[Cc-webedit] [mediateam] News during camp & website

Mon Aug 17 12:12:42 BST 2009

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Hi

I think that it is important to remind people what Indymedia is, as I
feel it is often in danger of becoming an "us and them" scenario which
isn't true. Both CC and Indy are part of the same movement, and as such
there are no lines between the two. In the same way that many IMCistas
are heavily involved with the camp in site, comms, web and media amongst
other things, anyone from the camp can also get involved in the
Indymedia collectives in the same way. This is why it is the perfect
oulet for campers news, along with news from the rich variety of other
grassroots campaigns and movements across the spectrum.

I think that if the concern is that some postings may be off topic and
hostile, there are several solutions. Firstly, any member of the media
team or anyone else is perfectly welcome to get involved and help with
moderation, decisions etc as we and all IMC's in 70 countries across the
world are open, inclusive and collectively run newswires. In all other
countries, as here, we are intertwinecd with the campaigns whose news we
carry so there is no us and them as there is with the mainstream media,
hence the need for a media team. Secondly, I think it is important to
address the point being made by many that if there is a widespread fear
of negative and off topic views being aired, discussion should focus on
why this is and how things should change so this isn't the case rather
than how to silence these views so the mainstream press doesn't catch
hold of it. No matter how hard you try to conceal these, the bbc et all
will always find some negativity to broadcast, and if they don't they'll
just do a hatchet job to make it appear this way. If the truth is told
on Indymedia, and people are advised to look there to find out more then
you will have the control you desire whilst benefitting the movement as
a whole.

In relation to this specific issue, us as Northern Indymedia spent 8
months discussing editorial/moderation policy, division of labour in a
non gendered way, inclusivity and skill sharing, decentralised ways of
working etc before we felt confident enough to launch our Hyperactive
site. 2 weeks is not enough time to do all this and though yes a half
arsed version could be up for the camp, it will be wildly out of control
and impossible to manage with limited resources. By allowing the IMC's
to deal with open publishing, for which we have 10 years collective
experience of just that, we are giving a vote of confidence to other
members of the same movement that we trust their abilities to get it
right and be responsive to the needs of the whole.

Finally, to address the concerns of responsiveness, It is worth drawing
peoples attention to what you all didin't see during the camp in the
city on april 1st - a massive mobilisation of IMCistas around the
country tapping away, moderating, confirming stories, re-encoding video
and resizing photos, talking to people involved on the ground, writing
up phoned in reports, keeping an accurate timeline of events and
generally working their backsides off for the benefit of the movement
for global justice to which we are all a part. Indy has the capacity to
do this and so trusting in that is I believe the best way forwards in
the case of this very specific remit (open publishing from sources other
than the official cc media team). Freedom of speech is at our core, and
one of the most basic and essential of human rights, and one to which we
all rely on and campaign for in one way or another. I hope people don't
lose sight of that in all the wonderful mayhem that is underway in
preparation for the camp.

See you all there :-)

JimDog*

Murray wrote:
> hi all,
> 
>  
> 
> i see jody's point about losing control over 'news' and the potential for major issues that could arise from just promoting any 'climate camp' indymedia content on our website however it does also highlight an inherent conflict between the media team's work to control and manage our messaging and the desire to promote campers producing news themselves (thus avoiding the spin, sensationalisation and misrepresentation of the mainstream media).
> 
>  
> 
> having said that i think we can find a way to do both, and hopefully without too much effort! one option could simply be to rename the 'news' section something like 'Climate Camp on Indymedia' and having a separate section of the page for either a climate camp blog or 'news' from the media team. this could help to promote campers own reporting while retaining the difference between 'the camp's messaging' and 'the views of all the people at camp' which are definitely distinct.
> 
>  
> 
> alternatively some 'light touch' moderation / selective promotion of content could be one way of ensuring that way off message content does not appear in climate camps name. while this could be perceived as controlling, the media working grop remit does include promoting the politics and actions of camp through mainstream and independent media (not just promoting anyone's views). but - does anyone actually have capacity to take on promoting / moderating content for this during the week?
> 
>  
> 
> i hope this can help us to find a way to resolve this issue before camp as i think its vital that the new website can promote campers own stories, allowing us to show a different side of camp to the one that is normally portrayed in mainstream media, while also ensuring that the political views that appear on our website aren't massively off the messages and politics the movement as a whole has agreed.
> 
>  
> 
> cheers,
> 
> murray
>  
> 
> 
> Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:23:18 +0100
> From: jody at eco-labs.org
> To: j at jonathanleighton.com
> CC: mediateam at lists.riseup.net; cc-webedit at lists.aktivix.org
> Subject: Re: [mediateam] News during camp & website
> 
> hi Jonathan, - I forgot to say thanks for all the work you are doing and hope not stress you out at the last moment. Sorry if this conflicts with earlier discussions that I missed - hope you can find a easy way to resolve this???
> Jody
> 
> 
> 
> www.eco-labs.org
> www.teach-in.co.uk
> 
> 
> 
> 2009/8/17 Jody Boehnert <jody at eco-labs.org>
> 
> HI Jonathan & all,
> 
> Yes, if I understand this correctly I have to say I do have a major objection to it as I think it could easily undermine the work the media team is doing in developing messaging. We should not publish opinions from individual campers on our website as 'news' - This could potentially be disasterous given the wide range of opinions within CC - it could be very off-topic, ill-considered or even a little crazy. 
> 
> I would not like to just pull articles from Indemedia either - although they do have a bit of moderation set up it is not fast enough and their standards are not the same as CC media policy.
> 
> 'News' on our website needs to come from the media team, there is not way of opening this up without causing chaos.  Blogs are different - but need to be moderated, not presented as news, and not have as high a priority on the site.
> 
> Jody
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.eco-labs.org
> www.teach-in.co.uk
> 
> 
> 
> 2009/8/16 Jonathan Leighton <j at jonathanleighton.com>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> [This is quite important to read if you care about the provisions for
> open publishing during camp.]
> 
> So far, our plan has been to set up a news.climatecamp.org.uk website
> for people to post to. Some important concerns have been raised about
> this approach, and discussed informally between various individuals:
> 
> * We don't have a process set up for moderating / promoting articles.
> Any process we do set up could be seen as an attempt by climate camp to
> control what people are saying.
> 
> * Having a climate camp specific news site could be seen as distancing
> ourselves from Indymedia and therefore "the movement", which could
> amplify bad feeling
> 
> * Setting up a specific news site would be more work for the website
> group to build and maintain. We are already short on time with the new
> website launching within 2 days.
> 
> So there's a proposal for a change of plan.
> 
> PROPOSAL: We use London Indymedia and pull promoted articles tagged with
> "climatecamp" from there. We put a link from our website which takes
> people directly to a publish page for this tag. This makes sense
> because:
> 
> * We don't have to do any setup/maintenance
> * The camp is in London
> * It's part of Indymedia and therefore the "movement"
> * It won't leave people confused about what the difference is between
> Indymedia and "our" news site
> 
> This is both pragmatic and probably better politically.
> 
> We have basically no time for long discussions on this. If people have
> MAJOR objections, please voice them by NOON TOMORROW (that's Monday 16th
> August).
> 
> Thanks,
> Jon
> 
> 
> 
> -----------------------------
> To get to the Media Team Crabgrass, email press at climatecamp.org.uk to request access
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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