Bloggers, have you been Bill Bartmann’ed yet?

Bill Bartmann is the billionaire that massages your ego with spam.

This image was taken from Wolf Kettler’s excellent blog article about Bill’s spamming habits - see here.

I’m really glad you like my blog Bill, but if you like it so much then please leave a personal message and not one you have copied and pasted 1000 times just to improve your Google ratings and web footprint.

 

Thanks.  I love you too by the way!

Media Studies 1-0-1: Who exactly are the real idle ones here?

Question 1: Multiple choice.

WHO EXACTLY ARE THE REAL IDLE ONES IN THIS EQUATION?

A) The” protesters calling for social change”?
(As quoted in the article on page two of Bristol’s Evening Post newspaper, 19.9.09.  On the front page the paper called the protesters “Idle” to rhyme with ‘Idol’ – see what they did there??)

B) The ‘hundreds’ of people the queued for up to 10 hours to see pop “Idol” Peter Andre.
(In the article on page 4, the headline says that “thousands” were at the store to see Andre.  That’s quite a lot of people to arrive in just a few pages.  He must be popular!!!.)

C) The Evening Post Editor and “journalist” #1
(They labelled the only people who are actually doing anything active on this front page  as ‘Idle’ just to get a headline.)

D) The Evening Post Editor and “journalist” #2
(Couldn’t keep their facts straight between four pages?)

  
————————————————————– 

Question 2: Analytical skills

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

According to the visual evidence presented, where are the moments of ‘idle’ situated?

 

 

 

 

 

Next weeks lesson:

Journalist impartiality and integrity, and the need to check your facts.

 

 

 

Understanding Community Media: New Book

I’ve never been that good at selling myself, but if I can’t promote myself on my own blog then I figure I need to just give up now!

Here are details of  new peer reviewed book called ‘Understanding Community Media’ edited by Kevin Howley.  I wrote chapter 16, titled ‘Positioning Education Within Community Media’.

As they say, it is available in all good book shops.  Enjoy!

 

Kevin Howley (ed.),  Understanding Community Media.  Thousand Oaks:
Sage, 2009. 
ISBN:  9781412959056 
USD $42.95/ UK £23.00

http://www.sagepub.com/booksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book232060&

http://www.uk.sagepub.com/booksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book232060&

This text reveals the value and significance of community media in an
era of global communication.  Bringing together an international team of
scholars and practitioners, it introduces students to the emerging field
of community media studies.  Throughout, contributors explore a wide
range of media institutions, forms and practices—community radio,
participatory video, street newspapers, Independent Media Centers
(IMCs), and community informatics—from around the world.  Over thirty
original essays consider the particular and distinctive ways local
populations make use of various technologies for purposes of community
communication.  The collection provides an incisive and timely analysis
of the relationship between media and society, technology and culture,
and communication and community.

