This video was prodcued by the Academic Communications Team for the Green Gown Awards 2015. It features the College of Arts and Humanities’ Brighton Waste House and explains the reasons behind it’s creation and how it is influencing green design.
Filmed with Canon 5D and 24-105mm lens and Cannon 600d 50mm 1.8 lens.
Audio: Shotgun Mic plugged into an Edirol
Music: Odyssey, Kevin Macleod. incompetech.com
This video was prodcued by the Academic Communications Team for the Interior Architecture course. Covering their CONTEXT WORKSHOP WEEK – An experimental teaching/learning format through a short and intense project activity.
For a week all Interior Architecture BA(Hons) students will participate to the Context Workshop Week – a five days intensive learning activity – as part of the Contexts and Practices modules.
The aim of Contexts and Practices is to introduce specific skills, techniques and processes that will inform student’s design practice and thinking. It consists of a series of staged events meant to provide the students with the ability to explore design ideas.
Filmed with Canon 5D and 24-105mm lens and Cannon 600d 50mm 1.8 lens.
A short video interview I helped a media studies student make about taxidermy for the College of Arts and Humanities website.
Event: Jane Eastoe, The Art of Taxidermy. 9 April 2015
Video shot with Canon 600d and 50mm 1.8 lens.
Here is a video I recently produced for an exhibition at the University Gallery, College of Arts and Humanities.
Elements of Architecture 'Wall of Windows' from Arts Brighton on Vimeo.
An exhibition by the Brooking National Architectural Museum at the University of Brighton, College of Arts and Humanities, 9th March – 10th April 2015
Shot with Canon 5D and 24-105mm lens
I didn’t know that I have been using ‘photo elicitation’, until I read Douglas Harper’s paper, ‘Talking about pictures: a case for photo elicitation’.
In simple terms, photo elicitation is the method of using images as an aid to interviewing.
Working with young people to produce pieces of journalism, I use photo elicitation as a tool to drum up ‘story’ ideas that the young people can investigate. When working with a group, I would split them into two smaller groups and give them a camera each. They would then work as a team to come up with 5 issues that are affecting them. Once the issues have been decided the group then stage a ‘freeze frame’ moment that represents the issues and then take a photo of it.
Once all 5 issues have been photographed, I would bring the group together and each group would show their photo to the other. The task for each group was to try and work out what was happening in the photo and what issue it represented.
This would ignite a lot of debate from the guesswork (often finding that they had interpreted the images in a different way as it was intended), and from here I would be able to elicit extra information about the issue and why the young people had chosen it.
Harper’s paper touches upon some interesting points about photo elicitation that coincided with my own experience of using that technique.
“It’s ability to prod latent memory, to stimulate and release emotional statements and the informant’s life” p14
Young people may be unable to come forward with emotional statements in front of a group, but I found that photo elicitation did bring out ideas and issues that they would not be able to identify without an image stimulus, which links to the next point.
“In these examples the photographs become something like a Rorschach ink blot in which people of different cultures spin out their respective worlds of meaning. This procedure is fueled by the radical but simple idea that two people standing side by side looking at identical objects, see different things.” p22
The different interpretations of the photos, along with the interview would help increase the list of potential stories we could investigate. Often finding that there was a deeper meaning to the ‘freeze frame’ issue that was photographed.
“The parts of the brain that process visual information are evolutionarily older than the parts that process verbal information. Thus images evoke deeper elements of human consciousness that do words;” p13
I have found that activities that stay away from reading and writing help to engage hard to reach young people.
Through using photo elicitation in a participatory form, I have found it to be an engaging and empowering activity for young people as it:
Reference:
Harper, D ‘Talking about pictures: a case for photo elicitation’ Visual Studies, Vol 17, No. 1, 2002, Routledge.
Shawn Sobers ‘What is the definition of Community Media, and what is the prime area of emphasis for this research?’ First Born Creatives in association with the University of the West of England 2005 p5
I’ve been interviewed for a community media project. Have I been empowered?
