us and listen to all the great stories we have here in denver  hey welcome back to the do it yourself community media special again we're here live in denver from the national conference on media reform and i have here with me mike watson or who's the senior development officer from free press he's going to tell us a little bit about what's been going down here in denver the last day in half and what we can look forward to out of this giant conversion of over three thousand journalists bloggers policy makers and media reformers thanks for being on the show happy to be a part of the experience so denver's great we have all these people coming together here and it's a it's a great convergence of policy makers grassroots activists from around the country people who make their own media people who care about the content that's in our media people who care about making sure that the media is being fair to their communities that they're part of they want to see better local stories they want to see better quality journalism they want to see less commercialism within the media and they also want to see immediate actually that that looks like the people in their neighborhoods in their communities they want to media that actually tells their story and a lot of cases by people who are making their meet all media like we have here at the  y media experience so i mean it's a great concerns that the conference typically like that do enver is unique though because as a first time we've really been west of the mississippi and spent a lot of time with people in the rocky mountain area and then also with a lot of activists that are all up and down the pacific so we're getting a great vibe here out in the the western neck of the woods as opposed to being out east or closer to washington d c that's part of the and that's part of the point of this entire conference is that we think it's important that like policy that shapes how media works in america and actually around the world is not made by people who are behind closed doors who make decisions and cut deals that you and i are people in the streets don't know about that affects people's text the quality of information they have that shapes your understanding of the world you know really to connect with other people we think that people like you and me and people are watching people in communities like denver and actually rural communities struck colorado throughout the mountain west actually throughout the united states should have a say in something that affects so much of their lives and that's that's the beauty of this conference frankly is that you get all these different people who are doing so many different curious wonderful things and there by you know getting energy off and on i mean it's a great experience yeah totally i leave these conferences this is my third any of the em are totally energized there's all kinds of really great stuff going down v democracy now there's people doing poetry i really like the soapbox you know and that's something that's new to the conference you know people having the opportunity to just you know say whatever they want to say more  kind of like the commons all in town square fashion so what are some of the other things that you're seeing new to the conference this year one of the things that i have maybe noticed is more of a presence from community media and independent media makers versus policy and i think that's part of a long term trend that we've seen in free press i mean actually i come to free press from the community media field i work you know work in local communities creating media and helping people create media for twenty years  and i came to these conferences because i wanted to be able to build allies so i can do better work in my community and you know help you know help you know the people i work with create better media and we're seeing more and more of that i think within within the within the conference and i think that's a really healthy thing frankly because it reinforces the idea that it's people who people who matter not necessarily decision makers who matter and i think that that's the reason why you're seeing a supreme for ration of artists and expression it and samar it's because it really gets to this hard question of you know do you have the ability to control your own content do you have the ability to control your own voice can your voice be heard and be distributed through internet through radio through television through any of a number of means and can you make an effect in the world we think that people can and we want to find ways to you know in life in that expanse make it happen for people that's why medi discussions going on about how to fund your own media how to do it yourself so we're really excited to be a part of that here and the do it yourself community media lab and we're broadcasting live on the internet and hopefully some folks who were able to go to the conference are watching now and so what's next for free press after this conference hopefully i'll be taking a break and take a breather for maybe a day but actually what we're going to be doing is we're going to be we're going to be glib getting feedback from people part of a part of the experience we're go be trying to try to build in some successes and also we've been looking at some of the compelling voices that are being heard here people who are doing policy work at the local level or they're doing you know they're there doing struggles to you know may have better representation in local newspapers for example we're trying to find people from across the united states who can be champions for a movement and the thing that we're going to be thinking about and we're looking forward to is we're thinking going into our tenth year at free press is we're very thing about finding ways that we can underline those success stories we can build on those champions and we can build the strength of our movement so that we can have maximum impact in the years ahead because you know technology is going to keep changing and media consolidation is going to keep being a hidden problem in our country we need to change that and the only way we change that is if everyone we work with a stronger and we can actually we can actually build a national movement that it cares about