Media Access to Festivals is a Privilege, Not A Right

I am somewhere in Southern Illinois and still processing leaving Pagan Spirit Gathering for everyday life. This year, for the very first time, there was a Media Camp, and it was interesting to participate in that and plan for it’s future evolution.

One thing about Media Camp that really struck home for me is how having media access to festivals is a privilege, not a right. As a Pagan writer I have no right to access private Pagan festivals for media purposes. Any access I have is granted by the organizers and falls squarely within the hospitality laws. Just as I am receiving the hospitality of the event, so must I be a good guest and media citizen.

For the months leading up to PSG and during the event I spoke of consent forms, of creating sacred space for media purposes and about honoring and respecting the event and it’s participants. I made our rules and state laws clear. I made the event organizers rules clear. Media Camp still had it’s hiccups, and so trying to make sure media participants are on the same page will be an important goal for me next year.

What surprised me most is that the idea that media access to private Pagan events is a given still cropped up despite my efforts. Pagan Spirit Gathering is a private event, not a public one. There should be no expectation that any media privileges will be granted to anyone. I don’t know that I will be allowed to cover the event next year until I hear from Circle Sanctuary, and should someone else be given that privilege I certainly will not expect it to extend to me unless I have it in writing.

New Media is a phenomenon riding on the same wave of information access that is eroding our privacy away. Influential people like Mark Zuckerberg are tolling the death knell for privacy. Even I, despite loving privacy, have given up any idea of online anonymity in order to work in New Media. Yet, all New Media is, is a tool. It’s is a set of technologies with their own language, but they are meant to plug into our culture, not to supplant it.

For Pagans, that means New Media is subject to the rules of Pagan culture. You don’t out people. You ask what name your interviewee would prefer to be known by. You respect the laws of hospitality, as Steven Posch reminded us this year in Morning Meeting at PSG. You respect the privacy of people, particularly at private events, not because that is an aspect of New Media, but because it is considered common decency in Pagan culture.

Private events are private. To gain media access to them requires being a good guest before you ever arrive, during your stay and once you have left. It doesn’t mean you have to paint the event as all sunshine and rainbows (this PSG had rain and thunder to add to the sunshine and rainbows) but you can’t assume access is granted. To do so is to crash a private party uninvited and drink up all their mead.

I enjoyed attending PSG this year. I’m grateful we were allowed to create a Media Camp and hope we are invited back next year. I’ll be thinking hard over the next year how to make sure that the hospitality laws are ingrained in Media Camp even more deeply should we be invited back next year.

I have a few interviews I’ll post in the days to come to show what we were up to, and I’ll be writing more about the festival experience in the days to come as well. Thanks again to Circle Sanctuary, and particularly Moonfeather, for letting us cover PSG 2011.