We, the participants of the Our Media V, representing
different countries and social affiliations, have gathered
in Bangalore, India to collectively consider, debate, and
find new ways to reaffirm and expand spaces for community
participation and effective use of communication media in
the context of an increasingly market-oriented and corporatized
media and communication terrain globally. Notwithstanding
the rapid proliferation of new media channels of communication,
which have grown exponentially as a result of a veritable
revolution in the field of information technologies, there
are an alarmingly fewer number of spaces for culturally,
politically and socially diverse communities, particularly
those communities whose voices have been traditionally marginalized
by the major, global corporate media. It is with these issues
in mind that Our Media has been gathering annually in different
parts of the world to promote media democracy and citizens'
participation, as well as academic and activist/practitioner
collaborations on a global scale.
During
this year's conference we were able once again to examine
the critical role of communication in generating and facilitating
processes of social change, participation, community empowerment
and the importance of action research. From the use of media
by young Dalit women in India, and by remote aboriginal
children in central Australia, to the communication program
of the indigenous movement in Colombia, from women's journalism
in Turkey, and refugee information networks in Tanzania,
to a campaign to restore democracy and independent radio
in Nepal, Our Media participants examined a vast array of
local experiences that provide clear examples of the importance
of community participation in mass communication.
The
role of media and communication activists was also discussed
in this meeting. Several raised the importance of the kind
of environment activists create through their work, and
how vital it is to create non-threatening, non-hierarchical
diverse environments for communities to engage in. The meeting
affirmed the vital importance of respecting and actively
engaging traditional and folk media forms organic in peoples'
cultures in our work as activists for social change.Raising
concerns about the gap that exists between communication
studies in most academic institutions and applied participatory
approaches and action research, Our Media is calling on
scholars, researchers and students to develop strategies
for creating new forms of training communication professionals
towards planning participatory communication processes.
This would feed into local, regional, national and international
activism. In this spirit, we commit ourselves to deepen
our own learning, reflection and search for ways to strengthen
our practice. We will look honestly at the many challenges
as well as the potential we encounter in using technology
and communication for social change, and we > will seek
to share these findings – that is knowledge - with
others.
