SURFING ZMAG www.zmag.org ZNet is a “Community of people committed to social change”. Z is an independent political magazine of critical thinking on political, cultural, social, and economic life. It sees the racial, political, and class dimensions of personal life as fundamental to understanding and improving contemporary circumstances and it aims to assist activist efforts to attain a better future. To these ends, Z attempts to operate in a democratic fashion, both internally and also with respect to its contributing writers and artists and the broader national progressive community. Michael Albert, longtime activist, speaker, and writer, is editor of ZNet, and co-editor and co-founder of Z Magazine. He also co-founded South End Press and has written numerous books and articles. He developed, along with Robin Hahnel, the economic vision called Participatory Economics (for more on participatory economics, checkout zmag’s parecon section). This site is an enormous repository of articles, interviews, links, features, quotes, commentaries and resources pertaining to today’s pressing concerns like mainstream media, alternative media, global economy, Middle East crisis, labor, repression etc. For a new user finding the information they want can be a daunting task. To facilitate, we have compiled a list of some key components (especially those relating to media) of ZNet with their brief overviews: ZMagazine Subsite Z Magazine articles go online three to five months after publication, and about a thousand articles are now available. You can view articles by author or topic, etc and also find out about Z and related projects. War/Terror Pages In times of crisis, ZNet creates special sites to track busy topics. These range from ‘scandals’ like Enron, to major left events like the Seattle Demos. The War/Terror pages provide analysis of the ‘War on Terrorism’ and give an example of a timely component focusing on a world crisis. Globalization Section ZNet prioritizes activism and movement involvement. A good example is the subsite devoted to the anti-corporate globalization movement. Watches Watch sites are devoted to pressing issues that require frequent attention. Content is updated regularly. The Watch Areas comprise of topics like activism, alternative media, economy, Asia, foreign policy, gender, globalization etc. Translations Volunteers from around the world have translated ZNet articles into many languages. Articles can be read in Spanish, Italian, Slovak, Turkish/Kurdish and many more. Instructionals ZNet includes a number of self-contained ‘instructionals’. They include a main sequence of information, often based on a book or series of Z articles. Contributor Biography Pages A list of authors who contribute to ZNet. Clicking each name yields a short biography plus links to some of their articles. Regular contributors include Noam Chomsky, David Barsamian, Tariq Ali, Aziz Choudry, Robert Fisk, Eduardo Galeano, Edward Herman etc. ZNet Interactive ZNet's interactive facilities can be used to post or to view reports, analyses, reviews, photos, lyrics, links, quotes, and cartoons. Beyond uploaded material, there is also a remarkably diverse pen pals facility, among other features. Sustainer Program People who donate to Z use the ZNet sustainer facilities. Premiums, users receive for their donations include daily sustainer commentaries, access to an online zine of commentaries, plus access to a forum system where people ask various ZNet contributors, like Noam Chomsky and Michael Albert, questions. Contact Z If you need to get in touch with Z, this page lists the addresses for contacting Z Magazine, ZNet, Z Video, Z Media Institute and divisions of each. ALTERNATIVE MEDIA WATCH This component of ZMag provides hundreds of links to non-corporate media. It is a great way to connect to community-based media. It also contains some analysis of the mainstream media. ZNet’s alternative media resources include links to diverse media institutions (FAIR, Association For Progressive Communication, Alliance For Community Media etc), general media articles and commentaries by media critics (Chomsky, Michael Albert, Edward Herman etc), print periodicals (The Progressive, CounterPunch etc), progressive media bookstores, alternative radio, TV and film sites and translations in many languages (Spanish, Italian, Turkish etc). Z MEDIA INSTITUTE The Z Media Institute is held each year in Massachusetts. The sessions provide training in general political, education, organization building, activism, and particularly radical media work. Focuses include political studies, media studies, organizational skills and studies, computer skills and techniques. The program involves four course sessions each day plus project groups and lectures from noted guest lecturers and teachers.