AUSTIN- My head was spinning. This was Texas and this is what I heard: “Dennis Kucinich isn’t liberal enough for me.” What? In Texas? A state that practically threatened to secede from the Union if President Bush lost the 2004 election, as one Austin local put it.

The words were from radio DJ Anne Preston, a volunteer for community radio station KEOS in Austin. She added that her political beliefs are “a little outside the norm.”

“I’m not invested at all in the upcoming election,” Preston said. “The candidates are all the same because they’re all tied to corporate entities.”

I met Preston outside of the University of Texas’ Student Union Building before a Community Media Summit. She was sitting on the steps next to me, anxiously waiting for the doors to open. I’d heard the summit was about a meeting of highly left-wing citizens, but Preston explained there would also be an emphasis on media.

As a community radio junkie, Preston was eager to discuss the restriction of information by Bush administrators.

Summit speakers quickly rolled on this issue, explaining that the media can affect us politically by hurting us democratically. One argument was that the Internet allows for all voices to be heard, but even so, there will never be equality because not everyone has broadband access. The attendees were advocating universal, affordable broadband, and said “evangelizing the cause” of community outlets was key.

The crowd was mostly made up of independent filmmakers, alternative weekly writers and community radio employees and they seemed thrilled. The term “indie media” has been a grab bag term for years. It’s crept up since the 1990’s under the notion of producing content for the community by the community.

Prof. Robert Jensen, who teaches journalism at UT, is another very left minority. He said Barack Obama’s campaign is a well-crafted joke that cons people.

“His policy proposals do not represent any substantial change in power distribution. We’re in a time where style is eclipsing substance,” Jensen said.

Jensen said he could not care less about the election, he’s more interested in the grassroots aspect. The expansion of women’s rights and labor rights were due to political movements, not political actions.

“I care about what’s on the ground,” Jensen said.

So did media conference organizers, who championed Howard Dean for starting grassroots campaigning through the Internet. Linda Litowsky, Executive Director of Channel One Austin, thinks it’ll be interesting to see how social networks such as youtube.com affect voter participation.

“Many of us feel if candidates remove themselves from the commercial media, it’ll limit the amount of BS money given to politicians and make it more fair,” Litowsky said.

She added, “But we’re really a pod of bright blue in a sea of red.”

While the conference wasn’t about swaying the candidates, they did talk about reform at the community level, instilling media justice for social change. However, I think meeting other like-minded individuals was enough for Anne Preston, who perked up after a staff member from community radio station KOOP walked in.

“This is so fantastic,”she said, smiling.