Our Media
= a global network of researchers, activists, scholars, artists, policy experts, and media practitioners engaged in a long-term dialogue around alternative, radical, community, and citizens' media
URL = http://ourmedianetwork.org/ [1]
Description
"Created in 2000, OURMedia/NUESTROSMedios is a global network of researchers, activists, scholars, artists, policy experts, and media practitioners engaged in a long-term dialogue around alternative, radical, community, and citizens' media. This non-institutionalised coalition exchanges information and ideas, collaborates on research studies, and develops recommendations for the global policy arena on communication, information, and media. Goals include promoting equity of access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) and raising the profile of alternative media produced by and for citizens. As of September 2008, the network included over 600 members in over 50 countries around the world. Ultimately, the goal of OURMedia is to design and develop initiatives that can strengthen citizens' media, community media, radical media, and alternative media in national and international policy arenas. Communication Strategies
OURMedia provides a space for collaboration in which needs and alternatives can be identified in the areas of communication and information infrastructure, policy, and research. One of the network's main pushes is to help establish citizens' media as a strong voice in the floors of the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS) and The World Social Forum (WSF), among other international forums. To support this goal, network members engage in various advocacy activities. For example, OURMedia joined 140 Latin American organisations in writing a letter to protest what they considered the exclusionary way in which the WSIS was being planned. This letter was distributed at the WSF and later read at the Summit's regional preparatory meeting.
Each year, OURMedia holds an international conference in order to bring together members of its network in a face-to-face setting. [As of this writing, conferences have been held in: Washington, USA (2001); Barcelona, Spain (2002); Barranquilla, Colombia (2003); Porto Alegre, Brazil (2004); Bangalore, India (2005); Sydney, Australia (2007), and Accra, Ghana (2008)]. These conferences consist of scholarly and academic presentations, details about media activism initiatives, policy workshops, community cultural development roundtable debates, new media labs, research-led forums, and engagements by local media producers. For example, OURMedia 7, held in August 2008, highlighted the 3 sub-themes of Identity, Inclusion, and Innovation as key dimensions of alternative communication in, for, and towards an alternative world. Organisers state that, "[f]rom the moment OURMedia 7 began and especially its opening invocation - a profound mix of poetry, oratory, song, drum and poignant bamboo flute (the atenteben) - we came to better understand and appreciate a world view overlooked or deliberately cast aside in a globalized world....We discussed vivid accounts of solid academic research, conscientious practice, or both, on alternative communication initiatives....They covered a tremendous diversity, ranging from traditional media to new information and communication technologies: for example, indigenous symbols, street art, community theatre, community radio, film, and current new online media such as YouTube....In every case, more powerful were the stories of how alternative communication, by enabling people to take control of the primary act of communication, defy even seemingly insurmountable obstacles to preserve and enrich what matters most to them as communities. In every case, what mattered was not the technology but the extent to which people, and especially those traditionally excluded, had equitable access to create through communication." The declarations that emerged from this and other meetings may be accessed on the OURMedia website; planning for future yearly conferences is also conducted on the blogs and interactive forums hosted here.
As suggested by the above, one of the network's key strategies is implementing a space for public representation, the exchange of information, and the initiation of dialogue through the OURMedia website. In addition to providing access to information (via text, video, audio, and photos) about past and future conferences, the site offers details on upcoming events and new resources. The site is highly interactive, and includes an Alternative Media Global Project wiki, an OURMedia facebook, and various forums. In addition, one may learn how to upload information related to citizens' media research, advocacy, and legislation." (http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=http://ourmedianetwork.org/?q=node/127)