for equality, and much more. SocialistWorker.org is committed not only to reporting from the front lines of these struggles, but to providing a forum for discussion and debate of the political questions facing activists. We also seek to present a socialist analysis of world news and events, and to keep alive the rich and too-often-hidden history of working-class struggle and the socialist tradition. You'll find left-wing and Marxist analyses of important questions of the day from a broad range of voices on the left. SocialistWorker.org is proud to feature articles not only by well-known figures on the left, but also activists involved in day-to-day struggles, large and small--writing about protests, pickets, meetings and other actions in their area, and taking up the issues and questions they face. We welcome contributions to our Labor News and Activist News sections--and to the ongoing discussions in our Readers' Views department. Our Web site was launched in 2001 and began daily publication on May Day 2008. It has given us an opportunity to reach a broad and growing audience, and to present a wide array of left voices involved in today's struggles and taking up today's political questions, from the U.S. and internationally.")
Society and Space - Environment and Planning D ("Environment and Planning D: Society and Space is an international and interdisciplinary journal that provides a forum for the discussion of the mutually constitutive relation between the social and the spatial. It seeks to be philosophically sophisticated, practically relevant, and to concretely theorise a range of contemporary, historical, political and cultural contexts. Space is broadly conceived: from landscapes of the body to global geographies; from cyberspace to old growth forests; as metaphorical and material; as theoretically nuanced and empirically rich. Interpretations move across theoretical and empirical spectrums, from psychoanalysis to political economy; anthropology to literature; and philosophy to architecture. The journal editors are equally committed to the spatial aspects of political action and the abstractions of social theory. We believe that this commitment is best achieved by keeping a balance between, and placing into creative tension, economic, political, and cultural analyses, informed by theoretical innovation and underpinned by a range of empirical research.")
The Sociological Cinema ("The Sociological Cinema is edited and published by Valerie Chepp, Paul Dean, and Lester Andrist, a team of three public sociologists. As graduate student colleagues and close friends in the Sociology Department at the University of Maryland, we launched this site in September 2010 as a way to facilitate using popular culture and video to teach and learn about sociology. The idea of The Sociological Cinema came to us over the course of several conversations in which we repeatedly found ourselves discussing our use of video clips in the classroom. While teaching, we found that videos were highly effective at illustrating course concepts and theories, supplementing analyses found in course texts, and keeping students more engaged. At the same time, we were each teaching new prep courses and had many other competing demands, so we commiserated over the time-consuming nature of finding useful video clips to show our students. Then, suddenly, the idea hit us—“Wouldn’t it be great if there was a website for sociology instructors that tagged video clips by sociological themes so instructors could easily search and find clips appropriate for various lecture topics?” Since then, we have committed ourselves to creating precisely that kind of resource and locating it here on The Sociological Cinema.")
Sociological Images ("Sociological Images is designed to encourage all kinds of people to exercise and develop their sociological imagination by presenting brief sociological discussions of compelling and timely imagery that spans the breadth of sociological inquiry. ... The sociological imagination is a woefully under-utilized tool. We hope this blog encourages all kinds of people to exercise and develop their sociological imagination and that, between all of us, public discourse will increasingly include a sociological lens with which we can all learn about social processes and mechanisms, critique social inadequacies, and design functional and equitable alternatives.")
The Stone (Published as a part of The New York Times online presence: "The Stone features the writing of contemporary philosophers on issues both timely and timeless. The series moderator is Simon Critchley. He teaches philosophy at The New School for Social Research in New York.")
Student Activism ("This blog is maintained by Angus Johnston, a historian of student activism and student government.")
Taub, Amanda. "The Rise of American Authoritarianism." Vox (March 1, 2016)
Tavis Smiley (MB: Tavis Smiley is one of the best interviewers. "Tavis Smiley is a unique hybrid of news, issues and entertainment, featuring interviews with politicians, entertainers, athletes, authors and other newsmakers.")
