Mediating community communication ecologies

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Mediating community communication ecologies

• Dr Peter Day Zanna Dear
• CMIS
• University of Brighton

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Introducing 3 modules

• Community project level 3 under-grad
• Students often do related applied research
  dissertation
• Community media (informatics) level 2
  under-grad
• Developing community media MA Creative Media

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Community Media

• Community owned and controlled, giving access to
  voices in the community encouraging diversity,
  creativity participation. Community media
  provides a vital counterbalance to the increasing
  globalization commercialization of the media.
• (Community Media Association, 2008)

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Based on service learning principles

• Working in partnership with community partners to
  solve real world problems
• Active, reflective challenging
• Promotes citizenship, collaboration deeper
  learning
• Meaningful, positive dialogic

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Community development
Helping local groups organizations to achieve
the objectives they set themselves, especially in
disadvantaged areas or in sections of the
population at risk of exclusion or facing
difficult conditions. (CDF, 2008)
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Community media approach to learning

• Initial contextualisation in class
• Fieldwork oriented
• Active problem solving
• Reader online seminar discussions personal
  blogs

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Previous student projects

• West Hove News (community newspaper)
• Community event planning summer festival
  spring fun day
• Publicity marketing
• Community video
• Photo stories

• Childrens painting competitions
• Participatory website design build
• Photography workshop
• Photoshop workshop posters, etc
• Summer holiday volunteering

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LM 267 Community Informatics A Students View

• LM 267 was a thoroughly enjoyable course. It
  taught the complex relations of community
  through lived experience of participation and
  interaction, whilst demonstrating the important
  role media can play in supporting, and even
  creating, community networks.

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LM 267 A Students View

• Good
• Practice in the field was grounded in, and
  enhanced by, a high level of academic
  connectivity.
• The experience of community interaction in West
  Hove was extremely positive and inspirational.

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LM 267 A Students View

• Bad
• The course was very full - not everybody was
  happy with the availability of projects. Some
  students expressed a desire for more media
  projects or more substantial work on media
  projects in the West Hove area.
• The Discussion Board Programming The
  discussions that were held were fun and engaging
  but the programme used hindered the process near
  constantly.
• !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Observations to date

• Very rewarding and great fun
• Can have significant effects student
  community learning (anecdotal)
• Time labour intensive
• Requires institutional support understanding
• Words need to be backed by actions.can be
  problematic

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Contributing to communicative ecologies

• Community media as tools, spaces and processes
  building social capital (esp. bridging linking)
• Stimulates community learning
• sharing of information
• participation e.g. in design of CCS
• engaging in dialogue re-establishing weak
  ties
• networking process and structure
• critical reflection and analysis
• Communities generate content suitable for the
  social and cultural contexts they themselves
  generate
• Community organisation, activities action