Citizen Journalism & Beacon Hubs - Extending the Public Square

Ensuring people have a voice in the public square of debate and discussion is vital in any democracy. We try to enable this through our meetings, webinars and podcasts.

We are now taking this one step further. The Media Trust has now invited us to become a Beacon Hub for their lottery funded Citizen Journalist project. This will link us to a Single Publishing Interface to enable those stories that members want to distribute more widely to be published to media partners (BBC, ITV, local and national press.) They will also be available on our own Blog Podcasting Channel and through the Media Trust.

At this meeting we will learn what it means to be a Beacon Hub and how our members can get their stories into the public domain whether they be blogs, photojournalism or podcasts. Not only will we find out about Beacon Hubs and the work of the Media Trust but also we will discuss Blogging and how this is an important tool of citizen journalism and Photojournalism and our plans for an Exhibition of this in May.

We will have a number of facilitators at this meeting and they will help us in our thinking to develop citizen journalism as a way of engaging others and encouraging debate and discussion. They are,

Adam Perry is the Community Voices Development Manager at Media Trust. He has been working with grassroots communities and individuals to help them understand how they can use media, whether in the sense of working with mainstream media or using digital media tools, to create positive social change. Adam is particularly interested in video, especially helping communities to use low-cost video tools to tell their own stories. Before working with the Media Trust Adam ran a production company, and before that was part of the original commissioning team at Channel Five. He trained as an editor, then as a researcher in features and current affairs, and later as producer/director.

Matt Daw is Projects Manager at the international charity PhotoVoice (www.photovoice.org (http://www.photovoice.org/)), an organisation that works in partnership with NGOs all around the world designing and delivering participatory photography projects with marginalised and vulnerable groups. These projects provide communities who are often denied the opportunity to speak out and be heard with the skills and opportunity to participate directly in campaigning for positive social change. People who are often the subject of photojournalism take control over how they and their community are represented, and become active agents in tackling the issues that affect them.

Marc Wadsworth, founder and Editor of The Latest, will talk about Blogging and its importance to Citizen Journalism.The Latest offers exciting opportunities to blog, publish words and images and be involved in video streaming and podcasts. It has constantly updated community, national and international Latest News, and features instant polls on topical subjects open to all its visitors. Uou can find out more at http://www.the-latest.com/about-us

Jazz Rasool, Administrator for Haringey Community Circles has spent four years developing software that maps a persons needs against the emotional intelligence with which they are being met. He has worked with Citizen Journalist circles in Haringey and is helping us redevelop our Blog so that it can become the shop front for our Citizen Journalist project.

We bring a special dimension to the work the Media Trust does by offering material through our members who are interested in the big issues of the present century, want to discuss them, give stories and case studies to illustrate them and create a socially responsible society that holds those who take decisions to account.

We are thankful to the following who have helped us put on this meeting.

To MessageBase (http://www.messagebase.co.uk/telephone-answering-service/overview) who have supported us for this event and to

The Media Trust (http://newsnet.mediatrust.org/) who have helped us organise this event and

To Channel 4 (http://www.channel4.com/) who have provided us with the premises

Although membership of our site is free we do expect all those who attend our events to pay a subscription of £10 for a whole year that covers attendance not just to one meeting but also to the vast majority of our meetups and webinars for any one year. It also allows you to bring one guest free to every meeting or webinar.