All too often, the mainstream media sidelines issues of importance to women, girls and mothers. Instead of helpful stories about breastfeeding tips for new mothers or options for better work-life fit, we find junk news and celebrity gossip. Instead of thoughtful debate about realistic and fair wages for working parents, we find sound bytes from pundits yelling unsubstantial information.

So many of the issues we family friendly women and men care about are influenced by our media. Media set the terms of the debate, decide what gets presented as “news,” and shape our understanding of the world. It can even impact public policy debates about issues, such as the ones that are part of MomsRising.org’s M.O.T.H.E.R.S. core issues.

Often it can feel like our media can’t be changed. At least, that it is what the big media and telecommunications companies would like us to think.

But our media system didn’t just happen. It has been shaped by politics and policies too often made behind closed doors in Washington. The public never had a seat at the table. But, there is hope.

Together, we can reclaim our seats at the table and impact media policy decisions to help shape the future we want to see. We can protect what’s important to us by supporting community and independent media system, demanding better journalism, creating more access to the media, and fighting for our free speech on the Internet. And by doing so, we can impact other public policy debates and create a more family friendly future.

If you’re interested in joining forces with other activists to fight for our media, please join Free Press from April 8-10, 2011 in Boston at the next National Conference for Media Reform. Our purpose is to change our media system by strategizing, networking, sharing skills, swapping information and inspiring one another during three days of workshops, panels, caucuses, keynote speeches, meetings and parties.

You can sign up for email updates and “Like us” on Facebook to ensure you have up-to-date information about the conference.

Additionally, our call for program suggestions is open now through September 10. If you have a session, speaker, or topic idea you’d like to share with us, visit our website www.freepress.net/call-for-suggestions

We’d love to meet moms, dads and kids who support MomsRising.org in Boston and want to see a better media future. Together, we can make a difference.