Teaching Media ("We envision Teaching Media as a site where critical media scholars can share pedagogical resources and talk about undergraduate teaching, in all its frustrations and joys. Teaching Media is a collaborative space built on the collective efforts and pooled knowledge of media educators. We’re counting on your generosity and participation, on your willingness to share your teaching ideas, insights, problems, and resources. While many of the resources gathered on this site may be available on-line elsewhere, we hope that what will make this site useful to media scholars is the contextualization and discussion of teaching resources and ideas this site facilitates. RESOURCES - We collect four different categories of resources: Readings for Undergraduates; Media Examples for the Classroom; Assignments; Syllabi Thanks to Erin Copple Smith and Anne Helen Petersen, we have a very active FACEBOOK group where folks regularly discuss teaching ideas and issues. We also publish the Cinema Journal Teaching Dossier.")
Teaching Tolerance ("Founded in 1991 by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Teaching Tolerance is dedicated to reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations and supporting equitable school experiences for our nation's children. We provide free educational materials to teachers and other school practitioners in the U.S. and Canada. Our self-titled magazine is sent to 450,000 educators twice annually, and tens of thousands of educators use our free curricular kits. More than 5,000 schools participate in our annual Mix It Up at Lunch Day program. Our teaching materials have won two Oscars, an Emmy and more than 20 honors from the Association of Educational Publishers, including two Golden Lamp Awards, the industry's highest honor. Scientific surveys demonstrate that our programs help students learn respect for differences and bolster teacher practice. "Tolerance" is surely an imperfect term, yet the English language offers no single word that embraces the broad range of skills we need to live together peacefully. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used the Greek term "agape" to describe a universal love that "discovers the neighbor in every man it meets." The various disciplines concerned with human behavior have also offered a variety of adjectives: "pro-social," "democratic," "affiliative." In its Declaration on the Principles of Tolerance, UNESCO offers a definition of tolerance that most closely matches our philosophical use of the word: "Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human. Tolerance is harmony in difference." We view tolerance as a way of thinking and feeling — but most importantly, of acting — that gives us peace in our individuality, respect for those unlike us, the wisdom to discern humane values and the courage to act upon them.")
Think Africa Press ("Think Africa Press is an online magazine that looks beyond the surface of global African news coverage. Bringing together writers from across Africa with international experts, and covering a wide range of topics – from politics to the development to culture – Think Africa Press aims to provide engaging articles and essays that provide greater depth, context and analysis to standard news coverage.")
The Third Coast International Audio Festival ("Based in Chicago, the Third Coast International Audio Festival (TCIAF) curates sound-rich audio stories from around the world and shares them with as many ears as possible – on the radio, on the Internet, and at public listening events all over the place. Operating year-round, Third Coast offers producers and listeners a multitude of ways to celebrate audio storytelling.")
This Day in Wikileaks ("This Day in WikiLeaks was created on November 8, 2011 as a daily blog for news related to WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, and other matters of transparency, whistleblowing, and surveillence. It's mission is to create an accessible, regular, and accurate source for WikiLeaks news. Daily updates are scheduled for 12:00AM London Time, but is subject to change due to personal responsibilities. Although WikiLeaks was created in 2006, it became world renowned in 2010 after the release of Collateral Murder. WikiLeaks continues releasing material to this day, with The Syria Files being its most recent. Currently, we see the organisation in the middle of many legal struggles, including an unlawful economic blockade and the threat of U.S. prosecution. The outcome of these issues will set an important precedent regarding the potential criminilisation of publishing and journalism. This Day in WikiLeaks not only provides daily updates, but also serves as a searchable archive for past news.")
Thought Maybe ("About Us? This is really about you… Why are you here? What are you looking for? Information on the impacts of globalisation? Where technology meets the natural environment? How banking really works? What about advertising and mainstream media? Or Indigenous rights, racism and police? Or how about population, peak oil, food and housing? This is a website that aims to provoke your thoughts not only about these important issues, but many other pertinent topics relevant to modern society, industrial civilisation and globalised dominant culture. There’s already a lot of information on the Internet, so our goal is to cut through the noise and garbage, to present valuable information in a clear way, so it’s accessible, useful and easily digested. This still may not be an easy undertaking though, and we can understand that — especially considering the complexity and interconnectedness of the topics, as well as the crossing over of sources; but also for the fact that the information here can be incomplete, sometimes contradictory or even controversial. But this is the point. It’s all part of what we’re trying to do: provoke critical thinking, questioning… and doing. We’ve fundamentally built this resource to inform and inspire action — and no, we’re not talking about clicking the stupid ‘Like’ button on Facebook, signing online petitions or letter writing — we mean informing and inspiring real-world action; taking this information away from the computer to rejuvenate the strong networks with the people around you in the real world, to discuss, plan, act. This is not a symbolic action or clicktivism website, nor is it a simple collection of popular content, like the other websites available. It’s a resource that aims to inform, inspire and provoke action; to generate a multitude of responses and reactions. This is just some of what is needed to break paradigms, subservience, acquiescence, and to cultivate inspiration to continue work on the plethora of puzzles and problems addressed in the information published here. Some puzzles are big, some are small, but everywhere you look, there’s good work to be done.")
