Introducing The Pagan Voice
On the 5th of January 2013, http://www.paganliving.tv launched. I’ve been watching the run up to this new project with a great deal of interest and wanted to help spread awareness of something I think represents an important new development for Pagans around the world.
According to their blurb, The Pagan Voice will be a weekly news magazine that brings you a variety of news and information from a Pagan perspective. They were also listed by Llewellyn Worldwide and the Wild Hunt Blog as one of the 7 most important Pagan organizations to support. That’s no small endorsement.
As regular readers will know, I live on a boat and my internet access is pretty rubbish. I can’t reliably watch any kind of video, which means I’m not able to comment as yet on the actual content of the first program. It’s the principle of it that I want to talk about. Internet TV is very much on the rise. Like all other internet features, it puts power and opportunity into the hands of independent creators and ordinary people. The mainstream media is all about huge corporations, most of whom have some kind of political agenda. Pagan representation out there in the mainstream is frequently non-existent and still tends towards the freak show when it does happen. However, TV internet allows all kinds of productions to get a foothold, build an audience, and hopefully in the longer term will give us the stats to get alternative input at the big tables, in the big outlets and in the world. I’m watching this process with The Chronicles of Professor Elemental at the moment as well, and will talk about that in more detail some time soon.
Access to news, including the kind of news we hear and the spin put on it are all deeply political. Having a Pagan voice, and Pagan perspectives out there, in a way that people around the world can access, is really important. It’s often said that the victors write history. Well, history is being written and recorded every day, usually by someone else, and anything that gets more diversity, more compassionate, green and yes, Pagan voices into the mix has to be a good thing and needs support. We need alternative ways of seeing the world and different stories from the ones those in authority and in the media keep spinning for us. There is real power and potential in this.
Now, you can support ventures like this by giving them money, that’s always helpful. All small indy enterprises need cash, and if you have the funds to spare, go for it. However, audience itself is a powerful thing. Put your bum on a seat. Tune in. If you like what you see, share some links on, tell a friend, write a review for your local Pagan magazine. Word of mouth advertising is powerful stuff, so if you love something, talk about it, and if you want to see something happen, get out there and help get other bums on seats.
If you’ve got the kind of news that the Pagan community needs to hear about, this would be a very good place to take it to as well.