Participation Vs. Access
If a community media reporter is out in the field and interviewing members of the community about an issue, does that member feel that they have been empowered, and have they benefitted from the community media process?
The reporter has gone through the media technical skills training, and has been encouraged to investigate an issue that interests them. They have also benefitted from the other ‘stealth’ skills, such as an increase in confidence, team work, self -esteem etc. The reporter also gets a sense of achievement and a sense of doing something positive for their community. This person has been empowered by the community media participation process.
The individual community member that has been interviewed for the media piece, may not have gained technical media skills and ‘stealth’ skills by missing out on the participation process, however, getting access to the community media process does give them some benefits. They will feel that their voice has been heard and documented about the issue affecting them. They will feel that they have been involved in some sort of community decision-making process, and finally they may encounter another ‘stealth’ benefit from having an interaction with the improved and now socially aware reporter; thus creating better community cohesion.
Therefore, is access to community media enough for a community? I would say yes.
However, there is a caveat to that.
Rural Vs. Urban
Dagron (2007) highlights the impact that community media has on rural areas. He talks about media that is targeted at smaller less populated localised areas, which has a relevance and importance to its audience and is something that cements their identity. These community media channels are vital in sending messages and news to these groups. Compare this to the mainstream media that broadcasts to the masses and therefore has a message from their ‘sponsors’ that is not relevant to and detached from the rural community.
The question of whether access is enough for an urban community appears to be answered in the negative. Community media in urban settings can be seen as a ‘mirage’, as the possibility of saturation can confuse and divide communities. An urban community member being interviewed for a community media piece may not have a direct connection to the reporter and never see the finished community media article. That community member might also get bombarded by other community media reporters; asking them other questions about other issues. This could result in the community member having a diluted notion of having their considered opinions heard.
Another issue with the saturation of community media in the urban environment is the competition factor for the Activists. Limited funding streams, with sometimes requirements to work with niche communities can lead to competition. Competition can sometimes be seen as healthy, but is it for community media?
And often with those funding stipulations, the “Good willed allies often popularized ideas that were more related with their personal political views rather than the complexity of media at grass root level” Dagron (2007) p202, get pushed to the forefront and the true notion of participation gets coerced into a direction not recognisable.
Can these community media projects be joined up in someway? I am not sure. In my experience you can get community media activists organisations to sit around a table and talk about how important it is to join up the dots, but once people leave the table and are back to work, doing that extra bit of work to create the network can fall down.
Combat the noise
This noise in the urban setting can result in the participation process being seen as a mirage, and the message in the community media being lost. However, a skilled Activist can combat this. The Activist skill in facilitating the community media reporters is to alert them to this ‘noise’ and help them identify the relevant audiences that the message will have meaning for and help them use channels that will get that message to it’s intended audience.
The Activists needs to be able to check the egos of their community media reporters as well, and let them know that it’s not about the most views, or the most downloads. In fact, in community media, going small and local is far more powerful than playing for a mainstream audience. If you are creating media that is relevant and niche then it will have more meaning to it’s targeted audience.
The Activist needs to know how to build networks and how best to distribute the media to the correct audience. Using twitter as a means of distribution for example is pointless if you are only going to tweet about it once. Your tweet is likely to remain on your followers wall for up to 3 minutes before the volume of other tweets bury it far below. However, if you can create a local smaller network with which you have communication and interaction on a regular basis, they will be more likely to pick up on your broadcast. Once again, this is a skill that the Activist has to have or otherwise at least be aware of when working in an urban setting.
In conclusion, participation in community media is more powerful than access, however, access is better than none. Activists need to be skilled in identifying what methods work best with each environment and each community, as communities are all unique.
