Even the media appears to be taking notice of our call, praising the You Matter movement "an active public dialogue on matters of public concern . . . CRITICAL to social reform."
The following is a reprint of the original media review of our April forum, 4.29.99, entitled:
P
ower of the People:G
roup Urges InvolvementBy J. Philip Bloomer
News-Gazette City Editor
April 29, 1999
Champaign, IL — You really do matter, and a group of communication specialists wants you to matter more.
This is not New Age pop psychology but a new grass-roots, common-folk, common-sense initiative to draw the public into the political process.
You Matter was formed by two University of Illinois doctoral students in the College of Communications. Thursday, they held their first public forum that drew about 40 people to the University YMCA.
The provocation, said organizer Trevor Potts, was the Monica Lewinski scandal that appeared more driven by a polarized political process and by the media than by anything the public thought. "One symptom of the last year was that the public was progressively kept out of [deliberations]," Potts said.
The organizers sparked a lively discussion among audience members about the role of the media, the disintegration of [public knowledge] because of popular media, and the public’s waning ability to effect change.
It is a discussion they hope to expand into living rooms everywhere.
"We don’t argue about issues anymore," said Jennifer Mercieca, another of the organizers. "What we’re trying to do is reinvigorate our democracy [from the bottom-up], [re]build our community. Too many of us are isolated in our own little media bubbles."
To have a true democracy that is representative of community opinion, the community has to be more involved than it has been, argued David Tewksbury, an assistant professor of speech communication.
Tewksbury argued that the Internet provides a platform for exchange that doesn’t exist with the mainstream media. Further, it is [potentially] an egalitarian medium, outside of the control of the media conglomerates.
The downside, he said, is that our computers can isolate us if we just hang out online and never leave our Star Trek chatrooms.
Whether it’s the Internet, a choice of newspapers, violent video games or movies or images from TV, Mercieca said, these are choices the public makes, and choices that can be redirected.
"All of us have an opinion that should count. We shouldn’t be [passively] dictated to," she said.
The organizers said that since kicking off their effort earlier this year, they’ve received sympathetic responses from throughout the community.
The response comes from people who are fed up with politics-as-usual and who believe a visible and active public dialogue on matters of public concern is critical to social reform.
"Make no mistake," said their newsletter, "this is a
social movement. And with this forum, we hope to show the regional and national media that not all Americans have given up hope, that collectively we do wish to reclaim our constitutional right to have our voices heard."