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OURMedia/NuestrosMedios
IV: Building Communication Societies
An International Conference
July 22-25, 2004
Porto Alegre, Brazil
http://www.ourmedianet.org/
::::CALL FOR
PROPOSALS::::
DEADLINE: May 10,
2004
OURMedia/NuestrosMedios
is an international network of more than 270 academics and activists --
resear-chers, practitioners and advocates working in more than forty
countries to strengthen media and
information/communication technologies (ICTs) that support social
justice, human
rights, community autonomy and grassroots empowerment.
Our work spans many
fields: community media, independent media, radical media, citizens media
... grassroots networking, telecommunications policy, indymedia activism,
cultural arts, communications theory, social-movement research, sociology,
anthropology, cultural studies, development communication and
communication for social change. Our annual meeting is a time to learn
from each other and to strengthen our analyses, strategies, collaborations
and campaigns. We invite you to join us.
Presentations and
participatory sessions at OM IV will be translated on site into
English/Spanish/Portuguese and also fully documented. Papers, reports and
other written or multimedia materials provided by presenters will be
posted to the OURMedia website, which is becoming one of the most
comprehensive online repositories of research and commentary on grassroots
media and ICTs. Several publication projects such as books and
special-edition journals are currently being planned and others may
develop to feature the presentations, discussions and projects produced at
and for OM IV.
This announcement
includes:
===============
TYPES OF SESSIONS
The Conference
Planning Committee is seeking proposals for two types of sessions:
1) PRESENTATIONS:
moderated panels, paper presentations, multimedia presentations, small
roundtable debates/discussions, performances
2) PARTICIPATORY
SESSIONS: facilitated discussion groups, workshops, strategic working
groups, action planning meetings.
In addition, the
first and last days of the OURMedia/NuestrosMedios IV Conference will
feature FIELD TRIPS to local Brazilian grassroots media and ICT projects,
advocacy campaigns and popular education centers as well as an active
POLYMEDIA LAB which will be open for the full four days of the conference.
Based on previous "polymedia
labs" at the European Social Forum (Florence 2002), the We Seize! WSIS
Counter-Summit (Geneva 2003) and the Foro de Acá (Montevideo 2003) the
OURMedia Polymedia Lab will be a multimedia space for experimentation,
creation, collaboration and skill-sharing. Workshops, projects and
exhibits will explore autonomous and community uses of video, audio,
Internet and other traditional and new media technologies. The Polymedia
Lab is collectively organized by participants and open to all. Anyone
interested in participating in the Polymedia Lab planning should visit:
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/
OurPolymediaLab
======================
TOPIC AREAS
For Presentations and
Participatory Sessions, the Conference Planning Committee is seeking
proposals that address one or more of the following topics:
1) Connecting
Research and Advocacy for Citizens' Media
--data and research
findings, advocacy strategies and research/evaluation methods that can
help demonstrate to policymakers, funders and civil society leaders the
vital importance of grassroots, community-based, autonomous,
participatory media and ICT policies, systems and projects
-- the research needs of advocates, practitioners and policymakers
-- overcoming
barriers to advocacy-oriented or participatory research in academia
-- opportunities
and methods for research that can support advocacy as well as
practitioner self-evaluation
-- the nexus
between academic research and community aspirations
-- pragmatic
projects for equity, social inclusion and policy realignment
-- ICT and media
policy and advocacy campaigns as empowering tools for future initiatives
-- tactical,
practice-based, or other 'non-traditional' research methods and models
-- interactive
media and how it links to collaborative and participatory research and
practice
2) "Best Practices"
and "Notable Failures"
-- stories and
lessons from survivors, successes and disasters; transformed, extinct or
emerging citizens' media and grassroots networking projects, media/ICT
advocacy and policy campaigns, researcher-practitioner collaborations.
What specifically we can learn from them to incorporate into our
practice as researchers, advocates and media practitioners?
-- praxis models
for engaging ICTs and media and grassroots activities, community
participation or mobilization
-- lessons from
other social movements, past campaigns or local examples that relate to
current advocacy efforts for "communication rights," "media democracy,"
"free speech," "media diversity" and other goals.
3) Current Policy
Issues and Implications:
-- discussions on
current media/ICT policy issues and institutions such as WSIS, WTO, FTAA,
WIPO, Convention on Cultural Diversity and local/regional policy and
regulatory issues
-- specific current
or emerging political/military/commercial threats to free, diverse,
autonomous and participatory media
-- specific current
or emerging opportunities to advance communication rights, information
rights, freedom of speech
-- considerations
of current media/ICT policy campaigns in local, regional or global
contexts
-- evaluations of
existing policy models at local, regional or world levels
-- the politics of
media production and distribution processes
4) The Evolution of
OURMedia and Project Working Sessions
-- opportunities
for OM to advance academic/advocacy/practitioner collaborations
-- specific ways
that network members can help each other
-- research,
workshops, strategies and campaigns to further develop OM as a network
and political force
-- workshops or
discussions to address future goals, organizational structures,
processes and activities for the network, next steps and short & long
term future of OURMedia
We are very
interested in session proposals that have a specific intended action
outcome, such as working sessions designed to initiate collaborative
projects with the goal of producing actual tools such as:
- a guide to self
evaluation for citizens media/advocacy groups
- guidelines for
practitioner/advocate academic collaborations
- bibliographies of
key research for media/ICT advocacy
- media
education/media literacy curricula including a citizens' media perspective
- collectively
generated maps of the relationships among media and ICTpolicy issues
- booklets or
pamphlets on current policy issues and how they relate to community media
and ICTs
- public education
materials (flyers, articles, posters, multimedia) about citizens media/ICT
and policy issues
- action plans,
working groups and groundwork for participation in a regional/global
policy forum such as WSIS II or WTO, Social Forums and other movement
processes or activist campaigns.
**Note: We are also
specifically seeking research proposals that focus on the OURMedia network
as a subject. The team from CIMA, together with Dr. Janice Windborne, are
planning to conduct survey research on the OURMedia network and are
actively looking for additional academic partners interested in
contributing to this work. This is an excellent opportunity for academics
interested in studying networks. If you are interested, please contact
liza@mediaactioncenter.org ***
sessions and
$150 USD for the two days of field trips, for a total of $300 USD. If you
are not receiving funding from an academic organization, large NGO,
grantmaking foundation or other institution, and not otherwise able to
raise the funds, then we will waive the registration fee. However, please
note that registration fees will contribute towards essential conference
costs such as space, translators, technology and documentation as well as
supplement our budget for the field trips. We have a very tight budget for
a very ambitious agenda and we need your support.
If you are also
planning on attending IAMCR, some grants are available for participants
from "low-income countries". Please visit:
http://www.pucrs.br/famecos/
iamcr/textos/grants.htm and be sure to apply before April 30.
For more information
about OM IV please first visit our web page at:
http://www.ourmedianet.org/om2004 
If you still have
additional questions after visiting the webpage, please contact us by
email:
omiv@ourmedianet.org.
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