Drapetomaniacs

The second session today was, What are our community needs and how do we better meet them?

The morning session folks came up with the following list:

• Universal connection - would be producers and younger people having equipment to equipment services and technology
• Academia - more research in service of community media
• Localizing stories - local spins on national news
• Access - keeping doors open
• Diverse audience, diverse programming
• Cultural programming more accessible to youth and youth of color for life enhancement
• Regular listening audience, not accidental listeners/audience
• Dissemination of info in time of critical need

In our session we discussed:

• Education - in San Antonio there is an effort to educate future generations by simple training on computer usage and the more basic software like iMovie and Movie Maker
• One person explained we will be challenged by the ability to neutrally present the facts around us, This led to a queston of Advocacy journalism. I explained that on my site, I use to try to be neutral, but then realized that the national news, governments and a host of other environments were not only biased, but biased against the culture I was covering and loved. So, like a tug of war, with 10 giants on the other side, I have to lean further to the left in my coverage to provide a balance. Others pointed out in various ways that Corporate Media has had "advocy journalism" on their own behalf for a very long time.