On June 6, Democracy Now host Amy Goodman interviewed Adrienne Maree Brown of the Ruckus Society about media justice, election protection, and the issue of race in the 2008 election. The interview coincided with the opening of the National Conference for Media Reform, held in Minneapolis on June 6-8.

During the conversation Ms. Brown mentioned that the term “media justice” was coined at a meeting at Highlander that had a profound effect on the media reform movement.

ADRIENNE MAREE BROWN: The term was coined five years ago at the Highlander Center in Tennessee.

AMY GOODMAN: Where Rosa Parks trained before she sat down on the bus?

ADRIENNE MAREE BROWN: Where Rosa Parks trained, where Martin Luther King was. I mean, there’s so many great legends that were trained there. And, you know, sitting up on that hill, you know, sitting around in the little rocking chairs, that term was developed. And it was really the idea of not just media reform, not just changing exactly what it is, but really striving towards justice for communities through media.

The meeting that Adrienne Brown refers to here is the Media Justice Gathering that Highlander hosted in August 2002, which brought together media advocates, activists, and organizers from across the country to analyze the political and technological landscape and develop new organizing strategies for the media reform movement. A report from the gathering is available here.

You can listen to Amy Goodman’s interview with Adrienne Maree Brown and read the transcript of their conversation here.

—-

The Southern Energy Network’s blog entry about the National Conference for Media Reform also mentions that the framework for media justice was “first developed” at Highlander. You can read the blog entry here.