CONTENTS

PART I. THEORETICAL ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES 
       
1. Social Solidarity and Constituency Relationships in Community Radio 
Charles Fairchild

2. Democratic Potential of Citizens’ Media Practices   
Pantelis Vatikiotis

3. Community Arts & Music, Community Media: Cultural Politics & Policy
in Britain since the 1960s     
George McKay

4. Collaborative Pipelines     
Otto Leopold Tremetzberger

5. Notes on a Theory of Community Radio        
Kevin Howley

PART II. CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE
       
6. Re-Imagining National Belonging With Community Radio        
Mojca Plansak & Zala Volcic

7. Alternative Media and the Political Public Sphere in Zimbabwe       
Nkosi Ndlela

8. Toronto Street News as a Counterpublic Sphere       
Vanessa Parlette

9. Evaluating Community Informatics as a Means for Local Democratic
Renewal
Ian Goodwin

10. Mapping Communication Patterns Between Romani Media and Romani NGOs
in the Republic of Macedonia   
Shayna Plaut

PART III. CULTURAL GEOGRAPHIES 

11. Aboriginal Internet Art and the Imagination of Community   
Maria Victoria Guglietti

12. Media Interventions in Racialized Communities      
Tanja Dreher

13. Community Collaboration in Media and Arts Activism: A Case Study   
Lynette Bondarchuk & Ondine Park

14. Examining the Successes and Struggles of New Zealand’s Maori TV    
Rita Rahoi-Gilchrest

15. Itche Kadoozy, Orthodox Representation, & the Internet as Community
Media  
Matt Sienkiewicz

PART IV. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
       
16. Positioning Education Within Community Media       
Shawn Sobers

17. Dalitbahujan Women’s Autonomous Video      
Sourayan Mookerjea

18. Coketown and Its Alternative Futures       
Philip Denning

19. Addressing Stigma and Discrimination Through Participatory Media
Planning       
Aku Kwamie

PART V. COMMUNITY MEDIA AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS   

20. Indigenous Community Radio and the Struggle for Social Justice in
Colombia       
Mario Alfonso Murillo

21. Ethnic Community Media and Social Change: A Case in the United
States 
Dandan Liu

22. A Participatory Model of Video Making: The Case of Colectivo Perfil
Urbano
Claudia Magallanes-Blanco

23. Feminist Guerrilla Video in the Twin Cities        
Brian Woodman

PART VI. COMMUNICATION POLITICS
       
24. Community Radio & Video, Social Activism, and Neoliberal Public
Policy in Chile During the Transition From Dictatorship to Neoliberal
Democracy      
Rosalind Bresnahan

25. Past, Present, and Future of the Hungarian Community Radio Movement        
Gergely Gosztonyi

26. Community Media Activists in Transnational Policy Arenas   
Stefania Milan

27. Closings and Openings: Media Restructuring and the Public Sphere   
Bernadette Barker-Plummer & Dorothy Kidd

28. The Rise of the Intranet Era       
Sascha D. Meinrath & Victor W. Pickard

PART VII. LOCAL MEDIA, GLOBAL STRUGGLES
       
29. “Asking We Walk”: The Zapatista Revolution of Speaking and Lis
tening
       
Fiona Jeffries

30. Radio Voices Without Frontiers Global Antidiscrimination Broadcast 
Elvira Truglia

31. Media Activism for Global Justice  
Anne Marie Todd

32. The Global Turn in the Alternative Media Movement  
Carlos Fontes

–

Open letter to Penny Woolcock, Claire Bosworth, Allan Niblo, Blast Films, Screen WM, Channel 4, the UK Film Council, and all involved with the film 1Day

To:

Blast Films – One Day Ltd
2 Imperial Works
Perren Street
London, NW5 3ED, UK
T +44 (0)20 7267 4260
www.blastfilms.co.uk

Dear the people “responsible” for the film 1Day

I am not one of these people to complain about a film before I have seen it, (for that matter I’m not really someone to complain about films at all!), so in this letter I can only really talk about the trailer and not the whole film.

I have just seen the trailer for your new feature film 1Day, and felt utter disappointment and the shallowness and exploitation of what I saw.  The trailer is a cynical attempt to capitalise on the problem of the UK’s black gang culture and the spiral of violence that we are seeing in our papers every day.  Judging by the reaction of the comments so far on your trailer on youtube, it looks like you will succeed in making lots of money from the blood of the inner cities.

I may be wrong of course, and I hope I am.  This film may be a clever Trojan horse, designed to look like it is glamorising violence amongst black youth in the trailer, to actually revealing a strong message in the actual film. I hope so, but somehow I doubt it.  I won’t be paying to find out. 

I do believe that films should be allowed to entertain, and that films should not preach.  Only boring films preach.   But filmmakers also have a responsibility to be conscious of what they unleashing into the communities that are suffering from the same problems they are presenting as entertainment.  At the very least, should not such an entertainment film  also look to further the debate of what the problem actually is, thus striving at some level of originality, and not mere cliché? (As I say, I hope you prove me wrong, and that your film is original and not a stereotypical cliché!)

Your film’s publicity makes a big deal that it has been “entirely street cast”.  I would like to know more about that. 

How much of a say did the “street” actors get in shaping the script?

Was the script ‘workshopped’, or did you have it already written and you just went and cast for actors from inner city communities? 

Did you listen to their advice on what messages the film should convey? 

Did you challenge any of the authenticity of any of the bravado, hype and myth they may have shown you, in trying to impress you with their “gangsta” tales? 

What responsibility did you show back to the communities that you were drawing from?

Will the film screenings be accompanied by discussions, workshops, guns & knife crime awareness events of any kind?

What was your deep down motivation for making this film, and have you succeeded?