media reform we're on our way and that's what you're going to see in the months ahead when we screen underlying some success stories those great voices that you're hearing at this conference well my class and i are really great words to live by free press says change the media to change the world way we hope to do that today and the next day all here at the conference thanks so much for joining us you're welcome and if people want more information about what's going on with the conference that you can see medias being posted up on our website free press dot net show thanks for having us vanessa and so you guys are at the conference participating in a really cool panel tomorrow about storytelling and organizing and so i'd love it if you tell some of our viewers a little bit about the work that you do through m  p and their mom work or summer and the connection and that you have between organizing the community storytelling using media how are these things all intersectional what do you hope to talk about in your panel tomorrow yeah so the government worker center was formed in the late ninety's by a group of low wage workers in vermont i'm really organizing around workplace issues and then i see him point realize that we really need to build more power in order to change what was politically possible in our state and really get at some of the root causes of poverty and the ways that people are struggling so in two thousand and eight we launched the health care is a human right campaign and a huge part of that was actually going out into all of our communities and really having people share their stories with the crisis with the health care crisis and really putting that at the forefront which both broke isolation of people who are experiencing the crisis really helped us change reframe the story the public story around around health care and what the purpose of our health care system is so because of a lot of this organizing  and storytelling and documenting our stories we were able to pass in two thousand and eleven the first state law to establish universal health care system so we're still fighting that battle and fighting to create that system but storytelling and organizing have been didn't union immigrant population taxi cab driver workers all kinds of people and usually you know those stories in the mainstream media at least in philadelphia kind of appear as news reports right and so tell us a little bit like how storytelling diverges from these reports and how that maybe bridges the gap between these impacted populations and the issues you're trying to talk about yeah thanks for nasa for having us on here too i mean at the media mobilizing project we believe that movements begin with the telling of one told stories and so our our work has been build the media media and communications infrastructure that connects up these different struggles that you're talking about from students  to people losing their homes and and to have have a means that people can have a have a voice and build stronger ties and relationships with each other so that we can we can win the fights of tomorrow that we're united in moving forward and so on on this this question that you're asking i think with the with the mainstream media that we see it often either isolates or it's the struggles of poor and working people dehumanizing people and it doesn't it doesn't have a sense of history a long perspective on where these issues come from in a sense a vision of you know what can really be done to change the issues in our communities and so through through our work which has been on the level of teaching people storytelling practices connecting people  to basic media and communication skills designing collaboratively with organizations and groups communication strategies and campaigns we see that there is a way to tell a different story to build a different narrative that that connects philadelphia and a lot of people don't you know like why do people need this and you know i'm going to some of these rallies oftentimes i've heard restaurant worker earns and other contractors talk about times when they were on able to take off work and they were saying and not having health insurance and i think these stories really come the reality is that these you know impact a population space when it comes to some of these you know difficulties they're facing when they're just trying to work and stay healthy in their lives and i think the other examples we've been seeing this recently again at the local level is in all these school closings right and chicago and philadelphia and other cities we're hearing the voices of students and teachers are nurses and bash driver hers and like how their daily life is going to be impacted you know through the thory tallying so how do you bridge that gap between like telling a story you know like i'm telling these stories  now and using media yeah i mean i think part of building bridging the gap is is using the opportunity to tell these stories to build new relationships that that media making can actually be part of a community organizing process and and a way to build new relationships across groups that when collaborate otherwise a way to you know define who who are enemy is who the villain really is in the story and what we're up  against as a way to understand our issues better so that we can fight smarter on those issues meghan tell us a little bit about the radio work that you're doing with with migrant workers and vermont and also with people affected by health care and how you've kind of maybe changed the way that we listen to traditional radio yeah so we've certainly seen in vermont the impact of media consolidation in many ways through our to our organizing whether it's a newspaper saying you know we don't have enough people to come and cover an event because we've cut all of our reporters from you know not having all the radio stations a lot of the re a local radio stations closing and so we one of our our sister or i migrant justice we have worked a lot with them to be producing our own radio and to be reporting on our our own on our struggles and recognizing that there is a story of the place so the story of how where and how are suffering and how are struggling but we also need to tell the story of the fight and how we