Reverend Simmons, chair of the Brightmoor Pastoral Alliance, points out that media does have a responsibility to portray the “reality” of Detroit. He said that city is about more than restaurants and the riverwalk, but also about crime.
However, one audience stated that “gatekeepers” prevent more positive stories from being told in traditional media outlets.
It seems like the goal is to have a balanced portrayal of Detroit in the media, but how can this be achieved? Is the idea to have a balanced portrayal with a complete history in every story or an even score at the end of the month or year for each publication?
Off to talk about hidden stories in small groups…..
Close
No, the solution is not about trying to enforce some kind of artificial “balance” (who would define that?) within each story, because then you would be on road to reducing everything to some kind of bland politically correct party line monologue…
The key to the solution is to foster rich and diverse participatory culture of engagement in the media that reflects this kind of engagement on the ground… and creating THAT is all about investing in the creation of STRUCTURES OF ENGAGEMENT. These dont just happen on their own… They need to be invesed in, and developed, whether in the new social media, or on the ground…. And if we’re concerned about creating EQUITABLE structures, then there is all the more need for careful and good work to do this kind of structural work well, not just haphazardly…
It’s about rethinking the power of media and community, and about supporting (foundations, pay attention!) the creation of new structures of equitable power relations, and community-driven processes that dont repeat all the mistakes of the past that have saddled us with the current inequities…
I am an advocate of ignoring the MSM especially here in this region often the MSM selects and defines what is revelant ..The MSM also selects who in many venues can write “our story”..It was obvious today there were no urban “griots’ present in the room other tham myself of course..
I was pleased Nicole was present but the lack of diversity behind the scenes left a bad taste in my mouth…
Thrasher, I could tell something was missing, which unfortunately confirmed my concerns about the nature of the “invited” audience of “leaders”…
This is not to say the event was not useful, but simply to recognize its limitations, and the need for something more, something different. And if the leaders who initiated this Summit are truly interested in furthering this cause of opening up the capacity of the media to tell #thestoryofdetroit in new ways, I hope they will support a follow-up to this event that invites Detroit community members to the table to make decisions about how to organize and structure a more interactive event, and that allows community members making the new stories on the ground to lead the event….
The full use of “Open Space” structure could be useful for this kind of community-generated leadership, but Open Space received only a very limited and time-crunched application today, which was not a good representation of how Open Space can be used, since Open Space has its own software and website structure set up to foster collaborative conversations and cooperative project development…
In any case, Thrasher, hope to meet you in person sometime soon… cheers,
Detroit please come on my TV show here in Birmingham to discuss your agenda…
http://planeideas.blogspot.com