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COMMUNiTY MEDIA REVIEW THE JOURNAL OF THE ALLIANCE FOR COMMUNITY MEDIA SUMMER 2005 www.comrnunitymediareview.org The all-in-one automation control solution from bightro~ Two-Channel Digital Video Player DVD Controller Digital Video Recorder VCR Controller VideoIAudio Router Messaging System multiple tasks, one tool 1 pioneering web-centric automation for access stations hen the Lr df Savage cut the community television ~dgetJ, eff was the only one left standing. He was expected maintain the quality and quantity of programming on their ~blica nd government channels ... by h~mselfW. ith Cablecast ~d Carousel, Tiahtrnpe Media Systems' powerful web- ntr~ca utomatior m, he is able to do just that. Jeff Renner, City of Savage Minnesota :ff took advantage of Cablecast's web interface along with ~rousel,it s built-in character generator. Any time he needed add messages to the Carousel system, he logged in from m ea nd updated it within seconds. Cablecast and Carousel e the centerpieces of a two-channel head end that cost the :y less than ten thousand dollars! If you really want to know how station managers feel about Cablecast, jump on the ACM mailing list and ask the people who already use it. If your station is exploring ways that it can use its head end more effectively, you need to see ~blecast. - Conneding Communities " " Alliance for Community Media mternational Conference & Trade Sho Summer 2005 CMR Editorial Board Jeffrey Hansel1 BWW ACES IUWOU Powerful Media 9 john W. Higgins by Mike Wassenaar MENO couu ND ACCU su FRMCISCO Margie Nicholson >f Directors 11 Karen Toering Media Literacy as Social Change 13 RKMH TM MUA by 'Belinda Rawlins &Jeff Smith Editors-in-Chief This Issue Bdinda Rawlims Aeicles jdf Smith Making Media That Matters In Minutes 14 Managing Editors 5wtt E. Alumbaqh by Xob Williams, Th.9. rim GOO~W~" National Office The Radical Education Roadshow 18 Anthony Riddle, Executive Director by %me Elizabeth Moore ~ x g Wmma -DanieI$, Adwrtjsinz :ales Alliance for Community Media In Her 1mage:ProducingW omanhood in America 2 Board of Directors by 'Julia 'Barry Tom Bishop, Alan Bu$hmg, SXI Bwke, Rich Dsimone, Robert Dwine, lmya Gonzalez, Playing Dead 24 JXW HOFWW~, (had JO~M~OSh~a,m King, Mark Lindt, Kealfi Lopez, Hy+g Park, by Shannon Tetrello SIW Ranieri, my Richard, itsikah maria ros, h a m St. john-Crane, Matt Schu%ler, julienne her, Dwid vogel, Mike wmnaar lhe Cinema of Power Relationships: Low Tech, High Concept 26 by Tom .Zanid0 Alliance b#ki Seventh Graders Talk Back.. . In a Good Way! 28 Community Media by Claudia Crase COKHUNI~M ~REAVIEW [IS~NIO W~OisO p~ub]- More Media, Not More News 32 lished qwldy by the Alliance lor CommuniIy by Francis Rolt nedia, IK Subxciptims $35 a year. piem setid ~ubscription~,m embeuhips, address hang^, adwti$ing 2nd editacid inquiries to the Alliaw Re-inventing the Wheels of Social Change 34 for Community Media, 666 11th Sf. NW, Suite by James Tiecowye 140, Washingfon, DC IOOOI-4541. reltphm 101.393.1650 voice, 101,393.1653 lax. Email; am@alliance~m.wg or visit the Ailiance for Making Media That Matters In Minutes 37 (ommuniq Media website at www.dlimem.org. by John 3Lrke Requem fw bulk ~ d mmside red in advme of public~tion. Contact the national office for De-stigmatize This 40 me$an * de~iwrr. by gntonio Correia and like-mindedgroups topreient &~cs critical to ZheAlliance. From the Executive Director The Inevitability of Progress, Part One by Anthony Riddle "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable ... Every step to- ward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals." The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. w E FIND THESE WORDS to be self-evi- to decode it. We are filled with messages dent. None but a few of us in the which contradict what we know from our Alliance do this work to become rich. We "real" lives. engage in this struggle because we believe Quoting Jerry Mander from his book, in its transformative power on the com- Ten Argumentsfor the Elimination of Tele- munities in which we live. Believe the vision, "Americans have not grasped the idea that we struggle to bring people to- fact that many technologies determine Anthony Riddle is the Executive Director of the gether, to encourage the mastery of tech- their own use, their own effects, and even Alliance for Community nology, to create a process of democratic the kind of people who control them. We Media communications, to help people under- have not yet learned to think of technol- .