are organizing and how we are standing up for our communities and so we produce a put people first radio you know about once or twice a month and it's also a great leadership development opportunity so far to take the time to talk about what are the stories that are already out there that we're up against and what is our story and how how is our story trying to transform that that overall story so yeah it's been really great and exciting and we have to keep expanding and doing more that  totally kick ass and really rock but i want to talk about the work that you're doing in the much larger national contacts and that's this media justice movement and so ya'll are here with a big bigger delegation from the media action grassroots network which is courted by this that are for media justice tell us about magna media justice and you know this network of people that are doing similar work to what you're doing all over the country yeah  so we're we're here with the media action grassroots network and and magnet it's a project house out of the center for media justice but collaboratively put together with anchors and members throughout the country  and those anchors are members are organizations that are based in everyday struggles at the intersections of social justice from reproductive justice to workers rights to housing rights to community development and across those different issues really seeing the important role that media justice and making sure that we have adjust media policy plays and shaping all of these different struggles that we're facing and so the media action grassroots network has has led ensure that prisoners are able to contact their families and vice versa and not face exorbitant costs and rates for making those phone calls from telecom companies that are just profiting off of that situation and really building a new generation leaders in this media justice movement that are grounded and coming from communities to be able to define the media policy that we need i want to thank you so much for being on our show telling us about the great work that you do hopefully you guys will continue storytelling fighting the good fight tell everybody when the workshop is tomorrow and how they can find out more information about the organizations you represent yeah so if you're here in denver or you're checking out the live stream online we're going to be getting together nine am tomorrow storytelling as social change workshop we're joined by matt howar i am so thrilled to be here in the studios of philly it's like a dream come true i know how hard people in philadelphia worked and worked to make public access happen and it wasn't easy and it took a long time but looking around at this wonderful space and the kinds of activities that have been going on here i am so happy that this is happening to be able to amplify community voice to be able to amplify the creative spirit comes first and foremost through public television that outlet that a vantage has not allowed in commercial television the training the socialization the networking that takes place and a public access studio does not take place any where else this this studio really shows the importance of freedom and the importance of the fact that people if they struggle they can really win and as frederick douglass said power can see it's not being without a struggle and struggle has really brought a lot and i'm so i can't tell you how relieved i am i really makes who you are i got very emotional here i because i know so many people who work so hard and and had so much patience and so much dedication to really make this happen and i thank you for fulfilling that those dreams that your dreams and my dream guys welcome back to the do it yourself community media special i'm enough to marry a greater and we're broadcasting live from the national conference on media reform here in denver colorado i have with me two more exciting an awesome g show thank you for having us so if you guys could just share your microphone only ask questions that way the people are tuning in can hear both of you so i take i'll go first to you your with the campaign for prison the phone justice and so some stuff is going down right now at the f c c there's been some developments after a really long fight you know to get reduced prices for families who are receiving phone calls from incarcerated individuals tell us about the campaign what the actionable items are and what your campaign seeks to change yes well i'm excited to be a part of the campaign just for a little background about me i'm a law professor from minnesota i teach in the community justice project which is a civil rights clinic so we work on a number of criminal justice and juvenile justice issues so in being a part of the campaign for prison phone justice this is been an exciting opportunity to shed light on a very important issue to look at the high cost of prison phone calls which basically creates a barrier for family and communities members to stay in contact with their loved ones who are incarcerated so when asked on just a simple sentence in the state of minnesota a fifteen minute phone call a collect call cost about thousand dollars and thirty cents and i don't know for you but for me that would be very costly to remain in contact if i had incarcerated loved one so one of the things that we worked on is helping to raise awareness and mobilize community members to write in to the f about this very issue how are they impacted what are some of the issues and how we can help to ensure that the cost of prison phone calls are reasonable so families can remain in contact and when i say families i want to talk about just one particular group it's children in the state of minnesota we have over fifteen thousand children who have been incarcerated parent so as we look at this in a practical sense that means that it's very difficult for them to remain in contact and you may say then well they can go visit their parents but on the average most people are incarcerated about one hundred miles away from home so it definitely creates a barrier to be able to go in and see your loved ones and remain in contact so phone calls are a vital aspect of being able to say hi being able to check in and see about your loved ones so our work has been raising