Community Media Review, Vol. 20, No. 2, 1997

28 Pages·1997·16.9 MB·

,7
with the
l
l Interactive Video Bulletin Board
THE CHANNEL THAT TAKES REQUESTS:
Lets viewers choose what they see.
Handles up to 999 topics of any length.
Prints reports of what viewers choose.
Gives documented proof of viewership.
Uses PC word processor files as input.
Fast, easy setup and maintenance.
Now in use in over 27 U.S. cities.
f What current owner-ooerators sav about '1
bard:
( the Interactive video Bulletin J
'I can watch it taking calls from my office, and know
that we're serving the community. The feedback helps
us understand our viewing audience's likes and
dislikes. '
-David Vogel, General Manager,
Community Television of Knoxville
"Since placing the system in service, we have seen a
communitv resoonse that now exceeds 18.000 inauiries
per month The Interactive Video Bulletin Board has
become an integral part of our community service
programm -
Ian N. Wheeler, Executive Director,
Fairfax Cable Access Corporation
'Since installing the Interactive Video Bulletin Board,
we've gotten more interest and participation from non-
profits than we had in the last 10 years. It's less work,
more effective, and it's fun for viewers to use!'
-
Lynn Carillo-Cruz, Former Executive Director,
Quote. .. Unquote, Albuquerque
'It's the lowest-cost, highest-impact service we offer to
local non-profits. During September.. .participating
organizations reported that an average of 65% of their
calls resulted from viewership of the Interactive Video
Bulletin Board. '
- Barbara Popovic, Executive Director,
Chicago Access Corporation
For a b r o c h z
INTERACTIVE PUBLICATIONS
1651 N. DAYTON STREET, SUIT.306, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60614
312-042-0884 FAX: [phone]
,-
In this Issue
Building Community Through Medi
by Alan Bushon
Training for Community Development
by jesikah maria ross and Kelly L. Aiken
Nurturing Learning Communities
by Paula Manley
Volume 20, No. 2
The 1967 Fogo Island Project
CMR EDITORIAL BOARD
Dirk Koning, Chair
-.- Video Afterlife
d,
Barbara pkkex, Todd Samusso~ Shaping Community Organizi
%'%
EDITORS-IN C F THIS ISSUE
jesikah maria ross
Kelly L. Aiken
PUBLISHER Training for Empowerment
Barry Forbes by jesikah maria ross
COORDINATING EDITORS
Jim Peters &Lorraine Richey
CTCNet
Training
NATIONAL OFFICE For Democracy and Empowerment
Barry Forbes, Executive Director by Antonia Stone and Peter Mille
Kelly Matthews, Director of
Member Services
.
Jeffrev HODSD. irector of Participatory Learning and Action
L .
Government Relations
Adapted from Participatory Learning & Action:
BOARD OF DIRECTORS A Trainer's Handbook, by Jules N. Pretty, Irene
Alan Bushong, Chair Gujit, Ian Scoones, and John Thompson How Adults Learn
Richard D. Turner. Vice Chair
Velvalee Wiley, Treasurer
Judy Crandall, Secretary
Brian A. Wilson, Chair of Regional Chairs Evaluating Training Programs
Ruben Abreu, Randy Amon, Rob Brading,
by Kelly L. Aiken
Pam Colby, Onida Coward, John Donovan,
Vince Hamilton, Rick Hayes, Michael Henry, Information Collection Meth
Kate Hiller, James Horwood, Debbie Mason,
Erik Mollberg, John A. Rocco,
EE:
Gladys Rogers, David Vogel,
Sue Diciple Wedding, Directors GRTV: An Evaluation Case Study
by Chuck Peterson
COMMUNITY
The Voices and Visions
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Copyright 01997 by the Alliance for Community Media,
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From the Editors
Training for Community Development
by jesikah maria ross and Program profiles highlight the effective community-building vision into action.
Kelly L. Aiken training techniques currently used by Talking to trainers around the country,
I
n our increasingly fragmented and Access centers in the field. we discovered that many seek opportuni-
media-focused society, community To begin, we revisit our community ties to develop their facilitation and
ccess centers are uniquely positioned media history by looking at Canada's communication skills. The fields of
to bring people together to share arts and Challenge for Change (CFC) project and nonformal and adult education provide
culture, create public dialogue, the lasting implications teaching strategies particularly relevant to
and address local issues. Improv- it has had for Access in their needs. In A Trainer's Guide: Partici-
ing conditions of community life this country. Paula patory Learning and Action, Jules N.
