Digital Arts Service Corps - public access

Public Access TV

Bill Brown — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:50:15 +0000

This area is for any and all resources related to public access television.

In the merry, merry month of May...

Elizabeth Goussetis — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:25:35 +0000

I wrapped up a 20-week long after-school outreach I’ve been teaching at an elementary school. I worked with two groups of students: the older group made a documentary about the experiences of their classmates who have moved to the U.S. from other countries, and the younger group made a collection of short instructional videos on topics of their choice (drawing, making a paper airplane, counting to ten in Japanese, making farting noises with your armpit, etc.).

Both videos were screened for parents at the after-school program’s year-end showcase. The kids were excited to see themselves on the screen, and it was really cool to talk to all the parents whose kids appeared in the film or who worked on it.

But the highlight of the month was taking a group of kids to a fancy, televised awards ceremony.

The Blue Chip Cable Access Awards are given out each year to recognize the work of volunteer producers of cable access programs in Greater Cincinnati. A short documentary made by one of last summer’s video camps I helped with at Media Bridges was nominated in the “student K-5” category. So, I rounded up the kids and parents to go to the award ceremony, which was held at a grand old restored movie theater. When their group was announced as the winner, I ushered a bunch of mostly shy kids up on stage, where they all got big rounds of applause for their acceptance speeches. One girl’s was, “Thank you, people.”

Here's the group photo, complete with shiny award plaque: http://ctcvista.org/files/IMG_7496b.JPG

Both events were good reminders of how important it is to follow through on projects that involve people in creating media. If we want people to realize the power their voices can have through media, we should involve them in the distribution, not just the production. When you put a piece of media “out there,” others will see it, and that is an important media literacy lesson. I see a lot of light bulbs turn on when kids see other people reacting to their work, whether those people are their parents or an entire theater full of people. Distributing one’s work can be an encouraging ego boost, but it can also be humbling and intimidating. Either way, it promotes responsible media-making.

The award-winning documentary was about an awesome, kid-friendly art museum where you can touch and interact with the artwork. It is called the UnMuseum, and it is housed in Cincinnati’s Contemporary Art Center. You can see the video in the youth section of the Media Bridges Web site.

Those of you looking to hone your armpit farting skills will have to wait. I haven’t been able to put those videos up yet. One problem that we constantly have with younger groups is that the instructor always ends up having to do additional editing after the outreach or class is over. Does anyone has a good model for this or any advice?

A Swing State Update

Elizabeth Goussetis — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:58:49 +0000

This story takes place in Ohio. I know some of you coastal VISTAs are longing for more Ohio news and charming Midwestern commentary, like you were getting before the election. Perfect timing for me to wake from my procrastination hibernation and write my very first field report!

I am serving as Youth Channel Facilitator at Media Bridges www.mediabridges.org, a community media center that operates Cincinnati’s four public access television stations. My job is to develop a youth media program that will allow Cincinnati youth (ages 12-25) to run Media Bridges’ youth channel. The youth channel, called the Youth Block, airs youth-created programming on Media Bridges’ education channel. Part of my job is to acquire 10 hours each week of programming to be played on our Youth Block (currently we have about four hours), and to develop a plan for volunteer youth to run the Youth Block.

Our goal is that youth who participate in the program will learn the tools to understand how media represents youth and constructs messages which affect them. We hope that students will gain the confidence and ability to use video and radio production skills to represent themselves and get their voices out to the community.

My first month here I worked with the kids in our summer video and radio camp. Each class finishes with the production of a video or radio show by the kids. Right now, the summer media camp is the only established youth program at Media Bridges, and a primary source of our Youth Block programming, so I am hoping to expand on that. I’ve also been taking crash courses in all the cool technology toys we have here: I’ve learned to use a video camera, operate studio cameras, lighting and sound equipment, run a live studio show, and edit digital video. Yay!

The past few months have been spent researching existing youth media programs in other cities and meeting with local organizations that work with youth in order to build partnerships and get the word out about the Youth Block. In September I organized an event for One Web Day at Media Bridges (http://mediabridges.org/onewebday/). In October, I attended the Alliance for Community Media Central States Region conference and I also supervised a high school student who interned with me for a week as part of a senior project. In November I have been helping to revamp Media Bridges’ volunteer program to help recruit younger volunteers, and I am taking a proposal writing course online and working on writing grant proposals.

That’s just the basics, but stay tuned for more lively and detailed reports from the heartland as I get caught up on my field report quota. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

News from the 'nati

lauren bratslavsky — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:16:27 +0000

Summer has begun. And that also means it's closer to the end. ah. And so it goes.

Summer here means youth classes. And 8-12 year old video camp started this week. They are making a movie that is a parody of our access center. One of the scenes involves a debate between who would win- spiderman or the hulk. I think one of the kids suggested they talk about that at the front desk..... funny thing is, that actually happens. I've also got a digital story class coming up. And then a class in July called "ad attack!" about media literacy and all that.