I am all for creative freedom and freedom of choice, and don’t believe in censorship or banning films or anything like that.  I do however believe in the responsibility of the artists in being aware of what they do, over and above the motivation of finance.  There is also a moral obligation, especially when the subjects you are dealing with affects real young lives,  to be aware how your work will be contribute to the world in which it is promoted and received.  (I notice your publicity machine is also promoting free downloadable mix tapes to promote your film.  Notice all this power at your fingertips…)  Challenging work can stimulate debate and all those things, and that is fine, but the artists also bears some responsibility in not just washing their hands like Pontius Pilate claiming to be impartial.  The artist must be brave enough to take responsibility to see what affect their work has on real lives.

There are always huge circular debates about whether films such as yours will have a negative impact on the way young people act.  The same debates can be seen about gangsta rap, the influence of the music of Marilyn Manson and other such acts, Internet porn and its impacts on misogyny, fashion & celebrity culture and how young women view themselves, etc, etc, etc.  Of course there are no simple answers to these debates, and I don’t actually believe that young audiences (black or otherwise) are as gullible or as sheep-like as critics would suggest.  There is however a sharp question to ask all of those in the dock, who find yourselves defending your work from the accusation of corrupting society.

Is your work looking to provide an original perspective on the underlying stories to try and understand these problems better, or is it simply entertainment adding to the stereotypes we see in the news every day with no pretence of intellectual critique?

Or to put it very simply, on an issue that kills hundreds of UK black youth every year that you have chosen to make money from, are you a part of the problem or part of the solution?

I shall watch what happens with your film with interest, and I just hope you prove me wrong.  I look forward to your responses to what I have asked you here, and what I have accused you of.

Yours sincerely,

Shawn Sobers

Senior Lecturer & Researcher – University of the West of England
Director – Firstborn Creatives
Council member – Community Media Association

Roxanne’s Revenge – the need to hold multinational corporations to their word!

I found this on the PostBourgie blog and wanted to share it. All about how Roxanne Shante, who shot to fame in the 80s at the age of 14 as one of the the best rappers in the world. She held her record label Warner Bros to their word that they had included in the small print of her record contract, which said they agreed to pay for her education, assuming that a young ghetto child with stars in her eyes would never come knocking for any tuition fees. Well years later, after court battles getting the Warner Bros to honour their deal – (after she was left with very little royalties from her music career as a result of the unfavourable contract terms of the deal she was locked in to) – she now has a PhD and is a respected psychologist. Inspirational!

http://postbourgie.com/2009/08/24/roxanne-shante-phd/

A Luta Continua! (The Struggle Continues!)

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Physical ‘mediators’ as corner-stones of communities

Often community media theorists (myself included) talk about community media itself as a site of the public sphere acting as an agent in the mediation of dominant cultural messages.  Talked about as Community Media projects as the site through which dominant messages are filtered and deconstructed, and then re-represented as an alternative produced message the other end of the project.  But what of the actual physical sites in communities that have been present as social glue long before the (digital) community media intervention arrived? (Think about churches, pubs, butchers, parks, banks, post offices, cafes, shops, etc.)   How do they feature as mediators for communities to filter dominant messages and meanings for the area’s citizens’?

It was these kinds of public (although male dominated) places that Jürgen Habermas  was talking about when he identified sites of of the public sphere, and I’ve been kind of forced to reflect on this recently with 2 events happening in my own life.  One is the closing down of a local pub in my home town (I don’t live there anymore), and the other is the closing down of my parents’ church that they have attended for over 40 years.

Last night I attended the closing down of a local pub that has served the African Caribbean community in Bath, England since the 1960’s, when many first came to this country, (often faced with a hostile reception by  the ‘hosts’).  Gentrification of the area is one of the reasons blamed for the pub being sold by the brewery.  Obviously not everyone in the community went to the pub, but for those that did it became an important social venue to play games together such as dominoes and pool, to listen to traditional and new music from their homelands, and also to talk to each other about the issues of the day – trade gossip, talk politics, share news.

  

There is no doubt that this pub acted as a public sphere for this community.  Consensus has been built, campaigns argued, events promoted, topical issues debated, ideas generated and whole host of other socio/political/economic and cultural ‘events’ have taken place there, (mostly positive, but always some negative things have happened as well).

With the closing of the pub this energy and platform for debate will be dissipated and dispersed, and the public spheres for the next generations growing in this area will be very different from those that have gone before.  But such changes need not always be lamented, as I feel such cultural changes can also be good for the dynamics of an area – challenging yes – but it also provides an opportunity and space for the younger generations to build their physical spaces and also to explore new territories.  There is no doubt still that the loss of the pub will be a big hole in the heart of the community.

