Community Reporters from Huncoat in Accrington Stanley produced   a video letter to Hynburn Homes to ask some questions about the future of their estate. This approach allows for a different type of dialogue between residents and the housing association which is  continuing and will also include face to face meeting.

Here is the response back from the Housing Association

People’s Voice Media and Safe in Tees Valley are training up community reporters in  Owton Manor in Hartlepool. They will be reporting  on issue to do with crime and communty safety in there local area.  You can see there blog and further footage at poolsgossip.

John Bull that famous dish.  Kevin describes it and eats it.  Looks lovely

This is a great video made by Charlie Brooker a Guardian columnist.  Brooker is hilariously ripping apart the formula of how a standard news piece is put together piece by piece.  This just reinforces the view that community reporters and social media present an alternative way for people to produce content and to tell there  stories.

Gary Copitch the Chief Executive of  People’s Voice Media has become a correspondent for the @free trade  web site.  Free Trade is the online blog community of Transforming Management.  It is a  global, networked community centred based at the  Manchester Business School. You can see Gary’s post  on the site

Eillen Wattam as part of her PHD conducted research on the People’s Voice Media Community reporters programme.  I posted a summary of the findings  on a previous blog post.  She has now completed the case studies which give more information on  the programme .  I have attached the file which can be downloaded.  If you want any more information then please get in touch .

case studies community reporters

see a summary of the report

People’s Voice media are happy to announce a joint  community reporters  programme in  Brighton & Hove in partnership  with SKIP.  This is an exciting development for People’s Voice Media and further develops are work with local partners.   We will be issuing community reports badges to al the participants.

Up for Arts is a collaboration with BBC Radio Merseyside, People’s Voice Media, Voluntart Arts England, Toxteth Tv and the Media Trust funded by The Learning Revolution Transformation Fund. Its purpose is to support arts and craft organisation and raise there profile of these organisations and there work. Such activities as amateur dramatic groups, Cermic groups, choirs, arts groups are just to name a few. People’s Voice Media is working with Toxteth TV to develop local community reporters who will be reporting on  the events as well as telling their own stories using social media

An article from Mashable written by Joshua-Michéle Ross who is SVP of Digital Strategy with Fleishman Hillard.  He blogs at opposableplanets.com.

Social media has a loyal tribe of disciples. We follow each other on Twitter, connect on Facebook, read each other’s blogs and listen to each other at conferences. We provide each other moral support and though we are a minority, we have religion and we are here to change the world (I’m not joking).

Most importantly, we share stories. These stories are all about finding common ground and building a defensible position on the what/why/how of our new orthodoxy; what is “social”, why you need it, how it actually works and how you measure it.

In this giant food-mill of collective meaning making we are defining the significance of new terms and putting our arguments to the test. Like any self-interested group however, we easily slip into dogmas that serve our purposes but may not serve our clients. Lately I have become increasingly aware of the oversimplified answers that social media consultants apply, often regardless of business context.

So let me be the first to tell you: Social media may not be for you  yet.

Are You Willing to Act? Can You?

One of the most common issues big organizations have with social media is a reasonable fear that customers will air their grievances on a company-sponsored platform such as a blog, Twitter or Facebook page. The nearly universal response to this fear, one that has been hammered home at every conference, and in every blog post is, “your customers are already saying these things about you. Wouldn’t you rather have them talking on your site?” This response rings true because, by and large your customers are online –- and they do have the means to talk about you. If you are a sizable company and you look around it is very likely that someone, somewhere has said some pretty shocking things about you. Sometimes they even work for you.

The hackneyed “you better join the conversation” is often an appropriate response. But it isn’t always the appropriate response.

First, there is a difference between isolated criticism that a company may receive here and there on the Social Web from people of varying influence and veracity, and painting a target on your back by hosting that conversation.

Second, and more importantly, when an organization makes an investment in social media it is a constructive opportunity to consider not only what could go wrong, but why it could go wrong.  In other words, what are the valid criticisms that customers and employees might have and what you are willing to do about it.  If you aren’t willing to consider the former and have no power concerning the latter, social media might not be your best bet.

Be Prepared to Change

All too often the person making the social media investment has little control over (1) the quality of the product, (2) the pricing strategy, (3) the terms of use, (4) the company’s stance on cause-based issues (political, environmental, etc.), (5) the quality of customer service, and the list goes on. Yet these are often exactly what the customer wants to talk about.

All too often the person making the social media investment has a narrow mandate  quarterly growth  that exists within a parochial frame of reference (“it’s still marketing, isn’t it?”). All too often the company has not thought through (or perhaps willfully ignored) what its response to criticism will be.

So it might not be the best idea to “join the conversation” if you just want to make your quarterly numbers. Don’t create a Facebook Fan Page if your product is a letdown. Don’t use Twitter if your intern will be running the campaign. Above all, don’t engage in social media if you aren’t prepared to change in the bargain.

Ultimately if your company is willing to take the feedback and turn it into action, then social media is a competitive game changer. Connecting with customers, partners and employees can drive innovation, decrease cycle time, improve customer service and so on. This usually involves bringing various internal constituents to the table; marketing, customer service, product development, legal etc. But social media isn’t for every company or every situation. It has a transformative power but, like fire, not everyone is ready to wield it without getting burned.

from Mashable

East Salford direct TV. Overwhelming view that it can have a real impact. There are allot more programmes available at http://eastsalforddirect.co.uk/tv for more information contact enquires@peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk

PVM are working with Safe in Tees Valley to  improve  community engagement with Cleveland Police .

