Media in Resistance: 20 Years After Seattle

This event will consider the history of resistance media and explore future possibilities.

Twenty years ago, thousands of young activists filled the streets of downtown Seattle in a massive protest against the World Trade Organization. They stunned business and government elites around the world with their creative tactics and their use of independent media networks to spread their own anti-globalization message to the public, thus circumventing traditional corporate media gatekeepers. This conference will bring pioneers of the Seattle indymedia network, more recent activists from the democracy movements across the MENA region, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, and other movements, together with scholars committed to a more inclusive and democratic media system to analyze the lessons of the past 20 years of resistance media and the road ahead.

The event features a Friday evening curated screening of Showdown in Seattle: Five Days That Shook the WTO, followed by a panel discussion on the history and future of independent media, as well as a full day conference on Saturday engaging media makers, activists, and academics.