Participants from last year’s making Media Connections Conference share their experiences making connections, meeting experts, finding the right consultants and pitching the right journalists to get their story out. Check out more videos here
There’s a saying around here at Community Media Workshop, “When YOU succeed, WE succeed” and it can’t make us any more happier when we see participants of our training and annual conference shine.
Sounding a bit idealistic? Well… maybe, but for many of our participants, getting results is a very real thing – especially if you attend our annual conference. Read the rest of this entry »
Just picking up on the theme of new news, in the “truth is stranger than fiction” category:
Dan Pacheco is no slouch in the world of citizen journalism: his printcasting.com site promises to help you “start your own local magazine in minutes” (intrigued? I am) and has grant support from the Knight Foundation. But as he posted June 15, “Citizen Media Goes Fisher Price” (also at PBS MediaShift Idea Lab, where I first read it) his daughter scooped him and the rest of the news media with a tornado picture she snapped with a Fisher-Price camera in the suburbs of Denver earlier this week.
In a nutshell, there’d been some freaky weather in the Denver area for several days, so Dan was on the lookout already for tornados; his daughter walked into the home office to tell him she’d spotted a weird cloud, he went to grab his camera, tweeted it , and started taking pictures. The 6-year-old naturally grabbed her camera as well (who knew fisher price made a $64 digital camera?) And they all ended up on the local TV news. Anyway, read it there, at his blog, as Dan tells the story great, with video and pictures.
His takeaway is that “a confluence of inexpensive, accessible consumer technology, and microblogging sites like Twitter and Facebook, has lowered the barriers of entry so far to make me think we’re witnessing the birth of a completely new — and arguably better — breaking news system that involves everyone.”
Yes! but also, that new system is still going to incorporate some kind of Big Media that reaches out to wider audiences.(Like, in this story CBS 4, the local TV news guys). That role is still key to a better news ecosystem. Anyway, I get a kick out of imagining a 6-year-old on the weather–or any other–beat.
Lauri Apple and Rebecca Wellisch from Women Employed took time out of their work to answer a few questions about how the organization is using social media to advance its mission:
Q. You mentioned you’ve been using social networks that you already know about from your personal life to spread the good word about Women Employed. Why is WE doing this now?
Using social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook enables us to reach new audiences and keep our supporters apprised of our initiatives. They help us reach out to people in their teens, 20s, and 30s, with whom these sites are especially popular, and help engage the next generation of advocates for workplace equity. And they offer tremendous flexibility — we can post links to articles, inform people about events, and recruit new supporters, with a level of ease that a regular paper newsletter or even an e-newsletter (which takes time to create) can’t offer.
Q. Why should nonprofits consider making promotional videos like Women Employed’s 35th anniversary video? What are the benefits?
When Workshop storyteller trainer Susan O’Halloran was interviewed by New York Times Chicago Bureau Chief Monica Davey for a Sunday pre-election story on preparations for Barack Obama’s election night celebration in Grant Park, little did she know her story about being chased by police out of Grant Park in 1968 would lead to her becoming a citizen journalist for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation.
The CBC contacted Sue and gave her a camera to document her election day experiences–from getting out the vote in Evanston to joining the crowds welcoming the president elect and his family in Grant Park. The subsequent CBC report can be seen here.
For us at the Workshop, hearing how you go on to success doesn’t just make us feel good (it does)–it’s why we’re here.
New commercial development and neighborhood revitalization is moving ahead for Quad Communities Development Corp., straddling Chicago’s Kenwood-Oakland, Douglas and Grand Boulevard neighborhoods on the South Side (plus a bit o’ Bronzeville). Now that heat is generating some light, with a story and video clip by The Chicago Tribune a couple days ago.
“I hate how I look on here but I wanted to share it with you!” Bernita Gabriel, director at QCDC emailed. You look — and sound — great, Bernita!
Meanwhile, another workshop participant this past year, Susan Layug (who came to our media justice and making media Crossroads Fund Workshop) produced and aired a story on Chicago Public Radio’s Eight Forty Eight this week. Read the rest of this entry »
A coalition of community and civil rights groups recently looked at issues ranging from crime to transportation and gave the city an overall grade of D. […]
Ten Questions You Should Ask Before Doing Any Election Reporting You want to focus on the election issues critical for black and immigrant communities, here’s good resource. Come to our ethnic news media election briefing on Friday, Oct. 1. Experts will offer details and up to date insights on issues critical to the Chicago area’s [...] […]
Studs Terkel’s community-driven stories and natural ability to give a voice to us all, no matter what side of the tracks we lived on, made him one of Chicago’s most iconic journalists. An eclectic disk jockey he was, as any listener to his weekday morning program on WFMT could attest. A man of many hats, [...] […]
Recorded May, 2009 Children in Chicago’s North Lawndale community are at a higher risk of getting asthma. According to the Sinai Urban Health Institute, one in four children in that neighborhood have asthma. That’s almost double city-wide and national averages.So what is it about North Lawndale that puts children at an increased risk? Who – [...] […]
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