Community Media - Interactive World

The European Union is waking up to the "social capital" potential for ICT. Researchers have noticed that many voluntary and community groups exist 'below the radar.' (They may wish to stay that way to avoid the interference of the state?) Alexandra Haché (2011) writes "Each Third Sector Organization (TSO)  has its own tradition/capacity in developing tactical uses of ICT in order to overcome its weaknesses or boost its strengths. Levels of access, uptake and appropriation of ICT are different among TSOs and their participants. Additionally, TSO involvement with ICT ranges from using ICT simply as a tool at one extreme, to aiming expressly to have an effect on digital inclusion and social inclusion supported by ICT at the other. The study has also shown the importance of taking into account as key actors those TSO which are “under the radar”. The large numbers of small, medium and/or ephemeral organizations in this category not only shape the variety,...

 Dieter Zinnbauer (2007) writes "Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), inclusion and social capital are in themselves three very broad concepts that can be plausibly interlinked with each other in a wide variety of ways. Social capital, for example, can mitigate many risks of social exclusion, while dynamics of exclusion such as inequality and marginalization can precipitate an erosion of social capital. Likewise, ICT can support social inclusion efforts, while - in the form of digital inclusion - becoming itself a new item on the inclusion agenda. And the relation between social capital and ICT can plausibly be assumed to be even more ambivalent: ICT is sometimes expected to pose challenges to the social capital in local communities, but also believed to open fresh opportunities for weaving new social ties and expanding the formation of social capital. Exploring in more detail these multiple interrelationships in the triangle of social capital-inclusion-ICT ...

Several weeks ago I started reading David Mamet’s book Bambi vs. Godzilla; On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business . I was just getting started when Lars von Trier’s Nazi remarks were reported at the Cannes Film Festival. In this blog I offer some observations on media frenzy; anti-semitism in cinema, and the role of the Director as romantic and rebellious auteur . What are the connections? Whatever Lars von Trier actually said; intended to say; or really thinks, there was understandable outrage that the suffering and deaths of millions could be so nonchalantly brushed aside in passing remarks. The celebrated director appeared to proclaim himself a Nazi. Enough is enough? But let’s consider, before we rush in to judgment, that the missing scandal, at Cannes, is film itself, where the worthy desire to unmask and reveal, and to improve our poor fallen world, is also enmeshed with a billion dollar industry, designed to profit from suffering. Hollywood...

It is a sad fact that much of what we do in our younger years at school acts as barrier to our future confidence and enjoyment. The main reason is that most people are made to feel that they are failures, or fall short of the required standards. The component of play, spontaneity, and expression, are beaten out of us with the rigour of rules and traditions; a culture of compulsion prevails together with a morbid attraction to examination and assessment regimes. Our children suffer anxiety and stress; they become miserable and unresponsive. Retreating to private worlds, they seldom gain the confidence or the creativity to comprehend their suffering; the system's ultimate victory is that the children are unable to construct meaningful forms of rebellion. Our obsession with competition, elitism, skills' acquisition, specialisation, and a functional / instrumental approach to learning plays a major role in inhibiting the majority of individuals from participation and creativ...

 Living together: combining diversity and freedom in 21st-century Europe  (Report of the Group of Eminent Persons of the Council of Europe)  The authors call on the Council of Europe to launch a diversity co-production fund which would “support films and documentaries highlighting the culturally diverse dimensions of today’s European societies, in such a way as to complement existing national initiatives in this field.” (62)    They further call on member states to ensure that media literacy programmes are included as a core element in school curricula, and that children and young people are alerted to expressions motivated by racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic or other related bias which they may encounter on the Internet. (62)    Member states should also make sure that law enforcement officers and prosecutors are trained to deal with similarly motivated hate crimes on the Internet, and work with the Internet industry to encourage it to take...

The advent of affordable technology (cameras and software) together with popular platforms designed to share and to show work (such as YouTube) appeared to promise a golden age for social films and participatory video-making. What went wrong? What happened to all that social energy? Is there hope for the future? All the really interesting films are still out there, but they can take a lot of finding; or perhaps they are just swamped by more commercial forms of "entertainment." If you want to find out about social protests such as the Occupy movements across the world there are thousands of films to watch. But should we be anxious that the mainstream appears to be so frivolous and trivial? Is there an argument that being serious, social and participatory is just not radical; that it's out of fashion? For the sake of debate this blog explores one side of the topic: the failure of social film and participatory video to catch on. In the non-commerci...

A Manifesto; or, What you Will. In order to transform the world, I begin by modifying my world; I am not alone; We tear down the screens that conceal real worlds; We wash awa y the film s that darken our vision; We start to think the transformation of film; We interrogate what we see around us; We expand and exceed our frame(s) of reference; We participate in dialogues about film; We become enlightened critics of film; We serve by helping others to produce films; We discover new platforms to experience film and to share our intuitions and our perceptions; We experiment with forms, genres, styles and approaches; We network, co-operate, and collaborate; We create new film experiences, and new discursive zones, and innovative modalities for action; We take risks; We are constantly teaching and learning; We employ low-cost sustainable technologies; We respect our fellow workers everywhere; We explore film's past lives; its forgotten artis...