Tim Wise ("Tim Wise, whom philosopher Cornel West calls, “A vanilla brother in the tradition of (antiracism and antislavery fighter) John Brown,” is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and educators in the United States. He has been called “One of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation,” by best-selling author and professor Michael Eric Dyson, of Georgetown University. Wise, who was named one of “25 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World,” by Utne Reader in 2010, has spoken in all 50 states of the U.S., on over 800 college and high school campuses, and to community groups across the nation. He has also lectured internationally in Canada and Bermuda on issues of comparative racism, race and education, racism and religion, and racism in the labor market. Wise is the author of six books, including the highly acclaimed memoir, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son; an academic volume on affirmative action, entitled, Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White; an essay collection, entitled, Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male; two books on race and racism in the Obama era, entitled respectively, Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama, and Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity; and his latest, Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority, which examines rising white anxiety in an increasingly multicultural nation. His next book, The Culture of Cruelty: How America’s Elite Demonize the Poor, Valorize the Rich and Jeopardize the Future will be released in Fall, 2013. He has contributed essays to twenty-five books, and is one of several persons featured in White Men Challenging Racism: Thirty-Five Personal Stories, from Duke University Press. He received the 2001 British Diversity Award for best feature essay on race issues, and his writings have appeared in dozens of popular, professional and scholarly journals.">
TomDispatch ("Tom Engelhardt launched Tomdispatch in November 2001 as an e-mail publication offering commentary and collected articles from the world press. In December 2002, it gained its name, became a project of The Nation Institute, and went online as "a regular antidote to the mainstream media." The site now features Tom Engelhardt's regular commentaries and the original work of authors ranging from Rebecca Solnit, Bill McKibben, and Mike Davis to Chalmers Johnson, Michael Klare, Adam Hochschild, Robert Lipsyte, and Elizabeth de la Vega. Nick Turse, who also writes for the site, is associate editor and research director. Tomdispatch is intended to introduce readers to voices and perspectives from elsewhere (even when the elsewhere is here). Its mission is to connect some of the global dots regularly left unconnected by the mainstream media and to offer a clearer sense of how this imperial globe of ours actually works.")
True African Original ("I am on a journey…with my work, my explorations and a few great stories. I travel with a suitcase full of outrageous blessings. I am on a quest for truth, beauty and quiet joy. I am an artist, a writer, an explorer ~ unknown")
Truthdig ("Truthdig is a news website that provides expert coverage of current affairs as well as a variety of thoughtful, provocative content assembled from a progressive point of view. The site is built around reports by authorities in their fields who conduct in-depth exploration of contemporary topics. To offer frequent change and surprise, the site also presents a diversity of original reporting and aggregated content culled by the site's editors and staff.")
Truthout ("Truthout works to spark action by revealing systemic injustice and providing a platform for transformative ideas, through in-depth investigative reporting and critical analysis. With a powerful, independent voice, we will spur the revolution in consciousness and inspire the direct action that is necessary to save the planet and humanity.")
The Understory (The Understory if the blog for the Rainforest Action Network: "Rainforest Action Network campaigns for the forests, their inhabitants and the natural systems that sustain life by transforming the global marketplace through education, grassroots organizing and non-violent direct action. Since it was founded in 1985, the Rainforest Action Network has been working to protect rainforests and the human rights of those living in and around those forests. From the beginning, RAN has played a key role in strengthening the worldwide rainforest conservation movement through supporting activists in rainforest countries as well as organizing and mobilizing consumers and community action groups throughout the United States. Our first challenge was to bring the plight of the rainforests to public attention through education, communication, and direct action.")
