‘Why We Need a Coordinated Media Revolution’

At the epicentre of today’s most urgent global crises – climate breakdown, rising inequality, war, and social division – stands a captured media.

Driven by political and industrial interests, and propelled by algorithmic manipulation, it amplifies deceitful narratives that serve the interests of its owners and sponsors.

Despite UN Special Rapporteur Elisa Morgera’s calls to criminalise fossil fuel disinformation and condemn Israel’s violations of international law, disinformation and denial emanating from the billionaire press and broadcast media have become so embedded in the public consciousness that they are blocking the urgent change needed for any chance of an equitable and survivable future. 

Meanwhile, the failure of supposedly objective outlets to hold their rivals to account deepens the crisis. By refusing to call out bad faith reporting, they allow false narratives to take root and grow.

Disinformation spread by opinion pieces on behalf of vested interest groups, denying climate science on behalf of the oil-funded ideologues of Tufton Street think tanks, is in effect rubber-stamped by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), the complaints panel of which consists of the very editors of the newspapers most often under investigation. 

In 2024, the Press Recognition Panel published a report censuring IPSO for never having issued a single fine, launched a standards investigation, or imposed significant sanctions on any publishers despite serious breaches of the Editors’ Code of Practice.

Similarly, broadcast regulator Ofcom’s chair Lord Grade has declared war against what he called “woke warrior apparatchiks”, echoing the culture warriors of GB News described by Jennie King from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue as a “central hub” for climate scepticism in the British media”.

Under such a regime, accountability is nothing more than a façade.

But a paradigm shift is, arguably, occurring.

Across the world, a decentralised ‘movement-media’ revolution is already underway. Independent newsrooms, climate-focused campaign groups, anti-racist platforms, and youth-led media justice movements are all pushing back; challenging narratives, building alternatives, and demanding reform.

Platforms such as The Voice and Black Ballad, campaigns to ban fossil fuel advertising such as Fossil Ad Ban and grassroots media literacy initiatives like Media Literacy Now are all evidence of this shift. But these efforts are too often siloed, limiting their collective power. 

This is where Media Revolution comes in – not as a new organisation, but as a connective force to unify and amplify what is already happening and to bring the most affected, those systemically othered or ignored by the media, to the party.

Collaboration between the four core responses already driving media transformation is key:

Resisting: confronting harmful narratives and holding the media accountable.

Radicalising: reshaping public consciousness from the grassroots.

Replacement: the creation of independent, community-driven media platforms.

Regulation: demanding robust, independent oversight, free from political or corporate influence.

Positive responses to this initiative are growing from a wide range of media stakeholders, both mainstream and alternative. 

Working closely with the Independent Media Association, the movement aligns with the standards set by Impress – the only press regulator officially recognised by the Press Recognition Panel – which, in its recent Climate News and Independent Regulation report, has been forthright in its reservations about  the current regulatory landscape.

The vision draws on the experience of successfully facilitating mass mobilisations including The Big One and Restore Nature Now, which brought together diverse coalitions to speak with a common voice. We believe that a media movement must follow a similar trajectory: collaborative, strategic, intersectional and with an element of resistance.

Isolated resistance isn’t enough. Alternative media platforms cannot thrive in a vacuum. Policy reforms will not succeed without grassroots pressure. And media literacy cannot grow unless people are exposed to better models. But when all these efforts are aligned – when they reinforce and elevate each other – the impact multiplies.

The billionaire-owned press has perfected its playbook – coordinated messaging, centralised influence; a seamless relationship between newsroom and power. To counter that, fragmented resistance won’t be enough. We must learn from its strategy – not to mimic its methods, but to meet its coordination with our own.

The Media Revolution movement launches on 28 July with a 100-day countdown to a Media Liberation Day on 5 November 2025 – a global moment of collective action to reclaim our attention and promote movement media.

For more information, visit Media Revolution