awareness not only in our state but nationwide with hopes to bring forth reform that will ensure that there are reasonable cost for phone calls and that we can make sure that phone calls are assessable means and tools for community members to remain in contact that's really great and something that really like impacts families who are the people who are the offenders you know instead it seems really unfair or that folks who you know have nothing to do with the law or the legal system are  bearing the brunt of this cost and like not being able to bribe the support that people need to be able to get through a thousand tents and so tell us what's going on at the f c c right now what kinds of developments have happened in this campaign and what can we hopefully look forward to with some changes that there are proposing the f c c and december open up a period for public comment so basically that's an opportunity for community members to write in and talk about not only what are the challenges but what reform should look like so our clinic actually wrote in and talked about the fact that maintaining reasonable costs for prison phone calls would help to ensure not only that families can remain in contact but also it helps to reduce recidivism so it's just a practical good practice overall for the benefit of all community members because we have phone and based upon studies it shows that those who are able to remain in contact with their loved ones who are incarcerated are able to have a successful reintegration back into their communities and we know this is especially important when over ninety five percent of those who are incarcerated today will be returning home at some point so one of the things that we did was we wrote in and we said ok based upon the themes of campaign is that person found justice reform will help to promote safe communities by reducing recidivism and offering successful opportunities to reintegrate into society and to also build strong families so that's been the theme and mantra of the campaign and articulating that message thank you very worthy cause we hope that we can make more progress with this and you know stay up today as the further developments unfold but now i want to go to  doing work out of california you are working with latino population and doing a lot of digital story tallying which is connected all these other movements because if we can't tell the story of how these unfair practices and laws platform is based out of open source software and it's really we created something that's accessible for everybody that's being the keyword accessibility right we we know that there's a huge digital divide in the immigrant community right but something that we found out is that most of the workers that we work with they have phones right so what can they tell the story using what they already have and it's through the phone so they can send a picture and worse through an m m s so they can take a picture audio or video as well and they can tell themselves their stories right so for the first time it's just so great to know that there are day laborers are bloggers right household workers that using it as an organizing tool for example to be what a household worker bill of rights we have if for example household workers are telling their stories and they're telling the world hey they treat they treat the dog better than they treat me right they don't give me enough rest they owe me money right there and so do you sing us in organizing to us well and that's an example of the stories are coming out of los angeles and i think it's really important you know being a latina woman to have this network  dialogue in spanish where people could communicate and their own languages because so much of the media here in the united states is in english you know even though we have a large spanish speaking population so it's really great to hear that your organiz people to speak in their own language and their own voice to address the issues that affect their community so before we wrap up i'd really love to tell people how they could get more information about your two campaigns and how they can maybe donate money get involved volunteer we're trying to recruit more people for all of these causes so tell us how people can learn more about the campaign for prison phone justice you can go online to prison phone justice dot org and you can sign up to become a champion for the issue you can take action you can sign on to the f c c petition for change and more importantly you can spread the word because when i first heard about prison from justice i said what is that but now that i see that it's an industry in the sense of as i talked about the high cost the reason for the high cost is because of the commissions or kickbacks there are paid to the state department of corrections or county jails when they make private contracts than with just a handful of private phone companies so as we look at this i think in the simple sense of the action i'd like for you to take it's just spread the word about prison so justice and urge the f c c to help set reasonable costs to place a cap on those costs so we can ensure that families can remain in contact and people can have a smooth transition back their into their community so i think it's a human rights and human dignity issue related to communication thanks that's how we can get more information about the institute for education of southern california and your project this yes for more information people can go to that we do with all our g and to check out the stories that i've been talking about please feel free to go to  colorado who came in to the studios earlier today to sing the song to their governor about the fracking that's going on here in colorado so check out the video and when we come back we'll have some more awesome guests from the national conference on media  hey welcome back to the do it yourself community media special live national conference on media before here and denver i've enough of maria greenberg your host i hope you enjoyed that last song by the raging grannies they are super sweet they came in here anything a song and we hope that you'll learn more about their organization and the work they do to fight fracking here in colorado but now i have two more really great