Reference:
Alfonso Gumucio Dagron ‘Call Me Impure: Myths and Paradigms of Participatory Communication’ Community Media: International Perspectives. Edited by Linda K. Fuller 2007, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
What is the definition of Community Media, and what is the prime area of emphasis for this research? Shawn Sobers (2005)
“It is interesting to note, but not a surprise however, that it is the individuals and communities who shout the loudest for equality in society, are those who don’t have it. Alternative media became a platform upon which the voiceless had a voice, and thus the community in Community Media has become synonymous with the ‘the have-nots’.” P2. Sobers (2005)
Sobers’ belief that the marginalised, disenfranchised, hard to reach communities have been given a voice through community media is an area I would like to investigate. I question whether the voiceless actually know that they are the ‘voiceless’. I question whose job it is to tell them and ‘enlighten’ them to that voiceless fact, and I question the two sides of community media and which is the most important – getting the community’s media out to the biggest, or most suitable audience, or the learning and education in the creative process of that media?
Working with young people in the community media environment, I have noticed that they are aware of the negative issues impacting on them, but don’t see themselves to be in a position to “shout the loudest” about their situation. The backgrounds and experiences that they have had to date, have conditioned them to accept that that is the way life is. Therefore the voiceless do not know that they are the voiceless, and are far away from mobilising themselves to create community media that can attempt to make a change.
This leads onto my next question. Whose job is it to motivate, empower, inspire, and mobilise these voiceless groups? Is it a kind objective onlooker? Is it a family member? Is it a charity or NGO? Or can it be a leader or visionary from inside the community? I think the answer here is all of them, but what are the agendas behind their enthusiasm to help the voiceless?
If that community group does not have the capacity and technical knowhow to create community media, then they will need the help of an Animator (Bartle 2007). Sobers (2005) talks about how the practitioners or ‘Animators’ “work in community media sector, are doing so for more creative or educational reasons, than they are political.” This suggests that the Animator does not have a in-depth connection to the issues affecting the community and are only there for their own needs, such as, using the community group as a prop to flaunt their creativity, or to gain validation from passing on their knowledge and skills in an educational capacity. I myself can relate to this as a Community Media Animator. I enjoyed passing on my passion for journalism and media production to the groups I was working with, while not having a direct connection to the issues affecting the group. However, over time, working in a young person community media setting, I did become more empathic and engaged with that community. However, I was only able to invest my time for that long because I was being paid by a charity. A charity that had numerous funding streams all wanting something different from the communities I worked with. Sometimes, even dictating what issues we ‘promoted’ to the young people to investigate.
Finally, I want to discuss the two-sided approach to community media, and the role of the Animator in each. Sobers (2005) highlights the two sides being, Communication Platforms and Educational Activity.
The elephant in the room that no one talks about is that the media output from the group is normally targeted at a niche group, and in a form that the mass media would not use – long interviews, poor production values. The Animator is given the task to work with the group to produce a tangible media output, but it seems that the real impact comes in the educational side of things. The training in technical skills, the journalism skills, the ‘stealth’ skills such as literacy, confidence and teamwork, all tie in with a vital aspect of any marginalised group and community, and that is social mobilisation and employability. With more jobs becoming available in the creative industry, the exposure that these groups are getting to media tools is potentially setting some individuals on their way to employment, and with that a chance to be liberated and step out of the realm of the voiceless.
The question is, do we tell the community group that the probability that their media output will make a big difference is unlikely but that the skills they will learn from taking part will empower them in other ways? In this situation it is the Animator’s job to focus the community to create media that is either educating or raising awareness and targeted at a specific group that will identify and consume the media to make any real difference.
If this is the case, then are Animators creating the need for Community Media? Are they selling an idea that community media output/production can make a difference, when really it will have a low impact in making change, and instead the biggest impact is actually gained through the process of creating the media.
Is Community Media all about the Animator?