is the cornerstone of the Access Manley connects the Pretty et al. discuss how adults learn and
mission. Community develop- past with the present by the essential elements of a creative
ment-increasing people's citing the importance of learning environment. Adult educator
capacity for civic participation, CFC in The "New" Laurie Lippin contributes simple training
public dialogue, and integration Work ofAccess Centers: techniques such as trust building exercises
into community affairs-is the Nurturing Learning that can be incorporated into Access
Access goal. Communities. training programs to improve group
Training programs are often Manley's article calls dynamics.
the main avenue to for a new direction in In Evaluating Training Programs
operationalize our community our work at Kelly Aiken discusses
development goals. For this Access centers. evaluation as an ongoing,
reason, training is one of the Her visionary integrated component of
most important tasks of media thinking takes program planning and
access centers. With 25 years of us beyond implementation. She
experience, Access practitioners possess a technical training to focus on the outlines three types of
solid background in successfully teaching needs and interests of trainees by evaluation and provides
community members how to use televi- consciously building learning practical ways to gather
sion equipment. But how do we create communities. information so as to inform
training programs that not only build Based on our field experience, trainers, trainees, directors,
technical skills but also encourage we realized that there are many and even policy makers
. .
empowerment, community engagement, terms in the Access vocabulary Kelly L. Aiken about the impact of Access
and critical perspective? This issue of that have achieved universal centers. The evaluation case
CMR explores that question by looking acceptance but lack clear definitions and study provided by Chuck Peterson
back over our history, consulting allied realistic application in Access training describes the benefits of assessing an
fields, and gathering reports from programs. We asked several Access training program and the results of
Access centers across the media educators to define his center's formal evaluation.
country. two commonly used Other program case studies with
We created this CMR to terms: empowerment different approaches to training and
serve as a resource for and community community development are integrated
helping community access organizing. John throughout the issue. Denise Zaccardi
N
centers increase the Higgins provides a tells us about a youth program in Chicago
effectiveness of their working definition of designed to address community issues
training programs. Our focus empowerment in the through the media arts. Linda Iannacone
is not on technology or the use article Trainingf or introduces us to an Access outreach
of equipment. Rather, we Empowerment, and jesikah program for community-based organiza-
emphasize community-building tech- maria ross, drawing on her interview with tions in New York City. Lauren-Glenn
niques and developing media communica- Higgins, addresses how to incorporate Davitian profiles computer training for
tion skills to enhance participation in "empowering moments" into Access economic development in the Northeast
public affairs. Many of the articles discuss training programs. Todd Samusson while Antonia Stone and Peter Miller
methods to achieve community develop- discusses community organizing as a address building partnerships around the
ment outcomes. Others offer teaching and central tenet of Access in Public Access country and conducting technology
learning strategies for designing, deliver- Television: Shaping Community Organiz- training programs for democracy and
ing, and evaluating training programs. ing, offering specific ways to turn a See From the Editors, page 19...
CMR 5
The "New" Work o fA ccess Centers
Nurturing Learning Communities
by Paula Manley
e do important work as community media practi-
tioners. By providing citizens with access to
powerful communication tools and training in their
use, we seek to encourage self-confidence, facilitate commu-
nity dialogue, build shared understanding, and increase
people's capacity for participation in public life. This is
community development work; it
is our reason for being.
Through community access
training efforts over the past 25
years, thousands of people around
the United States have learned
video production skills; yet most
access practitioners would agree
we have not fully realized our
community development potential.
All too often we are more focused
on making TV shows than nurtur-
ing community communication,
Photo courtesy Tualatin Valley Community Ac
and in our drive to "fill channels
we seek to encourage self-confidence,
I...
with Programming" we have been
facilitate c o m d td~ial ogue, build shared
understanding, and increasepeople's !mown lose "ght of ourfunda-
To understand the community
development potential of today's access organizations, we can
look to our history-the Challenge for Change project of the
Canadian Film Board-which was the inspiration for
community access television in the United States. Initiated in
1966, Challenge for Change sought to "improve communica-
tions, create greater understanding, promote new
ideas and provoke social change," according to a
1971 newsletter article written by Regional
Projects Producer Dorothy Todd Hknaut. In a
variety of neglected and problem-ridden commu-
nities throughout Canada, Challenge for Change
media makers acted as community facilitators-
social animators-who engaged communities in
In an early Challenge for Change project on
Fogo Island (see case study, left), extensive
filming, community screenings and discussions
led to tangible results, including a boat-building
collective and a new fish processing plant. These
developments greatly improved conditions on this isolated
island community of 5,000. On Fogo Island, and in many
other communities, Challenge for Change demonstrated that
media could be used to help increase community confidence
and willingness to take action.