~.y,, , stand themselves and their relationship ogy as having ideology built into its very Anthony can be reached at ::>>X, tthoe tmhes ewlvoersld. of technology they create for forImf .'o' ur communities are to stand and [email protected] ~ ,. ,, :: The world of technology that they create play a role in determining the direction for themselves. any new technology takes, then they first Let this be well understood: That it is have to understand, on a very conscious we who create technology. That we cre- level, how media is developed, how it is ate the technology for our own purposes. ingested, who controls it and what its pur- That we must make those purposes clear. poses are. Media literacy is not a hobby And that the technology we create must for elite scholars. Media literacy is as fun- serve those purposes - never the other damental to our citizenship as the right way around. to vote. What good is freedom of choice In the sense of the words of Dr. King without access to information? What above, there is nothing automatic about good is information without understand- the direction of technology or "progress," ing? there is nothing inevitable about the form If we are to mobilize communities to of invention, there is nothing innately take control of their own communica- beautiful about innovation that is not tions destiny, we must begin by entrust- directly related to the values we hold as ing them with the ability to understand a people. fully the relationships between subject. The focus on media literacy by the Al- camera, eye, mind and power. liance and other practitioners in the com- It is not enough to embrace change munity media field is precisely a response We must confront change. We must de to the helplessness so many people feel be- construct change. We must engage our fore the onslaught of high budget movie community in that deconstruction. Then, extravaganzas, 24-hour cable news, mass we must rebuild change in the image of emailing, endless web-surfing, the rise of that process of community. This can only blogs, the consolidation of commercial be accomplished by a people who are me- television and radio. Everyday, new media literate, dia is thrown our way. Its messages come at us faster, sometimes, than we are able "Classic MTV ^ , I C SHOWCASE A CHANNEL FOR THE ARTS Free Content for Your PEG Channel High Quality Arts Programming From Satellite Galaxy 1 R -5 Commercial Free 24 Hours Vintage and Contemporary Treasures From the World of - - OPERA BALLET - SYMPHONY - CHAMBER MUSIC - - THEATRE - CLASSIC FILM - CHORAL ANIMATION FINE ART - FOLK ART - ARCHITECTURAL ART - and more. .. Contact: Charlie Mount (323)8 78-0283 [email protected] www.classicartsshowcase.org Brought to you by The Lloyd E. Rigler - Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation From the Alliance Chair Powerful Media by Mike Wassenaar TH E MOST POWERFUL piece of media I than consume media. .. SO WHAT?" have seen in the last six months is a Media literacy provides a "so what," six-minute video feature called Fatherless. and posits the need for an engaged popu- Through poetry, collage and interviews, lace in an active democracy. And it pro- Fatherless talks about the effect growing vides a strong sense of mission for the up without a father has had on African- educational work that access television American teenagers. and media centers do in our communi- The most remarkable thing about Fa- ties. We may be teaching IRE levels and therless is that it was produced by two editing techniques, but at the same time sixteen year-old young women who have we should be teaching necessary skills to clarity on an issue that adults twice their engage other people in our profoundly age rarely display. What's not remarkable "mediated democracy. to me is that these two young producers Which brings me back to the video, Fa- tive Director of Saint Paul did their work directly as a result of me- therless. The piece produced by the two Neighborhood Network dia literacy training. sixteen year-olds started as an exercise and is the Chair of the Na- Media literacy as a discipline presents in video instruction, and the crafting of tional Board of the Alliance a unique opportunity for community ac- messages in modern television. The piece for Community Media. cess television organizations and media is now being used in after-school classes centers as we look to the future. Many in our community to help teenagers make Mike can be reached at centers already implicitly support this better choices with their lives, and think wassenaar@s~nn.org type of work. We teach people how to be- about the effect they may have on the come producers, rather than consumers next generation. It may seem a small case, of media. We help non-profits, commu- but I would argue that's media power we nity groups or government organizations shouldn't ignore. tell their stories to audiences because commercial media aren't interested in them. We connect veovle with communities. And we're actually pretty good at the "how" of this business. But many times we're not good at the "why" of community media, the reason for all of our day-to-day activity. Perhaps it's because many practitioners of community media fell into their profession, rather than receive a "calling." Or it could be the lack of institutional memory in many organizations. Or perhaps the independent spirit and culture of D-I-Y that pervades much of what we do isolates us from oth- ers in our profession. There are probably many other valid reasons why many of us are bad at explaining the "why" of community media. 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