I'm also starting the wrap-up process with handbooks, policies, lessons learned and maybe some other things. I'll post all the things I've amassed soon.

And in other news, for those of you in the public access world, Ohio is now on the PEG got screwed list. Our state senate got swooned over by att and that whole lobby. So our franchise fees, the very ones that fund the majority of our operations and programs will expire in 2011. Poop. And there is a whole bunch of other blows such as loss of customer service and potentially excluding 'unprofitable' (as in poor, urban, rural) areas from cable service. And so that goes. So we're working on reworking ourselves in the next few years.

Hope all is well out there is the VISTA world.

Public Access Blues

Richard T. Anderson — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 20:44:41 +0000

Well there was a lot of deliberation about me going to a conference around here. But finally it was decided that I would be going to the ACM 2007 International Conference & Trade Show.

But things have changed. And it's all thanks to that lovely bit of legistlation that SBC/AT&T pushed down Michigan's throat a few months back.

While Comcast did agree to maintain it's contract with the CMC, they also took advantage of the loop hole in under the new laws which allows them to change the payment schedule. So the francise fees (over $150,000) that the CMC usually gets in April will not be coming until August. Thus all expenitures must be cut back to the bone.

So, I will not be attending the ACM conference. Nor will anyone at the Media Center be doing so including Laurie, our director, who was scheduled to speak there.

That's the way the Public Access cookie crumbles.

I don't think I'm going to be presenting the Media Center with any new program ideas. Not unless my idea is a money maker. And charging for services would kind of defeat the point. *shrug*

It's a tough time to be in this business.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Later,

Rich

News from MNN/NYMAP Video Exchange

danielle martin — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 16:29:08 +0000

From the Youth Channel newsletter:

News from the NYMAP Video Exchange: Over the next few weeks, MNN Youth Channel and the other NYMAP (National Youth Media Access Partners) will be officially launching the new Youth Video Exchange website out to the world and bringing in new partners. The website www.nymapexchange.net is a networking hub for youth-serving community media centers and youth media sites, which aims to build the infrastructure to make better sharing of youth-produced media possible. The Core Partners in this project are: People TV in Atlanta, Grand Rapids Community Media Center, St. Paul Neighborhood Network, and Portland Community Media in Oregon. Check out the website www.nymapexchange.net , or email andrew@youthchannel.org to learn more or to find out how you could get involved.

AT&T is after me.

Richard T. Anderson — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:44:13 +0000

Well, we are really facing some nasty stuff in Michigan.

Here's the scoop. Yesterday the MI senate passed HB6456 (S-2). It is a bill that AT&T wants passed. They say it will create competition for your cable dollars and that prices will go down.

Many of you know this stuff, but here it goes.

Here's the big deal. Franchise Fees.

It was determined long ago by the government that 'We the People' own the airwaves. That's why you bought a radio or TV and that was it. You hooked it up to an antena and you recieved programming free of charge. The programming was paid for by advertisers.

When cable came along and wanted to charge for programming, the government acting on behalf of the citizens (which is a democratic government's job by the way, to do the will of the people). The government said okay, you can charge but you have to create a way for The People of the community to use the airwaves. A channel that anyone (not just rich white media corperation owners) could play their own programming and give voice to their thoughts and concerns.

Thus was Public Access born. Here's how it works. 5% of a cable company's profits go to the city that the cable company's services are being sold in. Of that 5% the city uses 2% to fund a Cable Public Access station. In Grand Rapids that is GRTV.

AT&T doesn't want to pay these Franchise Fees (amoung other things). So they designed this bill to do away with them and they are taking the bill from state to state and promising jobs and competition.

This bill destroys the funding for GRTV and introduces new fees to GRTV. Under the new law GRTV will have to pay the cable company for the line that connects it to Comcast. And also pay to be connected to AT&T's new set up.

"The final vote was 26-12 - Eight Democrats and four Republicans voted against the bill. ... Wow, sounds like this was a bi-partisan screwing. No surprise there."

The only hope now is that Granholm will veto it. But she is swayed by the hope of new jobs in MI. So, it is likely she will sign it into law.

So, if you are in MI, write to her. Call her. Tell her to not give into AT&T. They can come in and create jobs without The People losing public access to the airwaves that they own.

Capitol Web Address:
http://www.michigan.gov/gov

Capitol Web Mail Address:
http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-21995-57932--,00.html

Capitol Address:
Post Office Box 30013
Lansing, MI 48909
Phone: 517-335-7858

I don't like big corperations having all the say in the media. And frankly if there is no GRTV, then there is no Community Media Center, and while my job won't be affected right now, the possiblity of me continuing on after September 2007 will be next to nil.

I think we need to get citezenspeak going here. Has anyone used it? Let me know how it works and how it worked. That presentation at the PSO was great.

Thank-you,
Richard T. Anderson