The second similar event happening in my life is the closing of the church I attended growing up, and where my parents have been members of the congregation since the 1960s, (they went to church and never ever went to the pub!).  My family were the only black family to attend the church.  The church has been there for over 100 years serving the local Methodist worshippers and wider community.  It is now closing to be sold and turned into private living accomodation.  The church became too difficult to be used by the increasingly elderly congregation, and they are now going to merge with another church in a different area.

I must point out at this stage that my house and this church were on the opposite sides of the city to the pub and the area that is known locally as the ‘black area’.  But that said, the city of Bath is so small that it is all very close-knit anyway and no barriers where people live – as everyone knew each other anyway.  As evidence of the slippery multicultural nature of the city, see this photo of a Caribbean evening at the church held two years ago, notice the colour of the heads of the congregation listening to the steel band.

I wouldn’t say I have ever heard any really overtly radical or political firebrand sermons from the church, which Methodist history has a reputation of, but absolutely churches are sites of discussion, campaigning, socialising and trying to make sense of topical events, the same as a pub is a conduit for these activities but in a more formal way.

Both the pub and the church act as mediators and producers of messages, the same as a community media project.  Authors will be the ones with the tools or production (the ones with the most central or loudest/most persistent voices), participation is encouraged (volunteering in the church or socialising in the pub), and productions will be made (new opinions/insights formed and/or old opinions validated).  Both spheres will have the leaders, participants and audiences.

With the loss of these two institutions that everyone thought were permanent fixtures that would out live any of us, it is a timely reminder of what community media actually is and what is should be doing, and also what it may become unless projects stay relevant and empowered by the communties they serve.

“Suspect Racism:Racism Suspect” – The Movie (draft script proposal)

The Plot:

An internationally respected African American Professor (Denzel Washington) returns home from holiday and finds the door to his plush suburban home is jammed.  The taxi driver (Benicio Del Toro) helps him “break” in to his own house.

The neighbors (played by the full cast of Desperate Housewives) get nervous seeing these events, and call the police, who promptly arrive within seconds. [Backstory - the reason the police arrive so quickly is because this is a "good" neighborhood.]

The policeman (Nicholas Cage) confronts the professor, and after a verbal altercation between the two, the professor is arrested. [Note - the Director Ron Howard must be careful here not to show either party is to blame.]  Later the professor is released without charge.

The president of the United States (Will Smith) gets tangled up in these events and calls the policeman “stupid”.  After the cast of West Wing get in a panic and make the president backtrack in the glare of the world’s press, they come up with the bright idea of inviting the hot headed pair to the White House for a ‘beer summit’, with the vice-president (played by John Travolta), for all the world’s press to witness.

 

Feedback on draft proposal Studio Executives:

1 -Whilst the plot line is generally good, and the narrative is generally believable, and only a little far fetched.  It is fitting with the zeitgeist so will find an audience.  It might actually be more interesting though to see the narrative unveil from the perspective of the world media.  To see the effect the media have on how the “real live” events are handled would be more interesting for the audience, as research shows that is how audiences suspect how things happen in the real world anyway.  (See Stephen Frears’ film ’The Queen’ for reference, on how the media affected the Royal response to the death of Princess Diana.) 

2 - Whilst audience always love a happy ending, the studio is pained to admit that this might be too much of a happy ending, even for us.  It is important that a fantasy film such as this still keeps touch with reality.  The director needs to remember that if this fantasy event were to ever happen in the real world, that it is VERY unlikely that the ‘beer summit’ would happen in full view of the media.  It would 99% be more likely to happen behind closed private doors.  Even in this media saturated world we studio execs are so proud of, no one would ever be fooled by a  beer summit happening in the open air in full view, would they? 

If however the Director Ron Howard was so convinced that the beer summit had to be outdoors in full view of media cameras, then please make sure that the actor playing the president doesn’t over-act with mock exaggerated laughter, as that would just be painfully embarrassing, and quite frankly unnecessary.

3.  Re-cast the role of  the professor for Halle Berry to play it instead of Washington, and have her fall in love with either the policeman, the president or the vice-president (it doesn’t really matter which one!).  If you can make that happen, then this movie will definitely be financed!!

Ends.

Channels of activity and emphasis of thought in Community Media (a methodology of mapping)

Since 2004, whenever I have given a paper at a conference about community media I have shown a table on powerpoint, (see the first table below).  I would go on to explain how this table informed my definition of the sector – which is according to the main areas of emphasis of activity by practitioners.

