Journalism News, JTM News

Indymedia and News Challenge Kerfuffle

Submitted by Steve Hanson on Mon, 12/01/2008 – 1:16pm

I ran across this interesting article today, which outlines some of the tension that naturally exists between some new media outlets and funding from more traditional-media-related benefactors.

Indymedia refuses to be co-opted by the Knight Foundation


A $200,000 grant proposal, submitted by a group of Indymedia volunteers
to the Knight News Challenge contest, has been blocked by other IMCs
and subsequently dropped due to the abiding ethos that Indymedia is a
counter to corporate, money-fiaxted media entities. The grant
application to the Knight Foundation was to fund technical development
work for Independent Media Centres (IMCs), also known as Indymedia, and
has caused much controversy within the global network. The debate has
also encapsulated, once again, the thorny issue of how to sustain
radical projects without compromising that radicalism by accepting
tainted money.