Refernece:
P Bartle, What is Community, A Sociological Perspective. http://cec.vcn.bc.ca/cmp/whatcom.htm (2007)
Shawn Sobers ‘What is the definition of Community Media, and what is the prime area of emphasis for this research?’ First Born Creatives in association with the University of the West of England 2005
Paranjape looks at Abhivyakti Media Development, an Indian development communication organisation working with poets, theatre/actors and song writers in small Indian communities.
Building on Paranjape’s insights I attempt to relate his ideas, along with insights I have gained through my own practice, to the Community Media 4 Kenya (CM4K) project. The aim is to highlight certain points that I will incorporate into the workshop series I will be running for the students on the CM4K project before they go out to Kenya.
The Community Media 4 Kenya project is a community based learning approach that sees university students fundraise a trip to Kenya as part of their undergraduate experiential learning processes on the LM376 Community Project on the BA(Hons) Media Studies degree at the University of Brighton. The project was the initiative of Dr Peter Day who has developed the project from its experimental early days to the established status that the project now enjoys as part of the undergraduate curriculum . Once the students have raised their funds to travel to Kenya, they work with a number of local communities exchanging and transferring media skills, with the aim of giving the communities a voice, mobilising them in community and intercommunity communication and all round empowerment. I have been delivering workshops to the students on using participation in community media, building trust, rapport and relationships with community groups, and technical media skills, in preparation of their deployment to Kenya. This has been done as part of my Masters in Creative Media.
Consumerism and the erosion of local culture
“When we allow others to control our minds and decisions, we lose our freedom to choose our paths” p461
Paranjape highlights the power that the global media has in influencing the way people act, what culture is defined to be and what issues people should know about.
The issue of culture is very important to a community’s identity. If the community is struggling to remember what its culture is, who they are and where they have come from, then it will fail in recognising what issues are affecting them. If this is the case, then applying a community media project to them, could result in an output that has no real meaning or worth.
“Communities have started adopting consumer lifestyles, have developed cash economies and become dependent on external sources to guide their lives. In this context, it is local cultures that has been worst affected.” P460
In this case we have to identify – which culture is being addressed? Is it the community’s own historical culture, or is it an imitation of something that they have seen on mainstream media that the community has adopted? Has their culture actually evolved under the influence of and begun to reflect normal consumer society?
The CM4K students need to be aware that the mainstream media that they are accustomed to, needs to be placed to one side. The students will have to work with the Kenyan community to find their true culture and use this as a starting point. Once this has been established, the students will need to identify a community media model that expects its creators and audiences to be active and not passive, and use this model to investigate the real issues affecting the Kenyan community that they are working with.
Another question to ask is: how does the community identify the issues that affect them? My experience of working with young people (yp) is that often they don’t know that they are being affected by certain issues. Similarly they do not realise that they have an opportunity to make change. Instead the young people I have worked with just consider that ‘that’s the way life is’. The problem therefore becomes how to raise their (yp) consciousness to these issues. For the students working on the CM4K project they need to consider the question: how can we identify an issue that the Kenyan community can address and actually make a difference to?
Students own culture v Kenyan community culture
Paranjape mentions that tribal societies celebrate communally in the evenings by dancing, sharing stories etc. My experience of working with young people in an UK urban environment is very different to this. The students working on the CM4K project need to be aware that cultures act in different ways, and they need to be sensitive to customs, conservative dress etc. Likewise the students should be prepared to share their culture too – to engage in cross cultural dialogue.
“This erosion of local culture has also severely affected their dignity, self-esteem and identify. The time for coming together and dialoguing is becoming rare – this is even more so with the issues of a long-term nature. There is an abiding sense of hopelessness about the future and general lack of confidence to engage with the issues that confront communities.” P460
The problem that Paranjape highlights here can be summarised as the rural becoming the urban. These fears are common in the young people I have worked with in inner city London. Students will need to be aware that issues of lack of self-esteem, identity and low confidence are something that affects all human beings across the world, and being open to these issues can help build rapport with the Kenyan community group. Students should also be aware that their peers within the students group could also be experiencing these problems of doubt too.
