Responsible-media organizations
There are many organizations in North America whose mission is all or in part advocacy for a common-sense approach to the use of media. It’s neither possible nor particularly useful to list them all here, but a partial list can be a good starting point for identifying groups whose mission concerns the role of media in our society. Here is a handful whose resources we’re most familiar with.
Action Coalition for Media Education
Albuquerque, N.M.
Founded: 2002
Mission Statement: “We live in the most heavily mediated society in world history. Powerful media tools—print, radio, television, the Internet—can bring a rich diversity of information into every home and school. Yet just a few multinational corporations (Big Media) own much of the media that shape our 21st century culture. Independently-funded media literacy education plays a crucial role in challenging Big Media’s monopoly over our culture, helping to move the world to a more just, democratic and sustainable future. Free of any funding from Big Media, ACME is an emerging global coalition run by and for media educators, a network that champions a three-part mission: 1. Teaching media education knowledge and skills—through keynotes, workshops, trainings, and institutes—to children and adults so that they can become more critical media consumers and more active participants in our democracy; 2. Supporting media reform—No matter what one’s cause, media reform is crucial for the success of that cause, and since only those who are media-educated support media reform, media education must be a top priority for all citizens and activists; 3. Democratizing our media system through education and activism.”
Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhood
Boston
Founded: 2000
Mission: CCFC’s mission is to reclaim childhood from corporate marketers. A marketing-driven media culture sells children on behaviors and values driven by the need to promote profit rather than the public good. The commercialization of childhood is the link between many of the most serious problems facing children, and society, today. Childhood obesity, eating disorders, youth violence, sexualization, family stress, underage alcohol and tobacco use, rampant materialism, and the erosion of children’s creative play, are all exacerbated by advertising and marketing. When children adopt the values that dominate commercial culture—dependence on the things we buy for life satisfaction, a “me first” attitude, conformity, impulse buying, and unthinking brand loyalty—the health of democracy and sustainability of our planet are threatened. CCFC works for the rights of children to grow up—and the freedom for parents to raise them—without being undermined by commercial interests.
Commercial Alert
Washington, D.C.
Founded: 1989
Mission: Commercial Alert’s mission is to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy. Commercial Alert’s mission is to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy.
Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness (formerly TV-Turnoff Network)
Washington, D.C.
Founded: 1994
Mission: Center for Screen-Time Awareness provides information so people can live healthier lives in functional families in vibrant communities by taking control of the electronic media in their lives, not allowing it to control them.
Center for Successful Parenting
Indianapolis, Ind.
Founded: 1998
Mission: The Center for Successful Parenting, a 501(c)(3) organization, is committed to make the nation aware of the negative effects violent media has on children and to move the nation to action. America’s culture used to protect our children. Today they live in a society that glorifies violence. If they don’t become conditioned to commit violence themselves, they live in fear of violent acts by others. Our vision is to move parents, leaders in health, business, education, public safety and other disciplines to action in changing our culture to protect children from media violence in all formats. The Center for Successful Parenting research has empirically linked the following consequences to children viewing violence: impaired brain function, violent behavior, distorted perceptions of reality, and toleration of real-life aggressive behavior.
Media violence triggers aggressive behavior in those with aggressive tendencies.
National Institute on Media and the Family
Minneapolis, Minn.
Founded: 1996
Mission: Our children are in trouble. Kids from preschool through high school are laying building blocks for success in school and life. They include self-discipline, the ability to delay gratification, perseverance, imagination, and respect. Study after study shows that poor media habits undermine every single one of these building blocks. Instead of being given the tools and experiences they need to succeed, more and more kids are shaped by a media culture that promotes more, easy, fast, fun, violence and disrespect.
Noise Free America
Madison, Wis.
Founded: 2002
Mission: Noise Free America is dedicated to fighting noise pollution, especially from boom cars, car alarms, leaf blowers, and motorcycles. Take a look at our legislative agenda to reduce noise in our communities.
Noise Pollution Clearinghouse
Montpelier, Vt.
Founded: 2001
Mission: The mission of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse is to create more civil cities and more natural rural and wilderness areas by reducing noise pollution at the source. We have organized to raise awareness of noise pollution and help communities take back the commons from those acting like bullies. Our efforts include building a library of resources and tools concerning noise pollution, establishing links to other groups that have similar collections, establishing networks among local noise activists, assisting communities and activists who are working to reduce noise pollution, and monitoring and advocating for stronger noise controls.
Right to Quiet Society
Vancouver, B.C.
Founded: 2002
Mission: The Right to Quiet Society’s Objectives are to promote awareness of noise pollution and the dangers of noise to our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being; to work for noise reduction through better regulation and enforcement; to encourage responsible behavior regarding noise; to foster recognition of the right to quiet as a basic human right. We do not seek to create an absolutely quiet world. However, we want to see a world where quiet is a normal part of life and where it is possible to listen to the sounds of nature without the constant intrusion of machine noise and artificial stimuli. We want our homes to be havens from unwanted noise, and we ask that the soundscape of our public spaces, like the air we breathe, be respected. We insist on our right to listen—or not listen—to music and other programmed audio, or canned music, according to our own tastes and moods, without having other people’s choices forced on us wherever we go. And we want to be able to attend movies, listen to speeches, or go dancing without unreasonably loud amplification of noise. The Right to Quiet Society for Soundscape Awareness and Protection is a non-profit organization registered in 1982 under the British Columbia Society Act.
White Dot
Chicago and London
Founded: 1996
Mission: We’re against all TV. Why not? It’s not the good or bad programs you watch White Dot is campaigning against, but the activity of viewing—the hours you spend in front of the TV set, the things you will never do as a result, and a lifestyle that is as lifeless as it is heavily promoted. Television is an industry.… Right now the average viewing time in America and Britain is four hours a day—half the time you are not sleeping or working. That is a huge commitment of time, and a great deal of money depends on your continued loyalty. When your TV set is not telling you what to buy or what to think or how to feel, it is shouting at you: Stay tuned! Don’t touch that dial! Don’t miss this episode! In fact, White Dot and the television industry have this in common: we couldn’t care less what you see on TV. We talk about what happens on the screen, only because we know it is the battleground, but the prize is your supposedly “hum drum” real life and what you do there.