Although more than three decades have passed since the
See Nurturing, page 18
6 CMR
Public Access Television " I i
Shaping Community Organizing
by Todd Samusson access television workers in the U.S. together to make a public accessvideotape
E
very day all over the planet, people have been using television as a tool for is ultimately more powerful and lasting
are engaged in community organiz- community organizing-a tool used by than the product you produce. Let's
ing. Somewhere working parents "people working together to get things assume you're making use of public access
are organizing a daycare co-op. A village done." television to address an issue in your
is struggling to build a new sewer system. Community Organizing and community. What are you likely to
People are helping each other recover Public Access. In April, at the North- experience?
from a flood. Citizens are mobilizing to west Re- First of all, your group will have to
stop a development from destroying a clarify and define the issue among
wetland. Workers are trying to get yourselves. What does this issue mean to
decent wages. A each person involved? How do you, as a
group, define the issue? Who do you want
Conference, George to reach with your production? How do
Stuney shared a clip of the very first you want to frame the issue to reach your
cuts. Around the citizen-made video production, VTR-St. intended audience? Which aspects of the
world, people are Jacques. It was made in Quebec by low- issue are most important to raise? What
organizing. income citizens struggling with eco- sequence do you want to use to present
My neighborhood in southeast nomic issues. An exchange between two your ideas? What images and sounds do
Portland, Oregon has its own listserv and people in the clip went as follows: yon want to use?
on-line discussion group. Our neighbor- Young woman: "I'm learning to work Planning a video production involves
hood association is developing a plan to with a citizen's committee." countless decisions and choices. When
maintain the area's livability as the Interviewer (a member of the commu- you're working with a group, many of
population grows. Community-wide nity): "What's that?" those choices are made collectively. That
meetings are underway to make this town Young woman: "A group of people who See Shaping, page 17...
more bicycle friendly. A local college have decided to take control of their
offers an adult education course called lives."
"Community Organizing 101." Last There it was in a black and white,
November, southeast Portland turned out dimly lit image: Public access television
the strongest support in America for as a community organizing tool being
consumer advocate Ralph Nader's bid for born.
the U.S. presidency. In my town, people It's the Process and the Product.
are organizing. I'll come right out and state my bias:
What is Community Organizing? In
human systems, things don't happen by
accident. They have to be organized.
Musician and community organizer Si
Kahn has the best definition I've come
across. "Organizing is people working
together to get things done," reads the very
first line of his book, Organizing (1986).
Simple and to the point. I read that 15
years ago and it still holds up.
Today we live in a media-driven,
techno-gadget, whiz-bang culture full of
more consumerist distractions than you
can list during a commercial break. With
its insistence on excessive consumption, access television is the idea of an end
competition and individualism, the media product-a TV show. The most obvious
culture furthers our social isolation. A benefit of using television is its capabil-
recent study of 91 countries rated the ity to send a message to an audience.
United States highest in emphasis on the From an organizer's point of view, this is
individual and lowest in emphasis on but one of many aspects of using video.
collaboration. Yet for 25 years, public The process involved in working
CMR 7
Studies by John W Higgens
Training for Empowerment
by jesikah maria ross Granted, there is anecdotal evidence allow persons not only to become more
T
his article focuses on the specifics that something is going on that "looks discriminating viewers, but also to actively
of the vision of public access, and like" empowerment. However, if public speak out in the
the point at which that vision access to video communication is to media and shape their
moves into implementation: training. A survive and flourish, it will be necessary to social world. Thus,
few years ago, John Higgins conducted a provide policy makers with more specific they would discover
study as part of his doctoral dissertation documentation of its uses and benefits. their own "voice."
that investigated whether or not the vision So what is the empowerment This vision of
actually does what it says: help that is proposed by public empowerment
citizens empower access? In most of through puhlic access
themselves through video training was
video training. The to take place, in part, literature, you shared by practitio-
inquiry led him through video have to read ners, academics, and
through an interesting between the lines. others. It is a vision
maze of intersecting And this sort of widely accepted
ideas that community television and reading is much easier when today-to the point
media literacy proponents may find the "vision thing" is put into a historical that its assumptions
interesting. context. are often considered
Empowerment: What is it? In The Vision of Public Access. In the sacrosanct, unques-
doing his study, Higgins sifted through 25 late 1960s and early 70s an old idea-that tioned within the
years of literature related to puhlic access some social injustices might be addressed movement itself.
produced by the alternative video move- by technology-was given a new focus: Critics, however.
ment, scholars, cable companies, govem- portable video. The idea went like this: point to at least three
ment agencies, and research think tanks. In With the new portable video equipment problems with the
two and a half decades, all of these sources for program creation, and the emerging puhlic access vision:
had talked about something called broadband cable television for a distrihu- 1) the vision is too
"empowerment," but very few had defined tion system, the inequities of a monopoly- dependent on
it. No one had really studied systemati- controlled broadcast media system would technology as a cure-all, 2) it does not
cally whether such a thing as "empower- have to he addressed. Everyday people address the necessary structural changes in
ment" is a consequence of participation in would have their voices heard through the society for authentic change, and 3) there
the production of puhlic access programs. electronic media, and others would be able is no real attention paid to the process by
to hear the rich diversity of perspectives which the vision is to be implemented.
their neighbors had to offer. Let's take a closer look at this third point.
