Session 1: 10:00 - 11:30 a.m.

Schedule may be subject to change
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Anti-Oppression and Media
Sharmeen Khan, Scott Clarke

This workshop is aimed at addressing forms of oppression that are communicated through alternative, community media. While many forms of grassroots media have a dedication to social justice, discourses of racism, sexism, able-ism, homophobia, and poor-bashing emerge in alternative reporting. This workshop will look at specific examples of reporting and discuss how an anti-oppressive politics can transform media reporting.

Beyond Googling It: News and Government Information “Web 2.0” style
Melissa Morrone and Gretchen Gano, Radical Reference

Do you feel like you have to check 50 websites just to keep up with a single news item? Do you ever hear about a pending bill, send off a letter to your legislator, and then wonder what became of the issue? Just what DO people mean when they talk about "Web 2.0"? Come explore approaches to using the Internet to monitor, track, share, and manage information. This presentation will demonstrate how so-called "Web 2.0” tools like RSS, news aggregators, and social tagging can help you get organized online and be a more effective independent journalist or community activist. Librarian volunteers from the collective Radical Reference (radicalreference.info) will give real-life examples of how journalists, researchers, community organizers, and informed citizens are using these technologies to track information from around the globe—and how you can too. Rad Reffers will give the basics of each tool, introduce websites and sources, take questions from the audience, and provide detailed handouts.

BGirls, Battles, & Breakin' Barriers: Young Women's Hip Hop Activism in Brazil and Beyond
Helen Frank and Leah King

Urban Roses/Rosas Urbanas Breakdancing Crew of Recife, Brazil, are part of an international collective of
B-Girls, MCs, DJs, graffiti writers, textile designers, poets, video-makers, speakers and political activists using hip hop media as a way to promote women's empowerment. Through a strong sisterhood of skillsharing, and fierce representation at breakin battles, the Rosas use hip h op arts as a way to reclaim young women's independence, like many in New York's hip hop activist community, but with a distinct style all their own. This presentation will feature work done by the crew and their international partners including documentary DVDs, zines full of dope artwork, original music, and graffiti work. There will also be an interactive forum about our access to revolutionary education, political awareness through the arts, skill and information sharing, and how we can help promote international feminism, hip hop arts and youth media collectives' which are taking over the world.

FUREE in the Streets: Media and Community Organizing in an Age of Gentrification
Allison Lirish Dean, Kelly Anderson, Beverly Corbain, Sam Imperatrice, Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE)

Social justice-minded groups working with media often assume that documentary films lead to social change, but it is not always clear how that process works, to say nothing of how it varies according to local or national context, type of struggle, etc. In this session, we will discuss the challenges Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) has faced in using media, particularly documentary film, as a critical component of a community organizing campaign confronting gentrification and displacement in downtown Brooklyn. The film we are making deviates from other models of organizing films in its observational, experiential approach. We will use this as a starting point to engage participants in a discussion about what kinds of media lead to different kinds of responses, and how this differs across diverse social, political, and cultural contexts.

Critical Solidarity: U.S.-based Media Activists and Latin America
Jane Guskin, Weekly News Update on the Americas; Yeidy Rosa, War Resisters League; and Christy Thornton, NACLA

Latin America has become a hot destination for U.S.-based media activists eager to learn first-hand about the region and share their skills. At the same time, grassroots sectors in Latin America are increasingly using alternative media and technology to get the word out around the globe about what's happening in their communities. Are U.S. media activists doing enough to amplify the voices coming from Latin America, or is there too much focus on the "gringo" experience? What can U.S. based activists do here in the United States to build critical solidarity? This participatory workshop discusses these challenges and explores strategies for improving the flow of information from the Latin American grassroots to the U.S. public.

On Public Access and the State of Media: Policies That Affect Us All
Michael Eisenmenger, Manhattan Neighborhood Network; Steve Pierce, New York Media Alliance; and Betty Yu, Manhattan Neighborhood Network

At the state and national level, Public Access channels face a wave of harsh legislation that will endanger the scope of their reach and their overall existence. Access is NY state is facing particular challenges with damaging legislation pending in Albany. Politically, Public Access TV is the materialization of the first amendment, the only vehicle of information that is not mediated by commercial or profit-driven interests, but by the people. Without Public Access TV the media justice discourse is severely compromised, so is our ability to get a closer look at our communities and their stories. In light of this, change cannot wait! This panel explores policy change tactics and organizing strategies that have been used to stop this harmful legislation from passing, and in negotiating ways to expand the reach of these channels. Participants will get an opportunity to think of ways they can add their voice to these efforts and further understand the immediate impact of these legislative changes.

Podcasting 101: Creating Your Own Podcast
Allie Alvarado and Tianna Kennedy, free103point9

Podcasting is a new form of free radio broadcasting which uses the Internet as its mode of distribution.It involves recording your own audio and making it available online for other people to download.Creating a podcast doesn’t require having much more gear than a computer and microphone, so it’s a technology you can learn without many obstacles. Additionally, since podcasts are suited for play back on any computer or mp3 player, audiences can re-play podcasts anytime or anywhere they want. In this workshop, participants will learn how to create their own podcast. We will lead an in-depth tutorial on how to choose equipment, produce content, and record and publish a podcast. Then, we will create a mock-broadcast as a group to demonstrate how podcasting works. We will also listen to other podcasts and observe their strategies and design. Finally, we will discuss how they are being used to bolster grassroots media movements both locally and around the world.

The New York City Streets Renaissance: Reclaiming NYC’s Streets from the Automobile
Clarence Eckerson Jr., The Open Planning Project; Graham Beck and Karla Quintero, Transportation Alternatives; and Aaron Naparstek, StreetsBlog.org

The campaign to make NYC streets more livable and equitable takes many shapes, responds to a multiplicity of needs and appears in an array of media. In this panel, participants will discuss the process by which and the reasons why “Traffic’s Human Toll,” a study of New York City’s street life, became a media hit and a staple of discourse about our most precious and underused public space, our streets. The study’s author, Karla Quintero, will speak on the study’s design and her own thoughts on why and how it became so popular. Aaron Naparstak of Streetsblog will talk about the livable streets movement and how “Traffic’s Human Toll” fits in to that rubric. Film maker Clarence Eckerson will talk about how he responded to the study and how the study continues to inspire his work. Graham Beck, Transportation Alternative’s communication coordinator, will talk about the study’s release to the mainstream media and how other venues, like blogs, films and events helped generate and facilitate more coverage.

Video for Change: Using Video as an Advocacy Tool
Sam Gregory, WITNESS

Video advocacy incorporates the tools of modern communication - especially video and the web - into campaigns for change. WITNESS (www.witness.org) partners with locally-based human rights organizations worldwide, equipping, training and supporting them so that they can use video as a tool for human rights documentation and advocacy. In this interactive presentation, WITNESS staff will discuss strategies for developing advocacy plans built around visual evidence, testimony and stories, and for using video to target a variety of audiences with the power to create change in policy or practice. The focus will be on challenging participants to move beyond traditional perceptions of video as a specialized skill outside of the needs or experience of human rights workers and social justice activists, or as solely a promotional or fundraising tool.