Last night I went to an interesting seminar at the Watershed Media Centre called ‘Cultural Learning: Young people – schools – creative industries’. It was all about the 8 month relationship the Watershed have built up with Fairfield High School, which has seen a teacher being based at the Watershed one day a week, film & TV professionals working in the school, and the students taking part in projects.
One of the refreshing things about the event was that the residency (for want of a better term) didn’t seem to revolve around the need for the students to make short films, and no films were shown at the event, though the young people were there and talked about their experiences. The residency was focused more on educational experiences for the students and also Continuing Professional Development for the teachers and encouraging whole school change to embrace media literacy across the whole curriculum. This was a good balance and gave the students a rounded experience of media literacy, and not only the easy win of the seduction of production. Dick Penny talked about the importance of schools to embrace the principles of media literacy and the need for young people to create media as well as deconstruct it to fully understand media, creating a Literacy in the fullest sense, and not only a sidelined media literacy. These are ideas I share and have written about previously (see here for a 2005 article for the Westminster Media Forum).
At the event all the teachers were enthusiastic about the educational, social and cultural potential of media professionals working with school students. Those of us who work in community media education know of the realities of this potential, as we have based our whole careers on it. The teachers were advocating for a network to be established which encouraged the partnerships between cultural industries and schools, and of course I applaud that advocacy, as would all those of us who work in community media education, and over the past 10 years or so this argument has been made a number of times, by teachers and us alike. One occasion the call has been heard for example, was when South West Screen in partnership with the Watershed funded the Media Education Hubs in circa 2002 (the one in Bristol ran out of funding circa 2005).
With each new generation of teachers comes a new enthusiasm to work together, which is great, and the Watershed and community media education advocates become the constant agencies who fly the flag of media literacy, so the teachers want to talk and work with us, which is great, but what we don’t possess is any of the clout and capital to actually embed media literacy into the education system, despite the enthusiasm of the teachers.
In 2005 my colleague Rob Mitchell from Firstborn Creatives gave a presentation titled ‘Getting the Head on board’, with primary school teacher Becky Davis from Oldbury Court School. We had worked with the school for a whole academic year, not just making films but also working on Continuing Professional Development for the teachers and encouraging whole school change to embrace media literacy across the whole curriculum. (Ironically, the venue where this talk was given was again at the Watershed!).
Rob & Becky’s talk centred on the cold fact that without the clout of the headteacher, any enthusiasm and good intentions of any individual teacher can count for nothing, rendering a powerful project as a one off event that fails to be built upon. (Luckily at Oldbury Court the headteacher was fully on board.) With headteacher’s power, soon follows capital, the other necessary ingredient needed for any network to work, or media literacy to be more than an idealistic academic theory and turn into an educational reality. For all the best will in the world, the reality is that community media education organisations need funding to turn ideas into interventions. Headteachers are the people to sell the idea to, and it was great to see the headteacher at Fairfield believing in the idea so much, that Anna the teacher is able to spend one day every week off-timetable to be based at the Watershed working alongside its staff. For other teachers in other schools, this is like some kind of mythical holy grail.
The powerful role of public funded organisations such as the Watershed is that they can act as an influential conduit to help build relationships between school management and media production & media education professionals, (and judging by the amount of times I’ve mentioned the Watershed’s events over the years in this article it is clear they have been trying to do this). That was partly the aim of last night’s event, to get that conversation started, and those conversations definitely happened (although it was mostly educationalists and mainstream media professionals present, and unfortunately not actually others from community media education. I’m sure they would have been invited though!).
It would be good now for all of us advocating media literacy to work together to take those conversations to the National Association of Head Teachers, and other such head teacher networks, to now get these conversations turned into strategic systems and naturalised ways of working in their schools, in partnership with the media education sector.
I know this is easier said than done, but I have to remain optimistic that in 10 years time we can have a seminar looking at the distance travelled since media literacy became embedded in the school system.
With that ambition, I also remain optimistic that the enthusiastic teachers of today that champion media literacy, are the headteachers of tomorrow, that by then are still championing media literacy, and leading by example.
Understandably, for people who don’t know the community media sector exists at all, it can often be difficult to get their head around exactly what community media is, and how such organisations operate. And even after being in existence now for 9 years working as a company, (Firstborn Studios - formerly known as Firstborn Creatives), it still isn’t always easy answering these queries in a concise way.
Here are some frequently asked questions, perceptions and misconceptions about community media in relation to Firstborn that I will explore below. If you have any others please feel free to add them in your comments. Sorry that it will also sound like an advert for Firstborn. Hopefully it is also informative about the activities of a tiny aspect of this community media sector. Lots of other organisations are out there also doing amazing work in this field. The following views are mine only and don’t necessarily reflect all the views at Firstborn. (Maybe they do, but I can’t speak for them!)
Q: Isn’t community media just another name for community radio?
A: No it isn’t. Community Radio is a large part of the sector, but not the only part. We are not a community radio station, and we are not a community television station either. We work primarily in video but also interactive, animation, graphics, photograpy and other visual digital media, working in a participatorary way with groups of partcipants, young and elders.
Q: But if you’re not a community television station, how does your work get seen?
