Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #mediareform

I wonder how many people who voted Conservative in 2015 to avoid "chaos with Ed Miliband" still think that the problem with British politics is that someone else is being manipulated.

I wonder how many people who couldn't bring themselves to vote for the Labour Party under Corbyn because it was structurally racist still think the problem with the British politics is that someone else is being manipulated.

The UK's system of political communications leaves *us all* intensely vulnerable to manipulation by well-funded and self-serving actors. They dominate political parties and media operations. They understand the stakes and they are ruthless in protecting their privileges.

Labour's consultation on the manifesto ends today at noon. If #mediareform is an important issue to you, please consider contributing - labour.org.uk/manifesto-2019/

This @NewSocialistUK article by @ta_mills, @leowatkins91 and me sets out a tripartite programme for real change in our system of communications. newsocialist.org.uk/building-socia…

I am not saying it is the only way to go, but it is a better way than the current one, in which most of us, most of the time, are actively and skilfully made strangers from ourselves, each other, and the world.

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@arusbridger

About six years ago in @arusbridger's office I pleaded with him to advocate for the democratisation editorial power, through the public control of public subsidies for journalism. Today he is worrying about the collapse of trust in the news media ... theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

But he *still* won't even say what the problem is. He will only gesture at the 'something' that is stopping the 'foot soldiers' of journalism from doing the job they want to do.

The problem is oligarchic control of editorial decision-making, which dovetails with oligarchy in politics and the economy. And absent any other suggestions, the solution to this can only be thorough-going #mediareform, as outlined here. newsocialist.org.uk/building-socia…

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@poltheoryother

Yesterday I listened to two excellent podcasts from @poltheoryother - an interview with @meadwaj on the current political situation in the UK, the strategies of the various players and the need to agitate beyond the confines of Westminster. soundcloud.com/poltheoryother…

@LidaMaxwell

And an interview with @LidaMaxwell about her book Insurgent Truth, about Chelsea Manning and the politics of whistleblowing.
soundcloud.com/poltheoryother…

@poltheoryother

(@poltheoryother's presenter/producer, @alexdoherty7, is currently doing more, and better, public service media than any number of, ahem, better resourced operations. We should all really chip in until such time as a pro-democracy govt in the UK secures #mediareform)

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@allthebestcast

Always a joy to hear from the @allthebestcast team. @maxshanly makes the point this week that constitutional change might be the only way out of the Brexit fiasco. soundcloud.com/novaramedia/al…

We *could* suspend Article 50 and launch a constitutional convention on the Irish model, running for 2 or 3 years. EU membership would be debated in the context of deepening political, economic and cultural democracy across the UK.

We can devise a confederal approach to the nations, toothy local and regional democracy in England, an end to the Oxbridge chumocracy, #mediareform, a public banking system, land reform - against a background of reinvestment outside of the financialised core.

@evgenymorozov

Just read @evgenymorozov's piece for @NewLeftReview on socialism and the calculation debate. Lots to agree with. Non-market planning does not have to take place at an all-knowing centre. It can be a function of widespread, egalitarian civic deliberation.
newleftreview.org/issues/II116/a…

It's important to grasp the implications of this. Establishing an economic system that prioritises social need over the profit motive entails a programme of constitutional reform - ultimately it requires a new state form, in which civic participation is much more extensive.

The current order is supported by a vast effort of ideological persuasion through advertising, journalism, entertainment etc. - a legitimating background that sustains what exists and heads off alternatives. We are left looking for bargains on a burning planet.

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'Freedom through social knowledge is the path of the human race.' -Michael Polanyi. This is why the road to socialism runs through the reformation of the systems of communication. What he called 'socialism at its highest stage' is only possible in an 'economy with overview'.

Each of us must be able to understand how we fit into the production-consumption process, so that we can assert effective control over what we are morally responsible for. At the moment we are offered a choice of reluctant, hand-wringing complicity and the thrills of nihilism.

'Freedom through social knowledge can never mean a specific state of affairs; rather, it is a programme, a goal which is constantly re-establishing itself.' The first task of socialism is to make social knowledge possible, to establish its institutional conditions.

It is core to the self-understanding of national (British) journalists that politics happens in Westminster and is then communicated to the public by print and broadcast media. If it isn't part of the Westminster agenda, it isn't politics.

I remember one senior BBC correspondent was asked at a media conference what the BBC was doing to promote political discussion *between* voters and they found the question visibly baffling - it just didn't qualify as a relevant question to ask.

We need to move away from this, and understand that in a democracy political speech takes place first and last among and between citizens. Right now a coalition of elected representatives, journalists and private wealth shape public speech in ways that are opaque and arbitary.

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@poltheoryother

icymi This week's @poltheoryother is an interview with me about constitutional reform, democratic reason and the revival of assembly.
soundcloud.com/poltheoryother…

@DemocracyCollab

The conversation was prompted by a long piece on constitutional reform for @DemocracyCollab's @TheNextSystem Project.
thenextsystem.org/learn/stories/…

@NewSocialistUK

You can find the same piece on @NewSocialistUK - with a lovely picture of Parliament on fire -
newsocialist.org.uk/the-constituti…

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@hettieveronica

The #localjustice conference kicks off with @hettieveronica talking about the limits of representative systems and theoretical and practical efforts to move beyond them, from Hannah Arendt to Barcelona en comu via Bookchin and Athens.

The difficulty of distinguishing between political and technical issues, which Arendt struggled with, is of core importance in the #mediareform agenda.

@nmcinroy

Now @nmcinroy is outlining the 4 "Preston principles".

@novaramedia

People losing their minds about the @novaramedia fundraiser don't seem to have any idea how the media marketplace works. Left-wing media struggle not because they are unpopular with audiences but because they are unpopular with advertisers ...

... venture capitalists (clue's in the name), & with those who control state and corporate subsidies. We don't pay full price for most of what we see and hear & read. Almost all of it dismisses or ignores the kinds of change thought necessary and desirable by the left.

If someone is arguing for a radical redistribution of power in favour of popular constituencies, they will be arguing in an environment that is intensely hostile to them - because it is dominated by those who own and benefit from massive amounts of power.

https://twitter.com/Chr1sR0berts/status/1052329641183248384

There was good take-up of the Media Democracy pamphlet - more than 30 copies sold to an audience of perhaps 100. I have seen the future of political education, and some of it looks a lot like the past ..

https://twitter.com/Chr1sR0berts/status/1052329641183248384

Selling a book for £10 or more is hard. A pamphlet for a pound is easy. You have to be a little shameless, and there is a certain amount of English reserve to get over. But if ideas are worth sharing, they can be made to pay for their own promotion.

Coming away from last night's event, there's a sense that the #mediareform agenda dovetails closely with Labour's ambitions to create a more co-operative and democratic public sector. And this can be brought into a useful dialogue with Green thinking about reviving the commons.

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