Santa Barbara Indymedia

The Santa Barbara Independent Media Center (SB-IMC) is an autonomous, community-based collective committed to using media production and distribution as a tool for promoting social, environmental and economic justice. By providing the training and the channels, SB-IMC creates opportunities for individuals and groups who are misrepresented in the mainstream media to report on the issues they face within the community. Through our affiliation with the IMC network, we seek to draw connections between local and global struggles. We generate alternatives to the current profit-based and state-dominated media and to contribute to the development of an equitable and sustainable society.

Objectives:

• To encourage, facilitate, and support the creation of independent news gathering and reporting.
• To offer training in news reporting, internet and media skills.
• To encourage all people to view themselves as news makers, and to look for news sources and inspiration within their daily lives.
• To cover local events that are ignored or poorly covered by corporate media.
• To provide edited audio, video, and print stories of the above on the internet for independent media outlets and the general public.
• To facilitate networking and coordination for the coverage of local events as well as share information and announcements about events of interest to the Santa Barbara social justice community.
• To build an inclusive and representative community through bilingual communication
• To provide links to alternative media, activist, and research groups.
• To encourage a world where globalization is not about homogeneity and exploitation, but rather, about diversity and cooperation.

Principles of Unity:

• We support local, regional and global struggles against exploitation and oppression.
• We strive to provide an information infrastructure for people who do not have access to the airwaves, tools and resources of corporate media. This includes audio, video, photography, internet distribution and any other communication media.
• SB-IMC is committed to providing open access for all community members, regardless of their technical or financial standing, and to fair and accurate reporting.
• SB-IMC involves volunteer participants organized along anti-authoritarian principles of open and transparent decision-making processes, including open public meetings; consensus-based decision making; and the elimination of hierarchies.
• SB-IMC participants agree to act in a manner that prohibits endangerment, intimidation, or physical harm to any member of the group.
• Members of the SB-IMC collective shall not discriminate against others based on race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, size, or physical ability.