A: Various ways. We mostly produce work for certain audiences, such as care workers, educators, etc. So rather than making films for the sake of making it, we would ensire that the end product is being used in some way afterwards, in addition to the process being a positive experience for those taking part. We sometimes distribute DVDs free in different places as moving image magazines. We also arrange screening events and specific spaces where work is being used, discussed, used in conferences, informing policy to MPs, whatever and wherever it will inject a different ‘voice’ into the ear of the audiences. We do very little work now that is about making films for films sake. For us the media in not the message. The medium is the process and the message is the end result. Both elements are important and vital to a rich participatorary creative experience.
A: Is all you do train people how to use cameras and how to edit.
Q: No, not at all. Take a look at some of the educational work we have done. 10% technical training + 90% intellectual engagement = 100% new skills and transferable experience. We do believe that there are very real cross-curricular gains to be had by taking part in participatorary media projects in the short, medium and long term for participants involved. Not only if they wanted to work in the media industry, but even if they want to do something completely different with their lives. Community media is about 90% community and 10% media. The full educational gains are there in spades, deeper than only mere training.
Q: What is it that makes you different than a “normal” production company?
A: Tricky question. We do produce direct commissioned work that is not working in a ‘workshopped’ participatorary way with individuals, but we still make sure that the only work we take on has social interest of some kind. We won’t do work that is plainly corporate with no social/community gain, or abour issues that we feel are contrary to the wishes of the communities that we serve. It would be easier to show you rather than try to describe it in words.
Q: Isn’t all community media work about bad quality sound and dodgy camera work?
A: Thankfully those days are now long gone! Just look at the quality of any of these videos for proof of that. Whether it’s working with a group of primary school children on a video project, or producing a documentary for television broadcast, we feel high production values are key to everyone involved being proud of their achievements and gaining value in the wider world. Very often community media products that have bad quality audio and picture get politely patronised by the audiences, who allow the bad quality due to it being made by a bunch of cute kids. I think everyone and anyone who has working in community media & arts will have been guilty of that at some point in their career I’m sure! Well we are really striving for a parity of quality in process, product and meaning, to ensure the experience has value from a 360 degree angle, and not only if you are the grandparents of the young producer involved.
Q: Do you only work with young people?
A: Even though a lot of our work has been with young people, especially the participatorary workshop projects we have done, we don’t work exclusively with young people. For example we also work with senior citizens groups, museums & heritage sector and also the health & well being sector. Here’s some examples of the latter.
Q: Aren’t all community media people anarchists and want to smash the state and see all mainstream media institutions like the BBC closed down?
A: No not at all. Nothing could be further from the truth. We see we play a valid role in creating and encouraging platforms for different ‘voices’ that are not aired on/in mainstream media, but we see our role as a compliment to mass media, and also a compliment to mainstream education. Not anti either of them. An alternative to them in certain instances – (e.g. to hear a different opinion in the media, and a different way of learning outside the classroom), but we work closely with mainstream media and formal education institutions and we always will. We see them as vital co-players in building an equal civil society, and acknowledge they have their role to play, within certain constraints and limitations, and we have ours. The anarchist side of community media is just one element of this sector, but like community radio, there are many many different aspects that not everyone working in it draws on. The anarchist radical media agenda of wanting a more democratic media and a fairer society are values that a lot of us working in less overtly political areas of community media also share, but we just choose to do our work in different ways with different motivations and agendas on our sleeves. A more free and open acces mass media would be great for all, but I don’t personally applaud the closing down of all these newspapers that are falling victim to the free online news culture and blog revolution. Mass media has its uses also. (This is too much to get into here. Maybe some other time!)
Q: Uhm..I’ve got a few more questions but I’d better stop here as otherwise you’ll be going on all day!!!
A: Yes, that’s a good idea. Good chatting with you. Get your people to call my people and we’ll do lunch. Mwah! Mwah!
Research by Ella Bissett Johnson
Edited by Shawn Sobers, and Steve Gear
Synopsis
This report is a timely and original development in the analysis of social interest creative practice. It takes the debate much further than merely exploring the merits of such projects, and directly provides an analysis of the economic and skills base for this area of work – the area of community media activity within the creative industries.
According to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the creative industries are now one of the fastest growing sectors in the British economy, and socially aware creative practice is now gaining a stronger profile and being taken seriously by a wide range of cultural agencies. We feel this report provides an important step in recognising not only the economic realities of these community minded organisations via case studies of the companies themselves and the freelancers they employ, but also charts the average skills contained in this community media/arts field of work, and highlights its future sustainability.
This report has been designed to be not only illuminating, but also be useful. It will be of interest to stakeholders of community based media & arts activity, including project facilitators, managers, funders and policy makers, and also for areas such as careers advice and academic fields such as media studies and social policy. Hopefully this report will provide a platform from which to make informed decisions with confidence, from which the sub-sector of community based media education activity can strategically grow and flourish.
To order from Amazon click here.To download full report as a pdf file click here.
Research funded by ABI Associates, University of the West of England and South West Screen
Supported by Calling the Shots and Firstborn Creatives
…….or bridging the gap?
Click here to watch a programme we (Firstborn Creatives) recently made for BBC1.
Posted in abolition, bbc, bristol, documentary, firstborn creatives, maafa, News & Events, representation, slave trade
Tagged abolition, bbc bristol, documentary, firstborn creatives, marvin rees
