About the VMC

The site for the Vancouver local of The Media Co-op is no longer being updated and has been archived. The Vancouver local is not currently active and the information below is out of date, so please visit mediacoop.ca to learn more about The Media Co-op.

The Vancouver Media Co-op is your source for local, independent news. Our model - reader funded, collectively run, open publishing - creates a space for critical, high-quality, democratic media in Vancouver. But VMC is much more than a progressive news-site! VMC puts mutual aid and community-building into practice by regularly hosting workshops and skills training.

We're not complaining about the state of the mainstream media. We're changing the very system of news production in the city.

MORE ABOUT THE VMC

The Vancouver Media Co-op (VMC) is a unique participatory and grassroots media project that is member-run.

Unlike corporate media, grassroots media means that Vancouver Media Co-op reporters talk to people directly affected by government policies first: Indigenous land defenders, neighbourhood residents, cyclists, immigrants and refugees, poor people, queer and trans communities, low-income and working families.

Unlike most other publications, including independent media projects, the VMC relies on and facilitates the active participation of hundreds of activists, journalists, readers, and ordinary concerned people to contribute stories, photography, press releases, personal accounts, and videos in an open-publishing format that receives hundreds of daily hits.

In addition to user-driven media, an open and democratic collective – open for you to join - produces high-quality news and events coverage as well as in-depth investigative reporting.

Some highlights of VMC coverage over the past year include:

• Cutting edge journalism during the Olympics with over 40 independent journalists, 16 posts daily, 1 million hits during the first weekend, a sophisticated on-the-ground street news aggregate, and footage which aired internationally including on Democracy Now!
• Exclusive stories on Indigenous struggles including Cheam fishing cases and resistance to pipelines in northern BC, investigative reporting on defense and private security contractors in Vancouver; and daily accounts from the Urban Women's Anti-Violence Strategy week of events.
• Video coverage of local events including march against police brutality, environmentalists actions against Enbridge pipeline; build a better BC rally; and protests against shelter closures.

The VMC also produces a fortnightly print broadsheet called Balaclava!; hosts journalism, video and graphic design trainings; provides media skills workshops upon request for communities and groups such as youth at the Purple Thistle Centre; and organizes social events and film screenings. These have all proven to be hugely beneficial to grassroots groups, youth, and DTES residents seeking to empower themselves to create their own media!

The VMC is a local of a national Media Co-op network which is formally organized as a solidarity cooperative. The Media Co-op also has locals in Halifax and Toronto, and produces the Dominion magazine, which has released special issues on Canadian Foreign Policy, Canada's Mining Industry, Tar Sands, 2010 Olympics, and on the G8/G20.

All this operates on a shoe string budget and needs you! Still not sure?

• Can you name any other independent media that provided daily coverage of the Olympics?
• Can you name any other media that prominently features your group's event or your personal contribution regardless of whether you are trained as a journalist or writer?
• Can you name any other media that regularly and on request will attend your organization's event to provide coverage that will benefit you?

Join as a sustainer today to support the Vancouver Media Co-op because the Vancouver Media Co-op will sustain your faith in progressive and democratic news publishing.