Media Alliance Membership Drive

From our beginnings as an alliance of the Bay Area's left-wing journalists to integrate social change into dusty old print newsrooms to today's advocate for democratic communications for all, Media Alliance has always been about keeping it local. 

 Change happens at the root and we keep our advocacy tied to the bottom-up model that facilitates and empowers grassroots activism. A nonprofit is nothing but the people it aids, informs and assists, using the infrastructure and experience it has gained over the decades. 

 Although we don't ask you for money very often, twice a year, we run a membership drive to build our community. Our members are who we work for and who we can say we represent when we press for policies to support the people's ability to communicate. If you want policy change, if you care about transparency and accountability in local government, media gate-keeping, Big Tech's power and lack of social responsibility, the right to privacy, an open Internet, and diverse representation, then you should be a Media Alliance member.   

 These aren't just nice things: they are the foundation of a more just society and the ability to advocate for our lives and our future.

Other ways to donate:

Stocks and Bonds: Use our clearinghouse account at StockDonator.com

Crypto: We accept donations of ETH via our Metamask Wallet. Use the Metamask donation button here.

Here are some of our 2022 activities: 

Oakland Internet Choice: a multi-organization coalition to allow tenants (in Oakland and then beyond) to use the most affordable and privacy-protective Internet provider available without fear of losing their housing or interfering with Big Tech kickbacks to landlords.  The coalition, anchored by Media Alliance successfully passed an Internet Choice ordinance in Oakland, and saw the Federal Communications Commission launch an inquiry on the impact of exclusive use agreements in multi-occupancy buildings on broadband choice and competition. 

Facebook Users Union: a Bay Area coalition of nonprofits and users to pressure the social media giant to take real measures to reduce hatred and disinformation on the world's largest social media platform by getting in their face right here at home. The Facebook Users Union aims to leverage the power of us, the Facebook users who create the content and provide the eyeballs and clicks, to have a say in how the world’s largest social media platform impacts us and the world we live in. The purpose of a union is to build collective power to negotiate. We have power together that we could never have alone.

Bad Apple: A fully open-source application, API and database, created with Aaron Swartz Day, which provides links to every police oversight body in the nation, public record templates for misconduct incidents and surveillance equipment, a fully anonymous tip line, and a growing database of sustained incidents. 

Castro Cameras: Leading organization in the first-known defeat of a private camera installation that was gifted to a business improvement district by a billionaire in SF's neighborhood of LGBTQ sanctuary. This work was part of our neighborhood preservation and anti-gentrification efforts as part of United to Save The Mission, a coalition of 16 community organizations seeking equity in planning, zoning and development decisions. 

State and Federal Legislation: Advised on federal bills including the Social Media Data Act and the KIDS Act. Filed position letters on 24 bills, support or oppose. Defeated bills that would have created new unnecessary law enforcement task forces and published private information about people infected with COVID. Supported new laws that increased govermental transparency and public records availability, enhanced genetic privacy, limited the use of chemical weapons for crowd control, protected journalists covering demonstrations and protests and will provide increased internet connectivity information to regulators. 

In 2022, we will engage on proposed state legislation to rein in the use of automated license plate readers, reform the DIVCA Act to hold cablecos accountable, and seek no-fault compensation for the families of unarmed people killed by the police. 

Oakland Privacy: coordination and infrastructure assistance to the Bay Area's anti-surveillance watchdog. In 2021, the nation's second citizens municipal watchdog commission in Vallejo and a public records suit that will clear the  years long backlog of public records requests at the Oakland Police Department. 

Pacifica In Exile: a public information service about the struggle for change at the nation's only independent radio network and its effort to democratize itself and serve the new movements of the 21st century.  

 
 Join our community in 2022.  

Bling: All annual memberships (new or renewing) at $100 or more will get a Media Alliance embossed mini portable charger for your 2022 travels.