guests just keep coming in from all over the conference we have betty you in the center of media justice and magnet and we also have matt howard from iraq veterans against the war welcome thanks for joining us here today so tomorrow you are really great panel coming up so betty tell us a little bit about the panel magnae and all the big crew people that you all have here doing really great stuff at the conference ok well i want to plug the storytelling strategy session that i'm moderating that matt is on and i think two of your other guest earlier talked about it megan in bryan so they're both also speaking on it it's called storytelling strategies for social change and i sing governor square room ten from nine to ten thirty tomorrow in the morning and know some people be partying but they can hopefully get up and come to a really good session on the yeah it's a really good workshop and basically folks are going to be talking about how they view social media and video and cultural strategies in general for going to using and how they integrated it into into their work and i think we're going to talk a lot about you know how you know we look at political change that we have to see that cultural change and changing the hearts and minds of the way for thinking and to really win over  folks culture and arts in the media is really interval to that so i think that we're going to have a really really really great panel discussion it's really participatory is going to be really interactive with the participants who come and we want to hear from them as well because we know there's a lot a wealth of knowledge and experience of the there's a lot of power here at this conference and we want to hear from folks so it's really going to be a conversation a dialogue and not just a one way conversation and then also the the final person would be a landrieu who's from highlander center who you'll hear from later i know who'll be also be featured on that panel  action grassroots network we are i think folks have talked about it we had a bunch of our members on so far since five thirty and we're a local to local apic advocacy network of grassroots cultural arts media service organizations and we're really multi sector i think what makes us really unique as a network is that we have folks who are coming from all aspects of movement building work so folks who are using arts and culture to social change folks who are doing immigrant rights housing labor anti war folks i mean that we have a lot of folks who are coming together but understand the need to fight for corporate media accountability the need to fight you know the under representation of our issues in the corporate media but not just to fight back like be reactive but we also have to create our own stories and create all media and that we also have to own our own media infrastructure and so groups like previous radio project who are advocating for groups to own their own radio  stations public access television stations like philly cam in denver open media here you know advocating for groups to own their own committee broadband networks that's all part of what magnus mission is about seeing media justice not just about content but it's about controlling the pipeline and infrastructure over the country from magnet and from the campaign for prison for justice and yeah so i'll plug t shirt later maybe i don't i don't want to so matt that is really really great work and one of my favorite things about being involved with you know the organization on the network is knowing what's going on in different parts of the country and hearing the work that all the people are doing in all these different sectors and so not only are we creating media creating network but we're also like informing each other right about we launched the red seal initiative on the twenty this the nineteenth march nineteenth which is the tenth anniversary of the invasion of iraq basically we've been working with iraqi human rights groups the organization of women's freedom in iraq and the federation of workers councils and unions in iraq and they're both very much groused grassroots organizing groups that are doing important work on the ground and we're working with them in the center for constitutional rights to basically bring  happened on the parts of iraqis and also for u s veterans and how the u s has really accountable for that and not only that they need to acknowledge that but also that they need to pay reparations to the folks inside of iraq and need to find you know actually need to be caring for veterans and iraqis in ways that they obviously haven't done so far and you know i think part of the idea of launching this campaign is we know that you know folks in iraq really the stories of what's happened inside of there have been you know documenting of birth defects in certain areas and how they skyrocketed after the u s military came in so we're really trying to link the way that whole file ations of happened on both sides and really point the finger at the u s and using an international legal framework because for ten years groups like the center for constitutional rights have been trying to domestic legal strategy and have got shut down time and time again and by having the most to impacted communities we think there's something significant there well it's interesting that you talk about this campaign it's really exciting but interesting because this media reform movement and free press and a lot of the important work that democracy now did came as a response to the invasion and the war in iraq and the lack of media coverage that was going on at that time and so it's kind of hard to believe you know ten years later we're still fighting to have these stories and these voices heard and the truth told to the people out here so before we wrap up and go to the i just want to also just say that that the issues that we also organize around right the campaign for prison phone justice keeping in the internet open protection on mobile phones i mean these are all day to day issues that affect you know people of color low income folks you know we're seeing that now in the south in rural areas phone companies are actually trying to cut out cut down landlines because they're like oh everyone has a cell phone right but that's actually