Throughout history, technological and social upheavals have given rise to independent media outlets to amplify marginalized voices, often around social justice issues. Today, independent media are growing amid crisis and conglomeration in so-called mainstream journalism alongside online sources and new forms of media production and distribution. The center’s mission is to engage IC students and media producers across the county in conversation about career paths in independent media, and financially viable ways to disseminate accurate news and information in the public interest that is often not covered in the establishment press. The center examines the impact of independent media and media (il)literacies on journalism, democracy, and culture.
The Center's founding director was Jeff Cohen. He served in that capacity from 2008-2018. Before coming to Ithaca, Cohen was a media critic, columnist, author, and campus lecturer who founded Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), the national media watch group. He was also senior producer for Phil Donahue's show at MSNBC; and co-founded the online activist group RootsAction.org.
The Center publishes The Indy Brief, a daily summary of news reports from noted indy media outlets. You can learn more about PCIM and can subscribe to this newsletter to ensure that you remain informed of important news about the Center and the work it covers.
Raza Ahmad Rumi, was the second director of PCIM from 2018-2024. Rumi is a Pakistani writer and a public policy specialist who taught in the journalism department and was also visiting faculty at the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs. He continues to be the consulting editor for The Friday Times, and a senior fellow at the Jinnah Institute in Islamabad. Before coming to the U.S., Rumi was a print and broadcast journalist in Pakistan where in March 2014, he narrowly survived an assassination attempt in which his driver lost his life.
In Fall of 2024, Mickey Huff became the new Distinguished Director of the Park Center for Independent Media. Huff is also the Director of the critical media literacy education and free press advocacy organization Project Censored and is President of the nonprofit Media Freedom Foundation. He is an author, editor, publisher, and since 2010, the co-founding host and executive producer of The Project Censored Show, a weekly syndicated public affairs program on Pacifica Radio that focuses on the news that didn't make the news and analyzes why.
Coming to Ithaca from the San Francisco Bay Area, where he has been a professor of social science, history, and journalism at Diablo Valley College for nearly twenty-five years, Huff has co-authored or co-edited some twenty books on media censorship, the crucial role of the independent press in a corporate dominated media ecosystem, critical media literacy education, and media studies.
His most recent publications include Project Censored's State of the Free Press 2024; a textbook, Let’s Agree to Disagree: A Critical Thinking Guide to Communication, Conflict Management, and Critical Media Literacy; and The Media and Me: A Guide to Critical Media Literacy for Young People. Huff was also a co-director and co-producer of the documentary film United States of Distraction: Fighting the Fake News Invasion (2020), and the educational video series Decoding Democracy: Exploring Critical Media Literacy Education, Independent Journalism, and Civic Engagement (2024).