A handful of Free Press staff and volunteers spent yesterday stuffing 3,000 Free Press tote bags with NCMR materials. What's astounding about the sheer volume of black tote bags tucked under our registration tables is that every bag belongs to a person -- and each of those people represent someone fed up with Big Media and its effects on their community and their country.

And now each of those people are finally here at the conference, tote bag in, well, tow, and bringing their stories, hopes, frustrations and insights under one unifying umbrella to democratize the media.

As conference participants streamed into the conference center this morning, everyone had something to say about the state of the media and what compelled them to travel to Minneapolis this weekend.

Joseph Shansky, a journalist living in Minneapolis and reporting on the NCMR for the publication Voces de la Frontera, said, “News is black and white and every issue is sugar coated and simplified.”

Another conference attendee from the Twin Cities, MJ, a volunteer with KFAI radio, gave a list of frustrations she has with Big Media: “The whole movement to shutdown indy radio stations, the fact that Comcast filled the room so that no one else could get in, and finding out that generals were paid to give their views on TV.”

MJ said she is attending the conference “to get charged about being able to do something to change the system.”

Bob Kropfli, who traveled to the NCMR from Golden, Colorado, said he’s attending the conference to “get some insight on breaking the conservative [media] bubble.”

“I don’t know how many friends I have that are well-intentioned but hopelessly uninformed,” Kropfli said. “They listen to Rush Limbaugh and think that they’re getting information.”

Donald Anthonyson, media coordinator at Families for Freedom, and speaking at the NCMR session “Shaping the Internet the fun and easy way,” said his fundamental concern is that marginalized communities don’t have Internet access.

He said he was attending NCMR to put this issue on the table and to “see what the media reform movement looks like.”

Big Media has had disastrous repercussions for independent media, particularly print magazines. Danielle Maestretti, staffer of Utne magazine, has watched as independent publications have been forced to shut down and scale back. “I’ve seen magazines closing down – Punk Planet, Clamor – mastheads are shrinking and they’re doing more with less. I see [magazines] quietly diminishing their publication schedules.”

But despite disparaging state of independent media, Maestretti is hopeful. “I’m really inspired about the call for a stronger media reform movement. I think we can attract more people to the movement if we’re not staving off the next big thing. I’m hoping to have a discussion about that this weekend.”

Maestretti will most likely get her wish – as the discussion at NCMR this year isn’t so much about cataloging problems with the media, but about recognizing the impressive, forceful and successful growing media reform movement.

Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films, said he thinks that the groundwork that’s been laid – from media policy to media monitoring – the recent victory in the Senate, and an upcoming election gives the movement “an amazing opportunity.”

“We’ve had some wins, we’re going to win more, and we’re going to move forward on some great possibilities,” Greenwald said. “It’s going to take a shift in mindset because it’s very different than just putting a hand in the dyke to stop the floods.”

I could go on 3,000 times. Everyone here is excited, ready to learn, connect and make change.