Comments on: Very Local Media blossoming in Lozells – but who should keep watering it?

By: Lee Martin

Lee Martin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:31:35 +0000

Lozells News has had funding from Urban Living for a second season over the last 3 months delivered by Birmingham City Council & Can UK Media.
Have a fresh look and let us know what you think?

Lee
CAN UK Media

By: Andy Mabbett

Andy Mabbett — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:00:16 +0000

I’ve been rethinking the examples I gave, above, and I now think the difference is not umbrella organisations, but that all the examples (those nationally coordinated and those not) are offshoots of activities for adults; and are probably seen as “feeders” for them. The incentive for the adult facilitators is a new generation to take up and carry on their work. That’s probably not the case with youth news gathering.

By: Nick Booth

Nick Booth — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:58:04 +0000

Thanks Rob, Abby and John. By the way I wasn’t suggesting these are not sustainable, I was reflecting. Good luck collaborating!

By: Abby Corfan

Abby Corfan — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:49:46 +0000

Hi Nick,

Audiences Central is currently working with Multistory on a project called Beyond Bricks in Lozells and East Handsworth. I’ve forwarded your blog to Multistory to see if they have any ideas for cross over links and possible partners to keep this project going, as it looks great.

Abby

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:32:19 +0000

Great to see the Lozells News project getting stuck into streamed content… when I quizzed them at the event in the park they said they wouldn’t be able to make content available like that, so delighted to see it up on Vimeo… even if my bit about vision-lozells seems to have ended up on the cutting room floor :)

I’m hoping to develop the start we’ve made on vision-lozells in exactly the direction discussed here, so watch this space as I’m sure we can build on the initial ideas along with John, Kate and lozells.info

By: John Heaven

John Heaven — Sun, 10 May 2009 13:25:42 +0000

Firstly, good old Google Alerts for finding this discussion for me!

Secondly, I just thought I’d chip in because I’m working on the ‘Life in Lozells’ (lozells.info) blog, which is run by the Lozells Neighbourhood Management. Part of my role is to come up with some ideas on just the issue raised here: how do we get more people independently using social media in the area?

Following a very useful discussion with Pete Ashton (Kate, Neighbourhood Manager for Lozells, had a similar conversation with Jon Bounds), I’m coming round to the idea of lozells.info being a signpost to other initiatives in the area — whether that be Sobia’s pictures on Flickr or the Bangladeshi Youth Forum putting their documentary on YouTube, and hopefully in the future a blog or two about the local area.

Social media surgeries in Lozells would be a great push in the right direction. After all, Life in Lozells is a great start but I think no-one would deny that it would be much better to have people in the local area with the skills, access to technology and inclination to do it for themselves!

By: Chris Ivens

Chris Ivens — Sun, 10 May 2009 13:08:30 +0000

This thread is actually making me think for the first time about looking into what exists or could be created for my local area. I’m no journalist but I’ve been reading more and more into the Moseley and Digbeth ’scene’ via twitter and blogs that I’ve completely neglected my own back door. I’ll have a hunt this afternoon and maybe report back to http://www.joltbox.co.uk and here.

By: DK

DK — Sun, 10 May 2009 11:29:12 +0000

In regards to creating sustainability in any youth project the focus should be on governance and the adults involved…

Empower the leaders/support workers/budget holders etc to understand, explore and adopt social media platforms & technologies and long lasting projects will roll from that.

By: Andy Mabbett

Andy Mabbett — Sun, 10 May 2009 05:13:07 +0000

Doh! Well, paint me misunderstanding :-(

Perhaps what’s missing for adults is an umbrella organisation? Thinking of parallels, there’s the RSPB running ‘Wildlife Explorers’ clubs, the FA for football, Cubs/ Scouts and so on.

On the other hand, there are things like model railway clubs, with no national body, but they’re perhaps the exception rather than the rule.

Would ‘newsmaking clubs’ be sustainable, or would it be better to embed the skill sin other organisations, such as those above, as an activity which underpins their main roles?

You’re also up against the bureaucracy issue – police checks and all that – which has reportedly reduced the willingness of adults to volunteer to work with children.

By: RickWaghorn

RickWaghorn — Sat, 09 May 2009 18:57:42 +0000

Nick,

Why the assumption that it all has to be ‘voluntary’ – it’s the same premise that Will Perrin works with…

Why not empower yourself with a DIY hyper-local ad system? Find hyper-local advertisers that want to place a little text ad on, say, http://lozells.info/ and then with the money you earn… and it may be no more than £100 per month; whatever… plough that back into a spot of mini-funding; take out a little of the reliance on wholly voluntary efforts…

Even a football club needs a little cash for the half-time oranges and washing powder… Well, I can give you the tool to do that.

And it is a question of giving; all I’ve ever tried to do on the back of http://www.myfootballwriter.com/norwichcity is to empower similar niche and hyper-local communities with the ability to generate a little bit more by way of text advertising than they’re ever likely to get off you-kno:grin:w-who…

Drop us a line…

All the best, etc