not true and forty percent of rural america still lack access to the internet and native reservations it's fifty percent you know folks lack access to the internet so the digital divide is still real and so i just want to say that what we do is that we can really connect it to to the issues on the ground that you know like we need you know these are basic human rights and communication right so that we need access to these communication platforms for a day to day living you know and so that's i just wanted to really kind of emphasize that so we really want folks to kind of join magnet and their website is them if you're here at our booth at the c m j center for media justice booth all the funds go to the media action grassroots fund which goes right back out to the members so c m g actually doesn't hold on to the funds thank you so much betty and that tell people how they can find out more about iraq veteran work and for joining us on the do it yourself community media special up next we have another interview with aggie ebrahimi as who is with the national alliance for media arts and culture so we'll take a look at that video and we'll come back with more awesome guests from the national conference on media reform i'm an s maria and we'll be right back national nonprofit intermediary that aims to fortify and foster the field of independent media arts where membership organization and our members consist of nonprofit media orthogonal stations youth media organizations independent media professionals independent filmmakers cable access stations like philly cam actually is a trusted valued member and we have students as well and affiliate members and we aim to work together with our members to nurture the field of independent media arts and also create systems and structures that will promote creative practice yeah and if you haven't checked out any not this website it's really really awesome and you often feature some filmmakers and the part of the constituents that you represent that they get to blow in time to talk about the work that they do is that right yeah that's absolutely right you know on the head we really aim to highlight the work that our members are doing and that also is just happening in the field because  we work a lot in washington and so we want the funders that we speak to and the organizations and the officials to know what's happening in the media are some kind of impact media professionals are having in society and education and work those levels that's where some of the struggles that they're facing are at the media reform conference right so we're united and mainstream media isn't really supporting the work of independent artists and media makers tell us what are some of the biggest issues that your constituency struggles with and how do you advocate for them yeah absolutely some of the issues we're facing right now are things like funding how do you keep securing funding and becoming is being a sustainable nonprofit organization a climate that's changing and federal dollars are shrinking and foundations bring pull in money and they pull out money corporations bring in money and pull out money so how can nonprofits adapt to this ever changing climate technology changes of course how do you change your communications needs to meet new technologies reach new constituencies local nonprofits are looking to go national and how do you build that connective tissue to connect international audiences and to other non profits and we really help to help help non profits think through that in terms of filmmaking we right now some of the big trends are in transmedia cross platform storytelling so we recently hosted a google hangout inquiring about what are the what are the kind of steps you need to take to tell a multi platform story why should you do it should you do it kind of stories require that a lot of filmmakers right now when they look for funding they have to think about issues of audience engagement and impact so we're hosting a blog salon and we just launched a tumbler to talk about engagement in the media arts in the visual arts as well what does this mean this one it's a very loaded term what does it mean for artists how do we how do we create engagement what are models of engagement that we think are are viable and sustainable yet when i was at that need not conference  september minneapolis there was lots of talk about community you know collaboration and so it's really nice to see those things continued at this particular conference right now so i just want to give a plug for some of your community media and a lot of our other partners organizations we're hosting a weapon are with women make movies on how to navigate the international film festival circuit it's really affordable and it's for independent filmmakers to just know how to best market their films when they go to film festival this summer and we're also always open to ideas if there are things that people want to talk about and the they just don't know how to do it on they can come to us and will build the network will build the infrastructure to host those conversations man i am glad that many macs around have so many create a little bit about the work that you're doing the justice organizations and media reform work and maybe your thoughts on them in the direction that this movement needs to go in the next couple years and order to affect change i so my name's elaine tree again and the highlander center supports grassroots organizations and community leaders in thirteen southern states and appalachia and we work across the country in the world in for us it was really important we got involved in media justice in in a link through all the issues we work on and it's a baseline right so if you think about housing you think about britain transportation you think about prisons the thing about all the issues that are focused to deal with on a daily basis this is one of the key ones right so if you don't have broadband you can't get a job because you can apply for jobs online like they're all those things that are just basic and so one thing we've been trying to do is to help think if culture organizing is where it's at right now culture is how we move throughout our day and it's the humanity of all of us how does media show us right how are the how