 My description and definition of community media states that the channels of activity are according to the main motivation of the action, ranging from;

-  the community stations that have no overt political agenda;
- the media activists using technology as a tool for political and social campaigns;
- media education with a media industry agenda;
- and educational projects that use technology as a tool to aid transferable skills. 

This isn’t to say that there isn’t cross-over between these channels, as there definitely is and the lines are blurry.  But I feel this framework does capture the main strands of motivation in community media practice, which are then delivered in an infinite amount of variations.

(I’ve written a chapter about this in a book called ‘Understanding Community Media’ edited by Kevin Howley, to be published in November this year by Sage.)

.

.

What I have now come to realise is that this framework is not only the means for me to define and understand what happens in community media practice, it is also the hypothesis by which to map the thought processes in community media theory and participation. 

For example, for my literature review chapter I wrote up the history of the idea of Media Literacy, and I found that the different opinions on what the concept was by scholars fit into the same framework according to the main areas of emphasis (see table below). 

 .

.

I have also written up the history of community media according to what has been  mentioned in community media & arts texts, starting at the Egyptian Hieroglyphs in pre-history (Caton-Rosser, 2006: 14) through to the UK government setting up Creative Partnerships in 2001 (Harding, 2005: 14), which in some cases has tried to be to UK schools and freelance artists/media facilitators what Roosevelt’s New Deal was in 1930s USA.  (This history also contains moments such as Thomas Paine’s pamphleteering, the world’s first community radio station, the MacBride Report, the founding of Deep Dish TV, the Rodney King incident, and the use of video by the Zapatista movement and the Chiapas Video Project in Mexico, amongst many, many, many other references!)

I’m now in the middle of mapping this history according this framework, and already it seems to be making sense! 

My next task after this is to analyse and interpret the piles of text data I have got from the interviews I conducted with participants of community media projects, many of which are longitudinal studies spanning 13 years worth of reflection by participants, looking at the impact on their lives, (some were 14 years old when they first regularly attended media workshops and are now 27!).  As well as other types of analysis and interpretation, I will also map the motivations of the individuals involved according to this framework.

Obviously these thoughts are still a work in progress.  I will be writing about this more over the summer and hope to get some journal papers published about this alongside my thesis at the end of the year.  (I especially want to get my history of community media chapter published!) 

Thanks for reading this, any comments welcome as always.

Shawn

 

References:

Caton-Rosser, M. S. (2006), ‘ Case studies of how community media enact media literacy and activism in the public sphere’. PhD Thesis

Harding, A. (2005). Magic Moments: Collaborations between Artists and Young People. Black Dog Publishing. London, UK

OURMedia 8 en Colombia

—–Original Message—–
From: For communication among alternative media producers, academics, artists, and activists. on behalf of Juan Salazar
Sent: Tue 28/07/2009 18:23
To: OURMEDIALISTS
Subject: OURMedia 8 en Colombia

OURMedia 8 in Colombia

Dear colleagues and friends from the OurMedia network worldwide,

Once more we have gathered to continue the process of dialogue that we
started eight years ago when we met for the first time. As in previous
occasions we miss all of those that are part of the network, at the
international level, but couldn¹t come to Medellin, Colombia, where we are
having the conference.

However we bear you in our minds and we want to keep you informed on this
meeting. During the week we will send you every day a brief description of
every day¹s activities, focusing on salient aspects.

To start, we want you to know that we have over 120 participants in the
conference, 40 of which are internationals who came from Argentina,
Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Spain, United States, France, Ghana,
Hungary, England, Mexico, Nicaragua, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, Senegal and
Uruguay.

Participation from Colombia is of course the most important, not only in
numbers but also for the variety and quality of experiences and ideas shared
with the others.

The Recinto Quirama where we have gathered is a beautiful place surrounded
by vegetation and peacefulness, an appropriate environment to have our
dialogues without distractions. The efforts that the Local Committee has
done to guarantee the success of the conference have been rewarded.

We have during the whole week an intense and varied programme, which we will
share with all members of the network around the planet, to encourage them
to participate in our future OurMedia 9 Conference.

Please visit our website for more details, photos and papers. – http://ourmedianetwork.org/

Organising Comité

The power of still and moving images, and the fragility of a person’s reputation

Nothing more to say about this one really, this clip says it all!