In 1981, a group of activists in New York City decided it was time to give the public an alternative to mainstream corporate media - Paper Tiger Television was born.
Thursday, Carlos Pareja, a video maker with the organization, will show PTTV videos and host a discussion at UNM. The event is sponsored by UNM's Partnership in Learning Through the Arts, Culture and the Environment program through a series called "Downpour Uproar."
Paper Tiger Television is a nonprofit, volunteer video collective that critiques issues of culture, media and politics, and strives to challenge the corporate control of mainstream media. PTTV videos can be seen on public access cable channels across the country and locally on Channel 27.
PTTV began with a live, weekly series that often featured scholars analyzing print media. Twenty years later, the organization has evolved into a group of media producers, educators and activists who create videos that challenge everything from Mexican politics to U.S. history textbooks.
According to the PTTV Web site, the group's goal is to provide viewers with a critical understanding of the communications industry in order to "step toward more equitable and democratic control of information resources."
PTTV covers grass-roots issues that often go unnoticed in media because those topics cannot achieve profit, Pareja said.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Pareja, a media educator with the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City, said he became interested in PTTV in the early '90s after seeing its Gulf Crisis TV Project on a local PBS affiliate.
"I chose to work with PTTV because of its open and participatory nature," Pareja said. "It was accessible and inviting and most importantly, it adhered closely, and still does, to my progressive political leanings."
One of Pareja's recent videos, "Hollywood Victory," is a satirical spoof that collages footage of President Bush's landing on the U.S.S. Lincoln aircraft carrier in May 2003 with selections from "Top Gun," the 1986 movie starring Tom Cruise.
"My negative views of this administration's disingenuous invasion of Iraq had much to do with my point of view in 'Hollywood Victory,'" Pareja said. "However, it was the lack of skepticism and blatant boosterism of the corporate press that provided the true impetus for the video. They did nothing to challenge this staged and false declaration that the Iraqi mission was accomplished."
In addition to "Hollywood Victory," Pareja has also worked on video projects that look at low-tech forms of communication such as 'zines, as well as several media literacy projects. Pareja said he hopes to show people that there are alternatives to corporate media out there and that anyone can be a part of creating them. He said the videos during his presentation will show people that anyone can make a television program about the issues they care about through organizations such as PTTV.
"It's important for people to look for noncommercial, alternative news outlets because information that originates from a profit-seeking entity is comprised information," Pareja said. "It is information that needs clearance not just from editors, but from the corporate owners of the parent companies and advertisers."
Who: Carlos Pareja
When: Thursday at 7 p.m.
Where: Lobo room in the SUB
Price: Free
