From bertoldi@astro.Princeton.EDU Fri May 17 23:48:25 1991
From: Frank Bertoldi <bertoldi@astro.Princeton.EDU>
Date: Fri, 3 May 91 02:05:49 EDT
To: harelb@cabot.dartmouth.edu
Subject: Information Gulf


   THE INFORMATION GULF
   --------------------

   Motivated by the limited scope of the media coverage during
the Gulf war, two groups of students, faculty, and staff from the
Princeton community and University have begun to produce a short
newsletter, "The Information Gulf."  Five issues have been
published to date under the aegis of the (certified non-profit)
"Princeton Information Project", a joint project of the newly
formed "Students for Unbiased Media" and a second group of
community members and University faculty, the "Community
Information Project".

   The "Information Gulf" was conceived as a vehicle for
presenting information from alternative and foreign media, and in
particular from electronic news sources such as PeaceNet,
ACTIV-L, and UseNet, in order to focus attention on news and
perspectives unreported or underemphasized in the American
mainstream media.  We both reprint articles from these sources
and, to a lesser extent, publish original pieces either written
by our staff, or solicited from Princeton University faculty and
community members.

   Our aim is to encourage critical thinking and initiate debate
on the actions of government at home and abroad by placing news
in historical, political, and economic context.

   Although the major armed conflict in the Persian Gulf has
ended, we believe that the need for an alternative newsletter in
our community remains. While we will continue to follow
developments in the Middle East, in forthcoming issues we will
cover U.S. foreign and domestic policies with a wider scope.  In
issue #5 we have emphasized Latin America, and in a forthcoming
issue we would like to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

   We invite members of our community to participate in "The
Information Gulf"; we welcome (and solicit) news articles,
commentaries, references, ideas, help in translating, editing,
distribution, fundraising, etc.

   Our circulation so far was:

	#1 - #3 :  ca. 600	(Feb. 21, March 4, March 14)
	#4	:  5000		(April 15)
	#5      :  6000		(May 1)

and we hope to increase the circulation, if funding permits.
We would like to publish bi-weekly.
 
   We believe that we can, with our somewhat `radical' perspective,
reach a representative cross section of our community only if we
are able to distribute our paper free of charge. We therefor depend
on donations. Our current costs are 

	- printing 6000 copies:	$325  ($25 for each additional 1000),
	- direct mailing (using a bulk mail permit), ca. $50 p. issue.

Distribution in a University environment is easy and free (campus
mail, department mail boxes, etc.).
   Thus we need to raise ca. $400 per issue. We have mailed
fundraising letters with issue #4 to ca. 500 selected individuals
in Princeton and surroundings, so far (after one week) with
little feedback.  We have applied for funding at several
University organizations, but it is unclear to what extent and
when we will get funded.

   If our funding and production situation should stabilize, we
intend to expand the distribution of "The Information Gulf" to
other campuses.  For this we will contact interested individuals
and organizations and try to coordinate a joint publication,
which should reduce costs and individual workload. The publishers
of an electronic newsletter with similar focus, "dial 9", at U.C.
Berkeley, have already shown interest in a collaborative effort.
In addition, Dorothy Morrell (co-chair, Committee for Common
Security, director, Institute for Global Security Studies, etc.)
has indicated interest in starting a similar publication for the
Seattle area.

   We figure that if we are able to publish a bi-weekly, free,
progressive newsletter with a circulation >5000 in a difficult
environment such as Princeton, then it should be possible to do
likewise at almost any campus in the US.

(contact: Frank Bertoldi, Astrophysical Science, Peyton Hall,
Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. 08544; 609-258-1168;
bertoldi@astro.princeton.edu)