"building the capacity of public media and technology organizations"
One of the main goals for HOME In.c at the moment is to create a community between the students in our different programs (our three partner schools and the TeenTV summer workshop). I feel that the best way to do this is to tap into existing social network rather than trying to create our own. We've tried having a Myspace page for TeenTV but it hasn't caught on.
I wrote this for my PCM blog and thought it might be interesting food for thought as a field report. The context for traditional journalism when participatory journalism appeared was one of threat. Ultimately, journalists realized that regardless of how they might disparage it, this participatory movement was here to stay and expand.
I was in DC over the weekend at a grantee meeting. The following is a reflection from my CCTV blog for those who are working on and thinking about citizen journalism projects:
Things in Cambridge are great. It's hard to face the reality that it's winding down soon. We are going to be shooting 3 more episodes of YVC, and then at the end of May we will wrap up production. NeighborMedia (the pilot round) will also finish up around that time, to leave time for the programmatic reflection/re-imagining/tweaking/re-development process.
It seems I'm about four field reports behind, so I’m providing four links that will help explain what I’ve been working on. The first two relate to my organization’s citizen journalism project and the last two to the youth video journalism club I work with.
Disclaimer: The following CTC*VISTA work product requires several hours per week of grueling 1-on-1 meetings with super-opinionated people, endless hours of preparation for grant reports, and a schedule that is nearly impossible to share with any other VISTA project. Do not try this at home...(or a host org without an incredibly supportive staff!)
Here's a handy 6 page handout on citizen journalism class put on by CCTV
NeighborMedia orientation materials - Cambridge Community Television
Well it's been awhile since I've posted, and I know I could just copy and paste from my CCTV blog, which I'll do eventually (once I get back to writing longer blog posts instead of just the snippets I've had time to do lately). For now I must say: I am beat.
Comment from Kevin Palmer on September 12, 2007 - 10:04pm
Rest up and definitely post the orientation materials to the wiki. I created a Citizen Journalism space on the wiki at http://www.ctcvista.org/node/1084. You should be able to edit the main description and upload files. I hereby dub you the moderator of the citizen journalism section!
Comment from Meegan Kelly on September 14, 2007 - 3:52pm
Hey Julie! How's everything? My organization has a fledgling citizen journalism program that has existed for several years. I am aggressively seeking funding to hire a news editor to head up/jump start our operation and provide stipends to citizen journalists whose articles we publish. I'd be quite interested to see what your training program looks like. Ours is quite unique, since we publish print articles on our "web portal," and we also broadcast citizen journalism pieces on various radio shows our volunteers produce. Some have professional journalism experience, but most are local DJs who love music and support independent media. Those are the kind of folks who I think would benefit from the training program you described.
Comment from Julie Adler on September 15, 2007 - 1:13pm
Hey Meegan, what org. are you at again? We should definitely talk! Email me at julie.m.adler at gmail.
Here's some curricula and/or handouts created by VISTAs:
Also, here's some curricula used/recommended by VISTAs from other sources:
Need basic curricula templates/guides?
Colin Rhinesmith (ACME Boston / Berkman Center / Emerson grad student / podcast genius) and I presented a quick one hour workshop today on blogging for teens and journalism teachers at today's Blogging Workshop at Media Matters: Writing Conference For High School Teachers & Teens, sponsored by the Boston Globe here on the UMB campus. The event was co-sponsored by Project Think Different, home of former CTC VISTA Cara Powers and current VISTA Colleen Kelly. The group seemed interested in how to get the word out about blogs once they're up. Colin and I posted the outline on the ACMEBoston blog, along with folks ideas of how they might use blogging in the future.
Comment from Dan MacNeil2 on February 20, 2009 - 5:59pm
The UTEC-Lowell.org people are often CTC VISTAs and they've had some success with myspace.
If there isn't a UTEC CTC VISTA at the moment, You might drop spouv@utec-lowell.org an email (and say I sent you)