SVA Impact!: Democracy Now!

SVA Impact!: Democracy Now!

We had the great privilege of watching a live broadcast of Democracy Now! and a tour of their beautiful space. So we met at 7:45am (this is 4:45am Vancouver time and I haven't adjusted yet so that's early!) and start our day with news about an anti-immigrant list targeting Latinos in Utah, how Arizona has become a laboratory not just for immigration policy, but a broad range of issues, global warming, and the melting Himalayan glaciers.

Democracy Now believes that 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.

And U.S. "public" media outlets accept funding from major corporations, as well as from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has attempted in the past to exert political and editorial influence on public news producers.

Democracy Now! is funded entirely through contributions from listeners, viewers, and foundations. They do not accept advertisers, corporate underwriting, or government funding. This allows them to maintain our independence.

We had the honour of having award-winning journalist Anne Goodman speak to us at length about Democracy Now and their future goals and endeavors for their organization including the constant need for increased awareness to independent news media and viewership.

Democracy Now!
Impact! Design for Social Change