Grassroots Perspectives on Media Justice Organizing: Radical History Review Interviews Betty Yu, Todd Wolfson, and Rusita Avila

In “Grassroots Perspectives on Media Justice Organizing,” community organizers and media justice advocates Rusita Avila (Media Literacy Project), Todd Wolfson (Media Mobilizing Project), and Betty Yu (Center for Media Justice) discuss the meaning of “media justice” as it relates to low-income communities, people of color, immigrants, and other disenfranchised communities and sections of American society. Avila, Wolfson, and Yu describe some of the challenges faced by the disenfranchised with regard to communication and media to argue that an ability to access, generate, and share information is a basic human right. They argue that in recent years the campaign for media justice has been adopted by many organizations and communities that are engaged in social justice struggles, as they recognize that their work is intertwined with issues of media justice. Illustrating their argument with examples, such as the labor organizing work behind a radio show launched by Philadelphia cab drivers and the communications policy work of the national Campaign for Prison Phone Justice, the interviewees argue that media policy must meet the needs of communities — and control of the communication infrastructure must be in the hands of the people. With regard to the kinds of media platforms that can be best used to advance social justice, the interviewees note that digital media is tremendously important, but other preexisting media platforms, such as low-power FM radio and community access TV, are still equally relevant.