In 1999, the World Bank conducted a survey amongst 60,000 people living on less than a dollar a day.

When asked what they felt would make the greatest difference to their lives, the number one answer, above even food and shelter, was access to a voice.

photo credit: imagezoo.com

More thoughts on this, from Sri Lanka.

Further to earlier thoughts here about producing media in community-based organizations and one potential way to try to fund such an initiative, an idea to do with training.

If grassroots groups were to apply for media equipment funding, or to band together and apply together for media equipment for various community groups in a region/country, how then might they get media training?

In Quebec, the French-speaking province in Canada, a major initiative was launched for and with Aboriginal youth.  Called Wapikoni Mobile, it’s a motorized film training and production studio that visits First Nations communities to give young people an opportunity to participate in video and Internet workshops. 

It was a Quebec filmmaker, Manon Barbeau, who developed the idea in 2002:  to teach First Nations youth in rural communities how to use digital technology, develop scripts, produce, and ultimately, tell their own stories and film their own vision of things in the world.

The truck hit the road in 2004, spending about a month in each of six Algonquin and Atikamekw communities.  In 2005, an Innu community was added.  

Eighty short films have been produced by First Nations youth in the program so far, and they can be viewed here.

As well as live workshop training, there are web workshops that also allow students to interact with other online participants. 

The Mobile team are experienced filmmakers, and the mobile is equipped with digital cameras, editing units, a screening room, a sound studio, an exterior projector and an internet connection.

At some stage, I want to build a brainstorming list here, of potential organizations and foundations I think would be open to considering funding community-based mobile media production studios, giving people access to a voice.

Meantime, if you have any ideas or want to start on the list, jump in.

This came in from the IAMCR email list. Looks really interesting:

Reclaiming the Media:
Communication Rights and Democratic Media Roles

Edited by Bart Cammaerts & Nico Carpentier

About the book

At the beginning of the 21st century, it hardly goes uncontested anymore that media organisations play an important role in democracy. The main questions have now become whether the contemporary media conjuncture offers enough to our democracies, how their democratic investment can be deepened and how our communication rights can be expanded.

This book aims to look at four thematic areas that structure the opportunities for democratising (media) democracy. A first section is devoted to citizenship and the public spheres, giving special attention to the general theme of communication rights. The second section elaborates further on a notion central to communication rights, namely that of participation. The third section returns to the traditional representational role in relation to democracy and citizenship, scrutinizing and criticizing the democratic efforts of contemporary journalism. The fourth section moves outside of the (traditional) media system, and deals with the diversity of media and communication strategies of activists.

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Some of the sections I think look interesting:

• Citizenship, the Public Sphere, and Media
• Participation and Media
• Journalism, Media, and Democracy
• Disobedient media – unruly citizens: governmental communication in crisis
• Activism and Media
• Civil Society Media at the WSIS: a new actor in global communication governance?
• Media and communication strategies of glocalized activists: beyond media-centric thinking

Ordering is here.
More about the ECREA book series here.

I wrote earlier about one way of connecting to donors to fundraise for media production tools for your community-based organization, or your social cause.

I came across a useful post on Net2, that lists tools for vlogging.   This offers one more way of getting your grassroots media out to viewers – on a video blog. 

The tools listed on Net2: 

• Freevlog.org and Node101 for tools, tutorials and training.
• Blip.tv for free hosting.
• WordPress for a free blog.
• Feedburner to set up a feed.
• FireAnt to list your vlog and attract viewers.