HOST A HOUSE MEETING Consider hosting a meeting in your home where people can talk about today’s media and its impact on themselves, their family, and society. You don’t need a “media authority” to initiate a house meeting because, when it comes to television, everyone is an expert and has a point of view to share! A smaller group of a half-dozen people is often a good number. If there are too many people, the sense of community diminishes and there is less time available for everyone to be heard. So if there are more than a half-dozen people, you may want to break into smaller groups for conversation and then reconvene as a large group at the end. Topics for media accountability need to tap into people’s personal experience and can range from the amount of violence on television and how it is portrayed to the absence of in-depth coverage of critical concerns to our future such as global climate change. One useful way to structure the meeting is by reviewing the questions in the survey as a group and using them as a series of discussion topics. You can also pass out the petition for media accountability and consider people’s views on “Citizen Feedback Forums.” So there is a common frame of reference for the conversation, it would be helpful for everyone to read the “Your Media Rights: Why this Campaign?” found in this site. Also useful is the brief article describing the powerful legal foundations for this initiative. House meetings are a great way to make friends and build relationships by sharing interesting conversations about things that really matter. It’s also a way to learn about other perspectives as nearly everyone has unique views and concerns when it comes to television. For a rich discussion, it is important for the group to acknowledge that there is no “right answer” to these challenging questions. Instead, in a democracy, the task is for us to understand one another’s views and values so that we have a clearer sense of something bigger—“the public interest.” The purpose of a house meeting is not for someone to win a debate but to discover what our collective views really are. Therefore, it is very important to take turns going around a circle of conversation, giving each person two or three minutes to respond. (One convenient way to insure everyone gets a three-minute turn to speak is to pass around an egg timer.) At the end of the meeting, you may decide to move from talking to action. To explore concrete steps that will make a difference, you can turn to the resources available in the “Take Action” portion of this website, including the survey, petition, endorsements, letter-writing campaign, and research. We also invite you to convene a local chapter of Our Media Voice. Finally, please email us a summary of the results of your meeting so we understand your views, concerns, and suggestions.