The VFM Post

I’ve talked a lot in this blog about Voter Funded Media (VFM), a concept that provides voters the chance to support media options that serve their needs and interests. According to Mark Latham, the local promoter of the idea, voters need good sources of information about what’s happening in their democratic organizations, so that they can “hold elected leaders accountable.”

Langara students lack a diverse set of media that consistently cover elections and other important issues in their student union (the LSU). The Voice only publishes for about four months a year, often missing coverage of elections, and The Gleaner doesn’t seem to be publishing anymore at all. VFM could help solve this problem, by encouraging many more media outlets to cover LSU and Langara news year-round from a variety of perspectives.

The LSU itself is studying the possibility of implementing VFM for its next election season (in September, I think). A committee was formed at their January 21 Executive meeting to look into the matter, after a presentation by Mark Latham. This is a positive step, and one that is worthy of great praise. I am proud of my student union for deciding to take part in this experiment.

I do want to suggest two ways that the LSU can accomplish better results through their VFM experiment:

1. Implement “Continuous VFM,” in which students have the option of voting on which media are best serving their needs and interests every month, rather than only during general elections. This would encourage better year-round reporting on important issues.

2. Actually ask students whether they want to participate in, and fund, a VFM contest. The Gleaner Referendum question is flawed, as I explained in one of my posts yesterday. If either option in this referendum wins (i.e. students decide to keep The Gleaner or fund a new paper), tens of thousands of dollars will be spent on a single paper. Think of what that money could do, if it were offered as prize money in a VFM contest. Students, instructors, even outsiders would have an incentive to start their own blogs, newspapers, podcasts or other forms of media. We’d get more media for our money!

 

It’s probably too late now to stop the referendum from going ahead. But I would like to encourage the Executive committee to take another bold step towards a wonderful experiment. If Option One passes, and a new media entity is created, I think the LSU should negotiate a contract with someone who can run a VFM contest using the money collected from the student fees created by the new bylaw. This contract should expire after one or two years, after which time another referendum should be held, this time to ask students if they like how their money is being spent. If VFM lives up to its promise, I suspect students will endorse continuing with this great democratic concept.