Organizing against the Republican National Convention in New York City at the end of the month is going full-steam, and from my outsider’s persepctive, the planning seems to be very together.
One of the most interesting and innovative efforts is Radical Reference, in which a team of radical librarians around the country will help answer reference questions posed by independent journalists and other activists at the RNC protests.
Research is an important element of good journalism. Mainstream media giants typically have fact-checkers and in-house librarians to help with this task (even if the mainstream media bosses often choose to ignore said facts and research). It’s great that indie journalists will have someone to help them get background and double-check facts for the stories they report.
It loooks like there will also be some well organized radio coverage of the protests and the convention, assembled by the No RNC Sound Coalition, a collaborative project of independent media organizations in partnership with free103point9 Online Radio. From their website:
The goal is for local New York sound artists to create a welcoming and supportive structure for visiting sound groups and activists to plug into during the RNC. This will include workshops, editing workstations and airtime on a coordinated webstream with microradio broadcasts.
There will be all sorts of reporters covering what takes place in the streets, and interviewing artists and activists involved in the protests. nycwireless is coordinating wi-fi graffiti bikes, neuroTransmitter is microcasting portable FM, and others will report with cell phones and walkie-talkies.
They have already invited web stations to rebroadcast their stream, and I suspect that many a micropower station will also pick up the feed.