“Abhivyakti…decided to intervene.” P461
Finally, the last thing to address in respect of the issues of culture is this. If the Kenyan community’s culture is slowly being eroded by consumerism and the mass media, who are we to tell them that they must save it? If the community is to be empowered in the true sense of participation, then it must identify the issue affecting it. This point warrants some more in-depth prolonged thought, but does link to the next section on Media-activities.
Media activist
This section highlights some of Abhibyakti’s ideas around how the Media-activist should act and work with their community.
“Abhivyakti works form the premise that ’change’ is more sustainable if those in the community most affected by such change own the processes and contents of communication.” P462
This needs to be highlighted to the students on the CM4K project. The trick is to make them feel that they have made all the decisions along the way, and that if they can do this once (create a piece of community journalism), then they can do it again. This is obviously where the skill of the media trainer comes in. They must be able to transfer their skills to the community, so they can repeat the successes once they have left the Kenyan community.
Abhivyakti also highlights the need for critical reflection to help cement the empowerment of the work. This is an area I need to include in my future workshops with the CM4K students. I plan to carry out some activities where the students will have the chance to develop a number of reflection activities so they can take them with them to Kenya.
“…people-centred development as a process in which communities, irrespective of their social identity, can fulfil their basic political, social, economic and cultural aspirations, by deciding for themselves the type of society they want to live in.” P462
Abhivyakti uses participation to empower the communities they work with. I have already raised the method of participation to the CM4K students. However, this is an area that probably needs to be reinforced. If the Kenyan community is in control of their decisions then they can craft the narrative of their future. It is the skill, and the courage, of the media activist to hand over the power to the community and take a step back and act as a mentor rather than an ‘activist’.
“We view these ‘media-activists’, as we refer to them, as potential change agents-cum-artists in the community. They have a duel role: as creators of art meaningful to their own lives and to that of the community and as host who are concerned with development of their community.” P462
A question that is not addressed in Paranjape text is: What if you are a media-activist that is outside of the community you are working with. How much of ‘you’ do you give to them? The students on the CM4K project must be aware that they need to let the community take a lead on the issues to investigate, and that they are there to transfer their technical skills, not their culture, to the Kenyans.
Limiting the expectations
“Where not local issues too small and insignificant when big personal ambitions are stoked by competition and the influence of global media is perceived as more important? When we started relating to different members and their groups, we found the following major hurdles
Abhivyakti also raises the need to ‘limit the expectations of the community’ that you are working with. I have had this experience with working with young people. For example: they will probably not get to interview a famous person, they will probably not become famous, and if they don’t focus, their story is probably going to be the same as any other young persons, so they have to work very hard to find a unique angle to their story.
This is also something that the students on the CM4K need to be aware of. They are not going to change the world in 2 weeks, and they need to focus on smaller achievable goals, and not be disheartened if their big goal does not happen.
Good guidelines for media activities when working with community groups (Focusing on ‘local’)
Abhivyakti highlights some good techniques and guidance for working with media-activities, including:
In my experience of working with young people and with working in developing countries, it is important to make sure that you have made yourself clear and that the instructions you have given are understood. It is also good to check early on, once the task has started, that the instructions have actually been understood.
It is wise not to be too disheartened if the group then decides to go in the opposite direction to the one you have advised. Occasionally that is how it sometimes transpires when working in international development community groups.
Distributing your media and the impact it has:
Abhivyakti highlights the need to think about where your audience is and how you are going to get your message to them.
One question to put to the CM4K students is: When creating community media, should they use conventional media practices and conventions that a wider audience can digest more easily or should it be different and closer to their identity?
There is also a question as to how is your media going to empower your audience?
Abhivyakti talks about a performer who allows members of the audience to share their view on the issues of his performance, creating an artist-audience relationship that is vibrant and dynamic. And the audience comments and input can then be added to the performance.
