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.