The "diversitv of ideas" that was to be Empowerment Defined. The
visions-in particular, that of ' ~to empo~werment have~ much in ~ ~ i ~ ~
individual and group common with the areas of
empowerment. In this vision, create visual literacy, media ednca-
empowerment meant television tion, and critical pedagogy (see
becoming aware of one's sidebar on page 23 for re-
self, others, and society, and would sources). In particular, the
after one had a "voice," demvstifvt he media education and critical
actively working to influence ..." pedagogy literatures 1) more
society. media fullv describe "emnowerment".
This empowerment was 2) delineate the ingredients of
to take place, in part, through empowerment within a video
video production training. Learning to training context, and 3) suggest a direction
create television would demystify the for training methods which might help
media as individuals became aware of advance the concept of empowerment.
media structure and influence. Participat- Based on the contributions from these
ing in the production of television pro- sources, Higgins defined empowerment as
I
grams would lead to a "visual literacy" as similar to Brazilian educator Paulo
individuals learned how to "read" and Freire's "praxis": practice and reflection.
"write" media codes. These skills would See Training, page 22
8 CMR
For Democracy and Empowerment
CMR 9
A Trainer's Guide
Participatory Learning and Action
Adapted from Participatory miners can impart skills and enhance the people do well or poorly and are unable to
Learning & Action: A Trainer's mowledge of trainees, participants, adult change. Yet all adults have the continuing
Handbook, International Institute earners, and students. These people can ability to learn. As trainers you can
for Environment and :hen apply what they learn to change their encourage learning by incorporating the
Development, 1995, by Jules N. aehavior and attitudes about themselves different learning styles adults develop to
Pretty, Irene Gujit, Ian Scoones, md others, to get involved in local issues accommodate their learning preferences.
and John Thompson. af importance to them, and to participate In his book, Experiential Learning:
T
eaching and Learning. Although in community Exoerience
the basic objective of training as the Source
should be to create a learning
environment, it is regrettably often about
teaching. Teaching is what we are all used
to. Most of our time in school or college is
characterized by teaching. One person, the
teacher, stands at the front of rows of
students or children. This one person
knows something, and is trying to encour- tutor, and teacher.
age the others to know it, too. It is formal, The people you are four learning modes to
and often has little to do with learning. working with are trainees, - accommodate most
Learning is not usually an outcome of but also participants, students learning styles.When
formal teaching. Instead, it comes from a and learners. None of these terms is integrated, these learning
process of self-development through entirely satisfactory. In this article, we use modes build the kinds of abilities that
experience. So trainers who aim to both 'trainer' and 'facilitator' to describe learners need if they are to be effective.
encourage learning have a particular the same role and 'participant' and The four learning modes are
challenge. They have to do something 'trainee' when referring to the people 1. Concrete experience: participating
quite different if they are to be agents of attending your sessions or workshops. fully, openly, and without bias in new
change. This article deals with how The actions you initiate should always experiences,
lead to growth for the trainees. This is the 2. Reflective observation: reflecting on
basic building block of all training. and observing experiences from many
Learning is about developing yourself. To perspectives,
achieve success, trainees have to be 3. Abstract conceptualization: creating
encouraged to take responsibility for their concepts that integrate observations
own learning experience so that it contin- into logically sound ideas or theories,
ues long after the training workshop has and
ended. 4. Active experimeutatiou: using ideas
In almost every training situation, you and theories to make decisions and
will encounter a diverse group of people solve problems.
with different training needs and learning Most people develop learning styles
preferences. The learning approaches you that emphasize some learning abilities
use should cater to these different needs. over others. Busy managers, for example,
They should be chosen keeping in mind are usually strong on active experimenta-
some basic facts about adult learning tion but weak on reflective observation
processes (see How Adults Learn, this skills; an academic may have the opposite
page). In particular, it is important to note skills; a community organizer may be
that people learn best when they feel they strong on concrete experience but weak on
are in control of the learning process, abstract conceptualization. Such differ-
rather than receiving a lesson. Participants ences in learning styles can create prob-
learn best when they are actively involved lems for trainers, particularly if they do
and motivated. not pay attention to the mix of skills,
On Being A Learner. Most trainers attitudes and experience present in
do not pay sufficient attention to indi- participants.
vidual learning capacity. The ability to What is clear, though, is that all
learn is widely regarded as something See A Trainer's Guide, page 24...
10 CMR