Chicago Indymedia : http://dadaarchive.chicago.indymedia.org
Chicago Indymedia

About Chicago IMC

About the Chicago Independent Media Center

The Independent Media Center ("indymedia" for short) is a grassroots organization committed to using media production and distribution as a tool for promoting social and economic justice. It is a cooperative effort of hundreds of independent media organizations around the world, some of whose efforts you can visit via the list of worldwide indymedia centers on the left-hand column of this webpage.

The Chicago Independent Media Center ("Chicago Indymedia" or "Chicago IMC") is Chicago's contribution to the growing Indymedia movement. Chicago Indymedia maintains a website (chicago.indymedia.org) with an open publishing newswire, which allows anyone to publish their story or opinion and thereby quickly reach a wide audience. Chicago Indymedia also produces a monthly radio program, From The Trenches, and a monthly TV series, Chicago Independent Television.

You can download a tri-fold brochure for Chicago Indymedia here

Support C-IMC
Contact Information
Email Lists
C-IMC Meetings
Editorial Policy
Mission Statement
Legal Disclaimer
Technical Tips


Support C-IMC please see our Support C-IMC pages

Contact Information

There are a number of ways you can contribute to these and other Indymedia projects. Contacting us is often a great way to learn more and to get more involved.

Phone: 773-384-8544
Email: IMC-Chicago@lists.indymedia.org

The general collective of the Chicago Independent Media Center meets once per month, typically on the last Thursday of the month. Contact us via email at IMC-Chicago@indymedia.org (a public mailing list) if you would like to learn more details. You can also contact our respective working, video, audio, or photo mailing lists (see below).

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Mailing Lists

The Chicago IMC currently runs several mailing lists, which are open to the public:

imc-chicago@lists.indymedia.org
IMC-Chicago is the general discussion list, for any topics relevant to Chicago IMC as a whole.
Suggestions, fundraising ideas, collaborative projects, strategic questions, or anything worth discussing.
imc-chicago-working@lists.indymedia.org
IMC-Chicago-Working is a list for members of the Editorial Collective.
It is used publicly as the address for contacting the editorial collective with questions about policy, submitting features, or making comments.
It is used internally for discussions relating to editorial duties and decisions. It is also the list for assorted issues pertaining to Chicago Indymedia on the whole.
chicago-tech@lists.indymedia.org
Chicago-Tech is the mailing list of the Chicago Indymedia technical team.
This list is used for discussions and issues pertaining to the nuts and bolts of the website or emailing lists.
imc-chicago-video@lists.indymedia.org
IMC-Chicago-Video is the list for the Chicago Indymedia Radio.
It is used to deliberate and organize issues pertaining to the monthly TV series, "Chicago Independent Television", along with other video, TV, and film issues.
imc-chicago-audio@lists.indymedia.org
IMC-Chicago-Audio is the list for the Chicago Indymedia for the our audio work and our regular radio show, From The Trenches.
imc-chicago-photo@lists.indymedia.org
IMC-Chicago-Photo is the list for the Chicago Indymedia Photo group.
It is used to organize and discuss matters pertaining to photo group and to photography.

Subscriptions for Chicago IMC lists are available at http://lists.indymedia.org. Most lists are publicly archived.

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Meetings

The general collective of the Chicago Independent Media Center meets once per month, typically on the last Thursday of the month. Contact us via email at IMC-Chicago@indymedia.org (a public mailing list) if you would like to learn more details. Other collectives (particularly those involved with radio and video) meet at other times; you're encouraged to email the mailing lists of the respective groups on this page.

Anyone interested in participating in, or learning more about, the Chicago IMC is encouraged to attend. We're a friendly bunch, and we'd be happy to answer any questions you might have about our work.

Meetings usually consist of a discussion of recent events of interest, potential workshops or benefits to sponsor, reports on progress from working groups, and discussion of strategies for the future. Most importantly, however, the content of our meetings is dictated by the participation and interest of its members. If you want to add your voice and energy to the project, please attend!

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Editorial Policy

Know about a community struggle the corporate media isn't covering or isn't covering honestly?
Got a great idea to share with other activists?
Want to share your photos of an event or action?
Got audio or video that people just have to see or hear?

This is the place to put it. Use any style you want — journalistic, academic, or personal — for telling your story.

You can download a flyer describing how to publish an article on Chicago Indymedia here

Use this form to contribute NEW stories and ideas.
Comments should go with the story being discussed. To respond to a story on the site, please use the "Comment on this article" link below the stories.

