About ZCommunications
What Is Z Communications |
Z Communications is the overarching name for all of Z’s various projects and activities. It includes Z Magazine, ZNet, Z Media Institution, Z Video Productions, ZSpace, ZBooks, and ZSpeakers, and diverse components of each. |
Z Magazine |
Z Magazine is a print monthly periodical devoted to addessing class, race, gender, and power issues in contemporary society and social life. You can view articles by author or topic, search them, etc. There is also considerable information about Z and links to related projects. And you can subscribe to the print magazine, or, by becoming a Z Sustainer, to the online version where you can then see the whole magazine simultaneous with its print release, including all graphics, etc. |
ZNet |
ZNet is primarily a repository of thousands of text articles, video, audio and other links, and other content for general viewing. It is updated multiple times daily. ZNet’s Top Page, for example, hosts the latest links, news, and updates — plus entry routes to all major component parts, some of which are described below. |
Z Translation |
Volunteers from around the world have translated ZNet articles into many languages. Articles can be read in Spanish, Italian, German, Slovak, Turkish/Kurdish, Hindi, and more. A compendium page of links to all these facilities is our ZTranslation page. The volume of material prepared and posted to many of these sites is truly incredible! |
ZMI / ZEO |
ZCom has two approaches to "school-like" education. The first is ZMI. This is a summer school held in Woods Hole Massachusetts each June. Students and faculty come from around the world and spend about nine days and nights exploring, debating, refining, and enlarging their mutual ties and understanding of media and broader social and political relations, vision, and strategy. Z Education Online, or ZEO, our other "school like" project, is a set of online courses bringing ZMI-like content to participants during online sessions held throughout the year. The curriculum is extensive and the fee is incredibly low! To get a real picture of either of these projects requires a trip to their respective sites, however, using the tabbed menu system. Finally, we also have a set of self paced Instructionals on line, and Reading Lists as well, accessible via the tab menus. |
ZVideo |
Z provides videos in dvd and other formats via our facility called, of course, ZVideo Productions. These videos cover the gamut of concerns the site addresses, emphasizing, like the site as a whole, activism, vision, and strategy. New videos are highlighted in the top area of many pages, but links to videos related to the topics under perusal also appear on most pages throughout the site. Videos are sold in the ZStore and there are discounts, often very deep discounts, for Sustainers. We also have numerous videos explicitly for online viewing, mostly excerpts from ZVideos, but sometimes created in whole for the purpose. Links and viewing tools for these are available throughout the site, as well as on the ZVideo pages, per se. Navigating this is trival, they are just links to click with a viewing area for the video display. |
ZSustainer Program |
Z cannot exist without support from its users, readers, listeners, etc. Our Sustainer Program is how we stay alive and grow. Users sign up to donate on a monthly, quarterly, bi annually, or annually schedule an amount of their own choosing (privacy policy available here). In return, to show our appreciation, Z provides various facilities and options. Thus, Z Sustainers, depending on their level of involvement, get a ZSpace page with personal content of their own choosing, access to Z Magazine online, nightly commentary mailings, access to our zine of daily commentaries, their own personal blog, forum access, mutual aid access, commenting on articles, blogs, and reviews throughout the site, discounts on videos and print subs, etc. and much more as well. We are not exaggerating when we report that the ZSustainer Program is absolutely critical to our survival. We hope that if you find ZCom, ZMag, ZNet, ZVideo, ZMI, ZSchool, ZBooks, ZSpace and the rest of our operations worthy and valuable, you will consider supporting it all via the Sustainer Program. The benefits to you are vast, as well! |
ZSpace |
ZSpace is an immense section of our operations in two respects. It is the central vehicle by which Z’s online activities generate self sustaining revenues. It is also the key way in which our online activity generates ties among people, community, participation, etc. ZSpace gives members, writers, and sustainers, their own pages. It gives participants blogs, forums, uploading capability for quotes, lyrics, graphics, poetry, and articles. It culls user preferences creating a database of information and reviews about books, films, and links. It provides a system of mutual aid and a means for mutual organizing and sharing of information and resources and it does all this for individuals but also for networks – and much more as well. You simply have to visit to get a feel for it! |
ZBlogs |
ZCom has extensive blogging facilities. First, we provide blogs for all of our regular writers. Each his or her own has their own, if he or she wishes, and there is an overall writer’s blog whose content appears not only in the blog venue, but, for specific posts, as links on pages throughout the site, by topic, place, or author, as well. ZNet, via ZSpace, also provides blogs to our Sustainers. Again, each Sustainer has his or her own system, accesible from the Sustainer”s ZSpace page, and there is also an overall blog system of Sustainers compiling all their posts. Users of ZCom who sign up as free members can all access blogs to read the posts. Only writers and sustainers, however, can post blog content or comment on blogs, in part because of the expenses involved, and in part to guarantee responsibility in posting, commenting, etc. The whole thing is called ZBlogs. |
ZForums |
Another part of ZSpace is our extensive forum system which promotes discussion, debate, etc. Posting is by Sustainers and writers only, but everyone who signs up at least as a free member can access the material to read it. Links to content and forums appear throughout the site. |
ZWriters |
To help users who wish to see all material from a specific writer, or to find out more about a specific writer, our writer’s page searches content based on writer name, and also links to writer’s ZSpace pages where all their ZCom content is linked, but also any additional content from elsewhere that they choose to incorporate. |
ZInterviews / ZDebates |
Part of exploring ideas and possibilities is getting discussion in different forms and styles. ZInterviews and ZDebates are compendium pages of two of our more popular options. |
ZPlaces / ZTopics |
To help gather always available resources and information, or to help in times of crisis with special materials, or to network content of particular style or focus, ZNet has special sub sites dedicated to tracking very busy ZPlaces or ZTopics or types of article. These range from focusing on global warming, the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Lyrics and Quotes, to current affairs and Left events like big protests, demos and so on, and to particular parts of the world or countries. The menu to the left on this page gives an extensivev list and links you to each such page. |
Parecon / Parsoc |
Within the overall Z concern with vision and strategy, there is a special focus, as well, on what is called participatory economics, an alternative to capitalism, and on participatory society, an alternative to the overall charachter of societies as we know them today. These sections are, to our way of thinking, the heart of our reason for being! |
ZAudio |
Web sites can deliver not only material to view, but also material to listen too. ZCom offers links to interviews, lectures, talks, etc., often prepared directly for our site, but also including links to material in other parts of the internet. Links to content appear in diverse places throughout ZCom, but are also collected in our ZAudio area, for easiest overall perusal and listening. |
ZGraphics |
ZCom graphics come from Z Magazine, Z Video shots, Photos, Cartoons, and user graphics, too. This material displays in many places and ways trhroughout the overall site, but the ZGraphics section gives you an easy way to see and search all graphics at once. |
ZStore |
Z Store provides links for our Sustainer program, Z Magazine subscriptions and renewals, Z Videos, and our online courses. The store, along iwth the Sustainer Program, is the central means for site transactions. Please visit and use the facilities! |
ZSearch |
A site as large as ZCom must have excellent search capabilities or else its vast stores of information will be only poorly utilized. Our search facilities permit searching the site overall, or within parts of the site, and searching by content type, topic, place, person, or text. |
Contact Z |
This page is a simple compendium of email addresses for reaching us for various purposes. |