Ruscombe Green: Debate: does the media enslave or liberate us?

This was the topic of Friday's Coffee House Discussion - Does the 'free' press exist? Can public sector broadcasting be trusted? Who controls what we read, hear and watch? Is the internet/www different? How best to use the media to create a fair and sustainable world?

Photo: Andy Reed, Prof Epstein and Richard Tierney

Stroud Town councillor and freelance journalist Andy Read chaired the discussion with Cheltenham-based Richard Tierney, Managing Director of the Gloucestershire Media Group and Debbie Epstein, a Professor of Social Studies at Cardiff University who lives in Wotton.

Richard Tierney posed questions about deregulation of the media and the possible opportunities of new independent media, while Professor Epstein, who has written papers on chat shows like Oprah and the Jerry Springer Show looked at the influence of the media in our lives.

In a day when the Gazette actually phoned for a comment re the Severn barrage and Greens had several quotes/letters in the papers this last week I should perhaps not be complaining (see list below of this weeks coverage) - but it is still the exception - too often Greens are never asked for comments and on the rare occasions it is usually recycling. This is especially noticeable during election time in some papers where the three main parties all get a quote but Greens don't - things are improving but we have to work much harder than the others - and don't have the luxury of loads of paid press officers - indeed even the Green party's national press officer is a voluntary post.

Those attending the Coffee House debated how far our public sector broadcasting can be trusted, how independent it really is and how far the internet can broaden or narrow our news. Can we really expect climate change to be reported by newspapers that rely on holiday and car adverts to survive? Or the news reporting to be fair when papers are owned by powerful individuals or corporations not even based in this country.

Also since all three main political parties now have virtually identical policies the quality of debate has also diminished. All this can lead to even less interest in the political process. What are the alternatives to mainstream media? How can we trust these? The evening ended up posing many more questions than answers......