FAAN Mail (Fostering Activism and Alternatives Now!)

Like media literacy? Check out our Media Talk Backs.  Interested in media activism? See the #WishiLearnedinHS effort in response to the ban of Ethnic Studies in Arizona.

“Moving from silence into speech is for the oppressed, the colonized, the exploited… a gesture of defiance that heals, that makes new life and new growth possible… ‘talking back’… is the expression of our movement from object to subject— the liberated voice.”   -bell hooks, Talking Back

The following ten principles inform our efforts:

1. Media both reflects and shapes society.
2. Media owners should be accountable for the media that they financially support.
3. Artists have the right and responsibility to make the music/art that is meaningful to them.
4. Artists should be aware of WHO their audience is and how they may interpret the message.
5. Artists can no longer pretend that their selling power is only limited to products like shoes, soda, etc. They sell ideas with their lyrics, videos and other forms of media.
6. Artists should be willing and have a responsibility to have conversations, good and bad, with audiences about what they produce.
7. Audiences are not passive. We interpret media texts based on our world view. Our interpretations shape the meaning of texts.

8. Audiences have a responsibility to question and think critically about the messages we consume.

9. Audiences have a voice.  We too can create our own messages.

10. Audiences are diverse. We are all races, multiple genders, at various places on the class hierarchy, and fall everywhere on the sexuality spectrum. We acknowledge that solidarity across these differences are important when addressing media representations.