Union of Concerned Scientists ("The Union of Concerned Scientists puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet's most pressing problems. Joining with citizens across the country, we combine technical analysis and effective advocacy to create innovative, practical solutions for a healthy, safe, and sustainable future. What began as a collaboration between students and faculty members at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 is now an alliance of more than 400,000 citizens and scientists. UCS members are people from all walks of life: parents and businesspeople, biologists and physicists, teachers and students. Our members understand that scientific analysis—not political calculations or corporate hype—should guide our efforts to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices. Our experts work on some of the most complex and daunting problems in our history: stemming the tide of global warming, finding sustainable ways to feed, power and transport ourselves, and reducing the threat of catastrophic war. Our achievements over the decades show that thoughtful action based on the best available science can help safeguard our future and the future of our planet.")
Unwelcome Guest (MB: This is the best series of episodes designed to get us to re-think the state of the world that I have found on the internet. " WHAT? The Unwelcome Guests Collective is a group of broadcasters who produce a weekly, FCC-ready public domain 2 hour talk radio show on a range of topics. We aim to provoke and stimulate the listener, showing that a radically different world is not only possible, but is in fact the only feasible choice. "WHEN? The first episode of Unwelcome Guests was broadcast on 10th March 2000. New episodes are produced every Saturday. WHO? The collective was started by Lyn Gerry and some friends from the A-Infos project in early 2000. Various radio stations, both commercial and non-commercial broadcast the show. Lyn Gerry was the main host until 2010, when Robin Upton took over. ⚑ HOW? We combine material from a range of public domain sources using audio editing software to produce 2 hour long files per week, which are posted to this website, http://UnwelcomeGuests.net, and to radio4all.net. ⚑ WHY? Commercial media is either unable or unwilling to expose the pernicious effects of money, governments, corporations and power hierarchy. As an entirely volunteer-based effort, working for love, not money, we have the independence to speak the truth as we see it.")
Uprising Radio ("Uprising Radio was founded in July 2003 by Sonali Kolhatkar, host and lead producer of Uprising. Uprising emphasizes connecting global issues with local ones. Simply informing listeners of the problems in the world and our communities is not enough – we hope to motivate our listeners to take an active role in their communities.")
Uprooting Criminology: A Reasoned Plot ("We are a critical social justice collective dedicated to fostering an appreciation of the dialectics of crime, justice, and social harm. This international multidisciplinary collaborative effort is founded on the radical perspective that altering the social relations of work and learning can generate substantial structural social change. Our goals are to (1) provide our audience with alternative resources regarding criminalization, inequality, and social harm as well as (2) encourage more action-oriented relationships with groups or social phenomena of study. We also come together in attempt to foster social change through critical, creative, and productive resistance.")
Verso Books Blog ("Verso Books is the largest independent, radical publishing house in the English-speaking world, publishing eighty books a year.")
Waging Non-Violence ("Waging Nonviolence is a source for original news and analysis about struggles for justice and peace around the globe. Ordinary people build power using nonviolent strategies and tactics every day, even under the most difficult of circumstances, yet these stories often go unnoticed or misunderstood by a media industry fixated on violence and celebrity. Since 2009, WNV has been reporting on these people-powered struggles and helping their participants learn from one another, because we know that they can and do change the world. We view nonviolence as neither a fixed ideology nor merely a collection of strategies. It is not passivity or the avoidance of conflict. Rather, “waging nonviolence” is the active pursuit of a better, less violent society by means worthy of the goal and those best suited to achieving it. WNV welcomes a diversity of voices and viewpoints that seek alternatives to violence through people power.")
