Write Up 2010 AMC
For four days at the Allied Media Conference at Wayne State University in Detroit., ThousandKites brought together a coalition of 15 national leaders from urban and rural community organizing and media organizations to link their innovation and needs into a national grassroots communication platform.
The coalition explored an array of communication strategies – via FlipCam video, phone, social media, theater, poetry, visual arts, and more – to support advocacy, education, and organizing both outside and inside prison walls.
The coalition articulated the following needs for national infrastructure.
- Database capacity
- Speaker’s bureau, including training opportunities to develop speakers with firsthand experiences
- Investigative journalists
- Framing language
- Media that bridges into mainstream
- Independent wire
- Strategies for getting on AP wire
- Communication of advocacy success stories
- Online tool for contacting legislators
- Training opportunities in media literacy
- Couple media strategies and local organizing efforts (community radio show and community forum)
Workshop Notes:
- Questions we tackled:
How do we have community involvement in your websites?
How do you deal with conservatives or liberals?
How do you generate content without paying people?
How do you use online media to change people’s perspective?
How do you get your online media to people inside?
Email tactics as mobilization?
Action opportunities via the internet
Who am I trying to reach - how do I get them?
How do I know about them?
Do we influence the right? How are we doing that?
How do we amplify?
How do we develop online tools to target legislators?
How do we build databases of experts/heavy lifters?
How do we stay succinct and also true to the complexities of the issues?
How do we link our strategies online?
Content:
Addressing the conservative media: where do they have weak points?
Use local media as well as college students/youth media to get out stories
One contact person or two with a set of concise talking points -- never turn down an interview
Share articles/re-posting
NEED: push skills out, training in technology, building literacy
Build web community, have a community of prisoners to write letters and send it out online
How to get people to engage?
Use visitation time and people on the outside (lawyers, families etc.) to get out the word to those on the inside
Base things off stuff that works: template/fliers/letters to the editor/comments section
journalsfromjail.com, http://www.midwestbookstoprisoners.org/
Retain a focus on creating content for those on the inside
Ex: letter writing and posting it
Community:
Define your communities
Google groups/listservs
Start in person?
Reach/impact:
Community radio (reach) + forums + schools (journalism and poli sci majors)
Bring media to live events
Have prisoners call into forums
Search Engine optimization
Everyone link together
Site people on blogs
Post to wiki or develop a national wiki -- how-to?
*Use mediums people are already using*
Need: databases from community groups for media groups
*Creating a loop*
Linking to established websites, shared email, fan pages
Paul knows software people
Infrastructure:
National Wiki
Databases - should include: spokespersons, reporters, watchdog groups
List of people who have expertise
How to: use local radio to reach the inside, post stuff on-line, post radio on-line
A link between multiple different mediums
An aggregation post of “best of” on the web
How to streamline the info on the web?
For legislatures:
Map out legislatures on committees
Set up website
Phone calls
Send legislatures something
Develop national set of priorities
Challenge: buy in from local groups to actually check the website
Write up by Jamie Haft