After stories have been published, they can be edited, linked or even hidden by the collective maintaining this site (using the story administration page — password required). Generally, this feature is used only to fix mistakes such as typos in a web address or remove a duplicate copy of a story.

Very rarely, someone abuses our trust, and posts a story that is far outside of, or in conflict with, the principles of the project and this website, and we may place editorial comment in it or even, in extreme cases, hide it.

Examples of material that may be hidden include newswire posts that are racist, sexist, homophobic, or that clearly fly in the face of our mission to serve as a space for the exchange of news, dialogue and opinion that advances economic and social justice.

Posts that serve as commercials for for-profit companies will be removed.

We respect and support a diversity of opinion, but our site, as well as other sites in the Indymedia network, has unfortunately been increasingly targeted by quantities of right-wing disinformation and hatred-promoting messages. We would appreciate it if such persons would instead use, or set up their own, websites, rather then subjecting our readers and posters to their objectionable cant. For more information about our mission, see the �mission� section, immediately below, on this page.

Stories contributed to this site are free for non-profit re-use unless those who post state otherwise.

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Mission Statement (drafted July 25, 2001)

The Independent Media Center is a global network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth. We are motivated by a love and inspiration for people who work for a better world despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover efforts to develop an egalitarian and sustainable society.

The Chicago Independent Media Center is a grassroots organization committed to using media production and distribution as tools for promoting social and economic justice in the Chicago area. We are dedicated to addressing issues that the mainstream media neglects and we do not conceal our politics behind a false objectivity. We will empower people to "become the media" by providing democratic access to available technologies and information.

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Legal Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those held by the participants and organizers of the Chicago Independent Media Center. This site is based upon an open publishing method that allows any individual to post information and media to the site.

The Editorial collective of the Chicago IMC oversees and administers the site whenever necessary, based on our editorial policy (see below), but we should not be held accountable for all of the newswire information you may find on this web site.

If you have a particular complaint about something you've found on this web site, please email Imc-Chicago-Working@indymedia.org. Return to top of page

Technical details and tips about this website

This Indymedia site has been designed to be as user-friendly as possible, while still attempting to manage a wealth of information, and some customization options.

The left-hand column lists the main sub-section pages of the site, as well as a frequently-updated list of the other Indymedia sites across the globe.

Users are encouraged to visit the login page, where they can create a user account that facilitates publishing articles, and allows some rudimentary filtering preferences based on ratings (see below for more on ratings).

The center column is the centerpiece of the site. Our feature articles are produced or commissioned by the editorial collective, and strive to offer quality journalism and opinion from the Chicago area.

The media gallery, highlighted at the top of the right-hand column, is our repository for photos, videos, and audio files uploaded to the site. When users have media to upload without accompanying text, from protest photos to flyer illustrations and PDF files, it goes to the media gallery. The gallery is broken down into categories, and can be searched by title, keyword, caption, or artist.

The newswire, displayed in the right-hand column, is the backbone of Indymedia. Articles found on the newswire are uploaded by users all over the world, and instantly displayed on the site. For our part, we have divided articles into "Local Interest" and "Elsewhere", so as to highlight local events and discussion.

It is the responsibility of the editorial collective (whose membership is open to the public) to oversee the newswire with a careful eye to balancing the open publishing philosophy with a desire to maintain the "newsworthy" quality of the site. To this end, we employ two methods: first, the editors will remove articles in direct violation of our (very liberal) editorial policy. This includes advertising, duplicate posts, pieces which fail to even resemble news or commentary, and articles which seriously violate our editorial policy.

The second method is our user rating system. While browsing the site, you are encouraged to rate articles using the popup menu at the end of each piece. While user ratings cannot remove an article from the site completely, they serve the invaluable role of deciding how much prominence is given to the display of an article.

By default, only articles rated higher than -6 are displayed in the right-hand column, and on the "newswire" home page. This is called the "display threshold." If you have created a user account, you can even alter that threshold to suit your own needs, e.g., display only articles receiving +3 or higher. Articles which fall below the threshold are moved to the hidden articles section, which is linked from the bottom of the newswire column. They are still available on the site, and can be linked to directly, but their prominence is degraded as a result of user input. You are encouraged to visit the hidden articles section to see what ends up there, and why.

Finally, remember that the Indymedia site is here for you. We encourage you to upload your own stories, commentaries, and announcements that may be of use to the community. And you are further encouraged to participate actively in the Chicago IMC project.

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