are we represent in the media not only is negative morally as backward slow stupid you barely find positive representations from the south and less it's like some old school representation from back in the day during slavery or civil rights there's nothing now and so one reason why we're involved is this they actually were here now we're not just backwards people who were all in the red states were actually doing positive work and we need our voices amplified and i think also for a lot of organizers you know they get so caught up in talking to people and trying to change policy and meet with lawmakers that they really forget to use media two and was really active in the labor movement civil rights movement all movements and what we know is that the civil rights movement changed because of media right like every movement is change by saying stuff on screens and having radio and listening things and knowing that the mass rally is going to happen through the radio and the same is true today right so when you radio stations are really important to getting people to know here's what's happening in my local community here's how i can be involved in facebook is how now i don't have to do anything for trying to get people to my stuff they descended on off themselves and they do recruitment for me i have to do nothing at this point and so media is so essential is passed because i live in a place where people are isolated right you have to go across mountains to get to each other and media is the one way that people can communicate across isolated areas which is why the broadband fight is so important which is why the prison phone campaign is so important because those are the platforms that people are able to have health in are able to communicate and organize for action well thank you so much for sharing you know the work that you do and you know keep up the good work i think we have a long way to go as far as like pushing your media reform and changing this course around media justice which is a much more i don't know targeted effort to change the media beyond policy from about more about access representation and equity and have you know people you know like ourselves be able to be the media just like we are right now and i would just say it's actually beyond that because media jess is actually about changing the entire narrative and actually having your culture be the linchpin and so it's even passed the policies about what is our cultural practices and how we completely represent it and how are we controlling and owning and distributing completely yet preserving our culture and our language and for a lot of us especially like indigenous people are you know their their very own identity and existence so i totally agree with you and thank you so much the importance of building relationships building coalitions and really kind of you know banding together to fight the man yeah i mean i got to fight the man i thought of how to fight them and the women you i mean i've been working as as a media activist for private fifteen years now something like that and i think one of the things we always struggle with this how to how to tie the issues together so prison phone justice and broadband and access to community media how all those things tie together that's really difficult it's an increasingly complicated landscape and i think one of the reason i really like magnet and i've been just thrilled to be a part of that network is they literally try and take all these different issues and bridge people together and build coalitions around social justice and media just just to try and actually create real change free press is great i love free press i've been to every free press conference one of the challenges though is we all come and talk about these issues and then we have a hard time coming together and actually making action happen from them and so magnetics been really good at building coalitions building partners getting people together and really coming up with solid platform solid action plans and that's what this movement needs that's what any movement needs are and you can't do it by yourself so i'm always thrilled when magnet has things and i get to go where i get invited and where i'm on their list serv or whatever and that's the kind of work i think we need to continue doing because we come here and with i mean there's so many different issues from so many different places and so many different people working at them at different ways but connecting those people and pulling them together so that we can fight the man is hard it's hard work it is hard work and i think that one of the things that i like most enjoy about the conference is us feeling of solidarity you know because organizing is hard policy work it's hard raising money when there's no money it's hard you know i mean you have other people that are doing this work why it's going to be ok we're in this together you know i feel energized when i leave and i feel it's my hope that there's good people all over the country doing this work and who haven't given up and that are finding new ways to kind of attack the b s and so this is really great to connect with people like you and yeah and chad and all of the many great people that we've seen here in denver i just look for the next opportunity we get to talk to each other said you know and just have a good time because you know at the end of the day i think we do this because we're passionate and it's kind of fun and occasionally we win right and so it's good to share that with other people and so i just also want to let people know how they can connect with the organizations and find out more information about the work that you're doing and so they can get involved tell people how they can get connected to the highlanders up here so  on out awesome and fear in the twin cities or interested in the work that we're doing with technology education st paul neighborhood network as s p n n o r g thank you so much to two of you and thank for all of you for watching and if you want to keep the conversation  so make sure you connect with all the great people here if not in person but check out all their websites for the do it yourself community media special i'm vanessa maria graber thanks again for tuning in live to our show for the national