Great Video from Michael Wesch called Web 2.0… The machine is Us/ing Us

which goes through the history of the web and its future

By:  Eileen Wattam, University of Salford, School of Media, Music & Performance

The following seeks to summaries the ways in which People’s Voice Media’s Community Reporters Programme is contributing to community empowerment and is linked with urban and community regeneration.

The summary is based on preliminary findings of a wider PhD research project focused on identifying whether and how social media is linked with a potential for community empowerment and regeneration. The summary draws predominately on eighteen semi-structured interviews with Community Reporters and participant and non-participant observation carried out between March and September 2009. The study is focused on the integration of the Community Reporters Programme within key regeneration areas in Charlestown and Lower Kersal in Salford and East Manchester and can thus be viewed as part of a wider picture of urban and community regeneration.

The Community Reporters Programme is centred on using technology to empower people by enabling participants to express themselves and tell their stories about their lives or about their local area online using a range of social media tools. The programme is benefiting and being benefited by people from a range of different backgrounds including people who may be categorised as digitally excluded within popular and political discourses including the unemployed, asylum seekers, and people affected by homelessness, ill health and disabilities.

Interviews with Community Reporters reveal that the programme is contributing to empowerment through the development of psychological and social power at the individual level along with the potential for enhancing personal economic power. Evidence of the contribution to the interlinked areas of psychological and social power at the individual level include community reporters referring to an association between participation in the programme and; increased self confidence and self worth and a sense of importance and value within the community; overcoming periods of isolation and depression through building a sense of connectedness with people and the local community; enhanced communication skills, making friends and an improving social life, forging links and connections with people within the community.

The programme also has a role in economic empowerment and in particular there is evidence that it has contributed to people rehabilitating their lives for employment, self employment and further education in the creative industries after a period of ill health or personal crisis. The development of political power i.e. the power to voice opinions, to influence decision making and engage in collective efforts to bring about change is interpreted as lying at the heart of community empowerment and its relationship with regeneration.  Some Community Reporters referred to an enhanced capacity to express their viewpoints and Community Reporters also contribute to the potential development of political power through giving a voice to and promoting local community groups and events.

Ways in which the programme is linked to regeneration include;

• Community reporters working together and present views and opinions on local environments, services and regeneration programmes
• use of the community reporting approach to promote community groups and initiatives and counter negative mainstream media reports of areas through promoting the positive aspects of communities.
• Meeting with and interviewing local politicians was also an area identified as empowering.

The views of some of the Community Reporters, however, suggest that the potential of the programme for political empowerment is an area which is not as yet being optimised. Preliminary findings suggest that the role of social media in contributing to community empowerment through the Community Reporters Programme is shaped by an approach to digital inclusion which moves beyond simple provision of access and basic skills by fostering a context within which cultural and social forms of technological capital (i.e. the development of technological knowledge and skills and networks of technological contacts and sources of support), can thrive and be constantly developed.

The Social Media Centres, distribution channels, online mail out systems; training and ‘drop-in’ sessions and the associated support of staff and volunteers and the non-traditional, flexible approach to learning and opportunities for peer learning all play a vital role in developing such forms of capital and in engagement. Integrating opportunities to; volunteer for assignments, discuss and be exposed to a range of technologies informally, borrow equipment and attend social events are all associated with these forms of capital and with sustained engagement.

The role of social media is also, the findings suggest, shaped by interpretations of the value and meaning of social media at an individual and collective level and the changing nature of the technologies involved themselves. Social Media for example in this case is projected as valuable for ‘community’ and ‘community reporting’ and thus attracts people who may identify with this meaning which has been assigned to the use of social media.

The identity of ‘a community reporter’ and the badge which accompanies was, for example, linked to feelings of empowerment. Many participants also have existing interests and interpretations of how social media may be useful in their lives and within society and thus the value of social media for community empowerment is ultimately shaped by the personal and community orientated goals and motivations of participants. The increasing accessibility of the technologies involved themselves also influences value in this context in terms of increasing portability, affordability and usability. The actual process of being able to go into communities and talk to people with the technology is, for example, a key aspect of empowerment in this context. The opportunity to reach a global audience and number of people viewing content is also associated with feelings of empowerment.

UK Online,  People’s Voice Media, Talk About Local and Community Media Association  were successful in winning a bid to deliver a new project helping four coastal towns get online and build their own online communities. The Seaside Voices Roadshow project will see four lead UK online centres develop their own marketing campaigns and roadshow activities to engage local people in technology, and support them to create their own websites to share local stories, experiences and information. The idea is to create local community partnerships, facilitate inter-generational learning and build a social media legacy that can continue to benefit the towns involved. The project – which runs from December to March – will be delivered in partnership with Talk About Local, People’s Voice Media, and the Community Media Association, who will provide expertise and support in the use of social media. The project will also be supported locally by Post Offices.

The Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) report ‘Higher Ambitions’ (November 2009) highlights the University of Salford Digital Cluster as a key example of a British university supporting new sector growth and engagement.

This report describes the Digital Cluster as “a forum and centre of excellence, which combines and leads on high quality research, academic enterprise and teaching in areas of informatics, digital media, and new and convergent technologies”.

Read more on the Digital Cluster website at: http://www.digital.salford.ac.uk/cms/news/article/?id=38