What does it mean to be "independent"?: Independent media organizations are not owned or funded by a corporation or a government.  By being independent of these two major authoritarian structures, they strive to inform the public as to make a more democratic society possible.  

North American-based Independent Media

• AlterNet - http://www.alternet.org
• American News Project - http://www.americannewsproject.com
• Democracy Now! - http://www.democracynow.org
• Mother Jones - http://www.motherjones.com
• The Nation - http://www.thenation.com
• The Real News Network - http://therealnews.com
• Zmag/Znet - http://www.zmag.org/znet

Rochester-based Independent Media

• Rochester Indymedia - http://rochester.indymedia.org

"Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all. It is not a figure of speech, or a witty saying; it is a literal fact,--very momentous to us in these times. Literature is our Parliament too. Printing, which comes necessarily out of Writing, I say often, is equivalent to Democracy: invent Writing, Democracy is inevitable."  

                                                             -Thomas Carlyle