"The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth. We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity."
History
"The Independent Media Center (www.indymedia.org), was established by various independent and alternative media organizations and activists in 1999 for the purpose of providing grassroots coverage of the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests in Seattle. The center acted as a clearinghouse of information for journalists, and provided up-to-the-minute reports, photos, audio and video footage through its website. Using the collected footage, the Seattle Independent Media Center (seattle.indymedia.org) produced a series of five documentaries, uplinked every day to satellite and distributed throughout the United States to public access stations.
The center also produced its own newspaper, distributed throughout Seattle and to other cities via the internet, as well as hundreds of audio segments, transmitted through the web and Studio X, a 24-hour micro and internet radio station based in Seattle. The site, which uses a democratic open-publishing system, logged more than 2 million hits, and was featured on America Online, Yahoo, CNN, BBC Online, and numerous other sites. Through a decentralized and autonomous network, hundreds of media activists setup independent media centers in London, Canada, Mexico City, Prague, Belgium, France, and Italy over the next year. IMCs have since been established on every continent, with more to come."
https://www.indymedia.org/or/static/about.shtml (Accessed 9/11/2015).
I've used the site in the past to post news items or short films including:
Today, people are less likely to use, post and read features on Indymedia sites, probably due to the ease and reach of social media giants such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter...
There are still many 'radical', 'indy', film 'collectives active. Showing their films and stories via Vimeo, Youtube, Social Media and most importantly in Cinema's, Community halls...
We also see ‘channels’ / sites pop up around specific events or movements, for instance ‘Cop26 TV’:
COP26 TV
‘COP26.tv IS A LIVE-STREAMED NEWS AND INFORMATION CHANNEL OFFERING AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW TO MAINSTREAM MEDIA’
Which has live feeds from demonstrations in Glasgow, as well as other programmes and features such as ‘No Music on a Dead Planet’ - ‘Exclusive live performances and interviews with musicians fighting for climate justice, presented by Sam Lee, Duncan Bridgeman and others.’ Read more about ‘No Music on a Dead Planet’ and ‘Music Declares Emergency’ here
Bristol Radical Film Festival
Bristol Radical Film Festival 2021 took place at Trinity Centre, Bristol weekend of 23rd October. See Full programme: https://bit.ly/30Nn6CZ
We also briefly discussed the brave films:
New models for 'Indy Media' or 'Real Media' are developing including these promising outlets:
Bristol Cable
“Building a new model for media
The Cable is not your average newspaper.
In 2014, a small group of volunteers decided to do something about the failures of corporately-owned local media. Through organising and crowdfunding with local communities, the Bristol Cable was born.
Today the Cable is 100% owned by thousands of local people. We produce quality local journalism in print and online, free to access for all.
Together, we hold power to account through groundbreaking investigations, we campaign for change, and we amplify marginalised voices. We are rooted in local communities, but part of a global movement to reinvent local media.
We are not-for-profit, led by our members, and we don’t accept corporate advertising.
We’re trying to build an alternative to the unprecedented crisis in trust and viability faced by journalism.
This is only made possible by people like you, who chip in what they can to build a new model for media. You can join from as little as a few pounds a month.”