Media Reform Conference Scholarship Application

2003 September 4, a Thursday

I asked for the $50 (student/low-income) fee to be waived and $40 in transportation assistance.

I desire a diverse media with independent companies and democratic institutions, but my passion extends to an explicit redefinition of "news" as what matters for people's lives.  I see clear, public standards of reporting, in some cases far different from those taught in journalism school, as being able to both help existing news sources improve and, more importantly, allow groups to openly seek to educate people and be credible at the same time.

I intend to spend my life in combining reporting and collective power to make the world better.  I've completed a Journalism degree at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (but not quite graduated due to a second major in economics); I helped recreate my high school paper and wrote for (and argued with) my college paper; and I have worked at the newspaper company (owned by the Boston Herald) that owns every town paper in my area.

My media activism has been limited to individual actions such as an unsolicited donation to the Media Education Foundation (they called to ask what [movie] it was for) and signing petitions on-line, including contributing an e-mail to the millions the FCC received opposing increases in concentration of ownership.

My goal is to help bring about an alternative mass media complementary to a mass movement for a better world.  I look forward to participating in this conference.