This needs to be put to the students of the CM4K project. How can they empower their listeners, viewers, etc. Will it be through audience feedback, online feedback, forums, reflective workshops afterwards. How will they create that important dialogue? P466
Community Mapping – an idea to identify community issues.
Geeta’s wallpaper created by children reminds me of an activity of drawing maps of your local area to identify issues in your local area. This could be an activity I export with the CM4K students. P467
In summary, Nitin Paranjape’s Community media: Local is Focal, has brought to my attention the critical break down of how a community media project works. It has highlighted areas that I need to bring to the attention of the D4K students such as:
These areas will now shape how I develop my workshops for the CM4K students, as they prepare for their deployment to Kenya.
Reference
Paranjape, Nitin, ‘Community media: local is focal’, Community Development Journal Vol 42 No 4 October 2007.
Interesting article by PBS about using augmented reality in galleries and museums.
There are plans to use augmented reality in the Brighton Waste House to enhance the learning enviornment of the house.
Futures Lab Update #50: A Tool For Interactive Video and An Experiment In Augmented Reality
Here are some things to think about when planning radio training (many of these points can be transfered across to video and photography training).
The beauty of radio? It’s simplicity
The equipment is relatively inexpensive and easy to use.
A microphone is less intrusive than a video camera. People can be more natural, more themselves.
Radio/podcast is intimate. When you hear someone’s voice on the radio, it feels as if they’re talking directly to you. It’s like getting a phone call from a friend.
The limitation of radio/podcast is actually its greatest strength: there are no pictures. Radio forces you to be creative and pay attention to words, sound and language. Radio requires you to be not just a journalist, but a poet and a good storyteller.
Principles of Training
Get the learner using technical equipment as early as possible.
This has a few benefits. The first is that they get hands on experience of the equipment. It breaks down the fear barrier of using something that can look technical, and may be the first time they have ever held something this expensive, this technical and this professional. The second benefit is subconsciously letting the learner know that this learning will be a practical based style of learning. This type of learning is useful in winning over subjects that may come from hard to reach backgrounds where issues with low literacy are present, or where there might be a language barrier. The third benefit is that you are telling your learner that you trust them with your equipment. This helps to bond the group and build rapport early on.
You should try and include using the equipment in most of your activities:
The importance of sound
You can find out more here:
Basic Radio Package.
Here is a simple recipe to make a basic 3 minute radio package.
Cue: write a cue that the radio presenter will use to introduce your package.
Introduction: Reporter introduces the story – 5W and H. Probably use wild track/background noise to illustrate the piece
Interview 1 – Telling one side of the story.
Interview 2 – Telling the other side of the story
Vox Pops – Getting the general publics opinions on the story
Conclusion – reporter sums everything up.
Reflection:
Reflection is an active, conscious process that allows the learner, and the trainer to figure out what worked well and what didn’t, and what we may have to work on next time. By developing the ability to explore and be curious about our own experience and actions, we suddenly open up the possibilities of purposeful learning—derived not from books or experts, but from our work and our lives.
It is always good to include a short reflection activity at the end of a training session. Even if it is only to get everyone to say one word on how they are feeling after the session.
Extra Tips
Always start recording 10 seconds before you start the interview
Always ask the person to say their name and title/job at the start of the recording – this avoids confusion when editing if you have interviewed multiple people.
Make sure you are recording and not on standby
Check your levels
Keep an eye on your batteries. You do not want your recorder to cut out half way through an interview.
Always asks if you can contact the person you have just interviewed again, in case you think of anything else you would like to ask. (also if your recording is poor quality)
Have an idea of what you want to get out of an interview, and make sure you get it. Don’t waste your time or the interviewee’s time. Remember, after the interview you are the one that is going to have to go through the interview to find the 30-second sound bite.
Listen to what your interviewee is saying. Don’t always concentrate on the next question written down.
Take photos – You can always turn your radio piece into a written piece if the audio quality is low.
