CHARLEMONT — Advancing an equitable and just media system is the focus for Jessica González and the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Free Press. On Thursday, González took part in the virtual Charlemont Forum to discuss the impact of misinformation and hate on democracy and the media ecosystem.
Free Press, of which González is the co-CEO, advocates for net neutrality, affordable internet access, quality journalism and greater inclusion of people of color in media. Free Press was founded to prove that ordinary people can have a say in decisions that shape the media system.
As González reflected on how she came to be interested in news media, she noted her Mexican heritage and her background in the working class as “foundational” to her understanding of how public policy influences lives. She recalled watching family members flipping through the newspaper each morning, being fascinated by the idea of getting news from multiple perspectives, “and yet,” she said, “the news media largely ignored and misrepresented my community at the time.”
After college, she spent a few years as a public school teacher, until she went to law school and became interested in media and telecom policy. This past year in particular, she said, has brought the issues inherent to her work at Free Press into focus. She also pointed to the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency as an attack on the fourth estate mainly due to his embrace of disinformation.
“Disinformation as a strategy is deeply embedded in the United States history of oppression,” she explained. A “foundational tactic” to every mass atrocity in U.S. government history, she said, “you can look back and see how the facts were misconstrued and how populations were demonized and represented to legitimize their mistreatment,” from the instance of slavery, to Mexican repatriation, to Japanese internment.
Not only do we need strategies to disrupt this hate and disinformation — and the corporate media system that nurtures them — but the will to do so, González argued.
“It’s never been clearer that corporate incentive structures are literally killing us,” González said, a result of the corporate media system being good for business as opposed to being good for the people absorbing news.
Owning that media system has been the wealthy, powerful, white and male, González explained, allowing them to control public narratives in the form of stories and algorithms.
“We hear quite a bit from those powerful actors and surrogates, but less so from the people who are victimized by their policies and practices,” she continued, highlighting that large media outlets like Facebook make their services available to those looking to target and harass certain groups and individuals. It’s these outlets that can paint a picture of how unbalanced the concept of free speech has been, seeing as targeted hate and harassment impacts the right of people to live freely without the threat of violence.
González touched on the Five Pillars of Free Press, which she believes can help remedy these threats: universal and affordable internet access; pursuing a free press that holds the powerful accountable; corporate and platform accountability; pushing for media reparations; and opposing unwarranted surveillance.
Moderating the question and answer portion of the night was retired Greenfield Recorder reporter Richie Davis. Discussion revolved around several audience questions — the possibility of new business models that could allow reporters to retain their jobs, the social contract between people in an age without perceived consequences, and the need for a deeper investment in public media were among topics. Davis breached another topic, of the role of media in building community, which he said he feels has been significantly lost.
González suggested that public structures that allow for more independent local journalism would help propel interest and concern forward while giving reporters more space to understand how each individual community needs news and information.
“We’ve missed a lot of opportunities to understand each other,” González said, though storytelling as a way for people to understand each other must continue to be a critical step in moving forward to disrupt narratives exploited in mainstream media.
Thursday’s event marked the conclusion to the 2021 season of the Charlemont Forum. A recording is available at facebook.com/charlemontforum for the public to view.