Lower Island News, Victoria’s independent democratic socialist print newspaper of 31 years
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The Changing Media Landscape
Lower Island News
Lower Island News (LIN) Forum 2015
MAY 30, 2015
When: Saturday, 2.30 to 4.30 pm
Where: Oaklands Community Centre
2827 Belmont Ave #1, Victoria, BC
There is no charge to attend and refreshments will be available
Lower Island News is pleased to welcome readers, supporters and friends and invite you to attend and enjoy a vibrant discussion with
LIN Speakers
Randall Garrison, MP, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca
Janine Bandcroft, former editor of the Street Newz and currently a programmer at CFUV
Chris Cook of Pacific Free Press and Gorilla Radio, Victoria
All three speakers have a close understanding of the difficulties in presenting and distributing news and views that seem to be absent from a monolithic, for profit, mainstream media industry, today.
The May 30 LIN Forum promises to shed some light on important issues and offers the chance to contribute your thoughts and questions.
The Forum will present a unique and interactive opportunity to understand the rapidly changing formats and delivery of news and information. Discussions will look at how print and electronic media content & distribution is controlled today, and what checks and balances exist to ensure that transparency and the public interest is served in the media industry.
Event Format
The format of the afternoon will be to have the 3 panelists speak and then to have break-out groups that will have a chance to debrief from what was heard and to define questions to bring back to the panelists. We will have a facilitator at each table. (Refreshments will be provided to have during discussion at the tables). The last half hour we will ask the panelists to take these questions.
Lower Island News readers will have noticed that the printed page, as a source of news and information, is in increasingly short supply – unless you’re looking for this week’s best deals on chicken wings or baked beans. Newspapers and magazines are being merged, abbreviated, and closed with almost daily regularity.
Lower Island News remains one of the few printed formats for news and opinion in the Greater Victoria region. Many other regional newspapers have ceased publication. In place of the printed page we are now frequently diverted to online publications. It seems such a convenient and progressive alternative – and the ink doesn’t come off on your fingers.
But is the internet a Trojan Horse in the world of information dissemination? The internet is fragile. It doesn’t work during power cuts. It’s monitored and spied on. Private access is increasingly expensive. Stories are often designed simply to support advertising and marketing. Themes are mirrored by a continually narrowing ownership profile.
The printed paper works during power cuts. It can be read in places the laptop can’t survive. It’s a physical entity in a way that the electronic ‘byte’ isn’t. In this uncertain climate of media delivery changes Lower Island News believes there are important lessons that can be learned by looking closely at how our current electronic media revolution is interacting with the printed newspaper.
Speaker Bios
Before being elected MP, Randall Garrison spent 20 years teaching government and politics at Camosun College. In his role as Official Opposition Critic for Public Safety, Randall has been the lead Party spokesperson on the shortcomings and threats of C-51. As Critic, Randall also co- chairs the Public Safety Committee of the House of Commons which undertook a clause by clause analysis of the Bill. In that Committee dozens of witnesses voiced concerns about the threats of C-51.
Janine Bandcroft has been an activist for peace, a healthy earth, and social justice for over two decades. In 2004 she founded the Victoria Street Newz (operating until 2014) which examined the root causes and consequences of poverty, and she hosts the Winds of Change radio program at CFUV.
Cook has produced and hosted more than 800 Gorilla Radio broad/webcasts from CFUV Radio at the University of Victoria, conducting more than 1600 live interviews, and covering scores of local events, demos and manifestions. The show has aired weekly since 1999, and featured people rarely heard in the state, or corporate presses; including: journalists, authors, jurists, educators, environmentalists, social justice activists, and even a few politicians. He’s also served as managing editor for PacificFreePress.com a web news aggregate site producing, since 2007, more than six thousand articles.
Check online for further updates, prior to May 30 or go to twitter hashtag #LowerIslandNews
*We welcome donations in support of LIN*
Lower Island News 
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