Alternative Media

Media Watch

Media Watch was a longstanding VIPIRG working group in the 1990s. Media Watch worked to challenge inaccurate and distorted journalism; to help people critically analyze media reports; and to build support for alternative, community-driven forms of media. This and similar campaigns were successful in greatly increasing public awareness of the corporate agenda driving mainstream media, and the international Indymedia (Independent Media Centres) network created in the late 90s provided a practical way for people to have a viable alternative to mainstream reporting.

RadioPIRG

For nearly a decade, the RadioPIRG collective hosted a bi-weekly radio show on CFUV 101.9 FM, UVic’s radio station. The shows provided 30-60 minutes of interviews, coverage of social justice and environmental events, sound collages focusing on local and international politics and activism, and political music. In May 2005 the show stopped running.

Below is a list of RadioPIRG shows currently available online as podcasts or sound files.

Feb 21, 2002 – Oil Slick – Speeches by Guy Dauncey on climate change and Dale Marshall on the economics of lifting the moratorium on offshore oil drilling

Oct 31, 2001 – Canada and the arms trade – Speech by Stacy Chappell

Jul 21, 2001 – Launch of Victoria Indymedia – Sound collage

Jul 11, 2001 – Censorship of feminist hiphop in US – Interview with Sarah Jones

Jun 5, 2001 – We are the opposition! – Sound collage of the Liberal swear-in

Feb, 2001 – What is radical? – Speeches by Sharmeen Khan and Joshua Goldberg