We Are Many ("Percy Bysshe Shelley's famous poem, "Mask of Anarchy," gave us the name for this site. The poem is a powerful call to action for the oppressed and exploited of the world to organize together against tyranny and injustice, which we feel well expresses our own motivation for collecting the resources in this site: "Rise like Lions after slumber/In unvanquishable number -/Shake your chains to earth like dew/Which in sleep had fallen on you -/Ye are many - they are few." There are so many voices and so many struggles scattered across the planet (and the internet). We are attempting to gather these voices "in unvanquishable number" into a site that can offer a platform and, we hope, inspiration for action. The obstacles activists face today, like those faced by workers and the oppressed in Shelley's day, are great. But our numbers are greater, and with solidarity and unity we can hope to begin to make changes in the systems we oppose. This site cannot be exhaustive, and that is not our intent. We are simply trying to offer a small sampling of the best radical audio and video sources we know of. We know that the internet provides vast opportunities to share information and ideas, but we do not believe that this can replace the real actions of real people. We encourage our visitors, friends, fellow-travelers, and comrades to take inspiration from the people included here into their own struggles for justice. The idea of this website first came from the annual Socialism conferences, packed with so many speakers and discussions and debates and our desire to share these discussions with others on a single platform. We had collected hundreds of talks and meetings over the years, but had never shared them in a coherent way. We hope you find this effort useful.")
Wikileaks ("WikiLeaks is a not-for-profit media organisation. Our goal is to bring important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information to our journalists (our electronic drop box). One of our most important activities is to publish original source material alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth. We are a young organisation that has grown very quickly, relying on a network of dedicated volunteers around the globe. Since 2007, when the organisation was officially launched, WikiLeaks has worked to report on and publish important information. We also develop and adapt technologies to support these activities. WikiLeaks has sustained and triumphed against legal and political attacks designed to silence our publishing organisation, our journalists and our anonymous sources. The broader principles on which our work is based are the defence of freedom of speech and media publishing, the improvement of our common historical record and the support of the rights of all people to create new history. We derive these principles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In particular, Article 19 inspires the work of our journalists and other volunteers. It states that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. We agree, and we seek to uphold this and the other Articles of the Declaration.")
Words Without Borders (" Founded in 2003, Words without Borders promotes cultural understanding through the translation, publication, and promotion of the finest contemporary international literature. Our publications and programs open doors for readers of English around the world to the multiplicity of viewpoints, richness of experience, and literary perspective on world events offered by writers in other languages. We seek to connect international writers to the general public, to students and educators, and to print and other media and to serve as a primary online location for a global literary conversation. Every month we publish eight to twelve new works by international writers. We have published works by Nobel Prize laureates J.M.G. Le Clézio and Herta Müller and noted writers Mahmoud Darwish, Etgar Keret, Per Petterson, Fadhil Al-Azzawi, W.G. Sebald, and Can Xue, as well as many new and rising international writers. To date we have published well over 1,600 pieces from 119 countries and 92 languages. Words without Borders is building an education program that will provide educators with resources and content to more readily incorporate contemporary international literature into their classes. The program will include a second Web site, already in development, as well as an ambitious author-classroom program that facilitates direct interactions between authors and students. We hope that in reaching out to students we can create a passion for international literature, a curiosity about other cultures, and inspire true world citizens. In addition, we’ve partnered with publishing houses to release print anthologies. To date we have released Words without Borders: The World through the Eyes of Writers (Anchor Books), Literature from the “Axis of Evil”: Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Other Enemy Nations (The New Press), The Wall in My Head: Words and Images from the Fall of the Iron Curtain (Open Letter), The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (Ecco), and Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscapes of the Middle East (W.W. Norton).")
World Socialist Web Site ("The World Socialist Web Site, published by the coordinated efforts of ICFI members in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, takes as its starting point the international character of the class struggle. It assesses political developments in every country from the standpoint of the world crisis of capitalism and the political tasks confronting the international working class. Flowing from this perspective, it resolutely opposes all forms of chauvinism and national parochialism.")
The World Tomorrow ("The authorised channel for Julian Assange's The World Tomorrow." For information about Julian Assange.)
ZineLibrary ("Here you will find hundreds of radical zines ready to print.")
Z Net ("ZNet is a huge website with thousands of files and diverse facilities. The ZNet top page provides a good overview of all features and especially the newest content. ZNet is a component of Z Communications. ZNet subsites focus on particular places in the world, such as Iraq Watch and Mideast Watch, or on particular topics, such as Economics or Gender - as well as on types of essay such as Debates, Interviews, and Reviews, and finally also on Vision and Strategy and particularly Participatory Economics, or Parecon.")
No comments:
Post a Comment