Mobile Media Means Media Activism

Submitted by Martin Lucas on Fri, 04/24/2009 - 3:37pm
Short Description: 

The explosion of cell phone use globally has put powerful new tools
in the hands of citizens, media activists, development specialists and software developers, members of advocacy groups, health providers, and new media journalists. While the commercial development of mobile platforms tends to overshadow social uses in the US and other industrialized countries, in countries like India and South Africa developers are creating a proliferation of new tools which allow the use of mobile media platforms for a variety of social goals including data collection, imaging, SMS network building around a variety of topics, social-issue gaming and more.

This panel will explore how mobile media tools are being used for
social change, by human rights advocates, AIDS activists, and citizen journalists in campaigns in Africa, Latin America and around the world. They will also discuss the future potential of mobile devices and platforms as tools for media activism.

Presenters
Presenter One Name: 
Katrin Verclas
Presenter One Info: 

Katrin Verclas is co-founder and editor of MobileActive.org, a global
network of practitioners using mobile phones in social change work.
She is the former Executive Director of The Nonprofit Technology
Network, and currently a member of the Working Group of the Open
Mobile Consortium. www.MobileActive.org

Presenter Two Name: 
Priscila Neri
Presenter Two Info: 

Priscila Neri, Witness Hub Content Coordinator, is a Brazilian
journalist and documentary filmmaker. She previously ran the New York
office of the Brazilian-based nonprofit CDI (Committee for Democracy
in Information Technology), a network of grassroots Technology & Civic
Engagement Schools in urban slums throughout Latin America.
www.witness.org

Presenter Three Name: 
Marty Lucas
Presenter Three Info: 

Marty Lucas, is currently the Director of the Integrated Media Arts
Program in the Film and Media Studies Program at Hunter College. Over
the last year he has been working on a food security initiative with
Story Workshop, a media NGO in Malawi, and has organized several
events focused on the social potiential of mobile media.
www.martinlucas.net, http://ima.hunter.cuny.edu

Presenter Four Name: 
Colleen Macklin
Presenter Four Info: 

Colleen Macklin is an associate professor in the Department of
Communication Design and Technology at Parsons The New School for
Design in New York City and Director of PETLab or Prototyping
Evaluation, Teaching and Learning Lab, a joint project of Games for
Change and Parsons. Colleen was a fellow at the India China Institute
at the New School, investigating the use of mobile phones and
location-based media in urban design. http://cdt.parsons.edu/

Presenting organization: 
Integrated Media Arts Program at Hunter College