(Español)
Repensando la Comunicación
El taller comenzará con una discusión general acerca de cómo funciona la representación en los medios masivos de comunicación y cómo estas representaciones crean estereotipos que influyen en nuestra vida diaria. Luego mostraremos el trabajo de diferentes iniciativas de comunicación de base que han producido información acerca de la problemática migratoria en el estado de Arizona. Entre los grupos que mostrarán sus trabajos se encuentran El Break Productions (www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-08-02/news..., Radio Diaspora (http://www.lacccenter.org/diaspora-media/) y Flujos Vivos (lotrolado.flujos.org/ ). Cada proyecto compartirá las lecciones aprendidas en su trabajo y los desafios que enfrentan cada día, y entre todos trataremos de responder una pregunta más general acerca de cómo podemos crear un cambio de cultura en nuestras sociedades, teniendo en cuenta que cada día somos más y más no sólo consumidores, sino también productores de información. Por último, en grupos pequeños desarrollaremos el plan de una hipotética cobertura periodística acerca de temas que afectan a las comunidades participantes. ¿Qué temas son los prioritarios? ¿cómo encararemos la noticia? ¿a qué voces les vamos a dar lugar? son algunas de las preguntas que nos vamos a hacer. Todos saldrán de este taller con un entendimiento más profundo de lo que siginfica desarrollar una comunicación transformadora y cómo es algo que podemos practicar en nuestra vida diaria.
Estructura del Taller:
1. Ejercicio de presentación de los particpantes y de introducción a la manera cómo funciona la comunicación en nuestras sociedades.
2. Corta presentación acerca de cómo diferentes medios de comunicación tanto locales, cómo nacionales, comerciales y no comerciales están reportando la problemática de lo que está pasando Arizona con la nueva ley de inmigración.
3. Ejercicio de simulación en donde los participantes se reunen en grupos y hacen un esquema acerca de cómo cubrirían el reportaje para sus proyectos de comunicación acerca de una situación politica específica.
4. Exposición del trabajo en grupo y de experiencias, necesidades y desafios a nivel personal o grupal en el momento de producir información para sus proyectos de comunicación en la vida real.
(English)
Rethinking Communication
This session will begin with a discussion about the problem of representation in dominant communication systems, and how the stereotypes about immigrant communities portrayed through dominant media systems shape our daily lives. Then we will showcase Spanish-language grassroots communication projects have been producing information about the issue of immigration in Arizona, including: El Break (www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-08-02/news..., Radio Diaspora (http://www.lacccenter.org/2010/04/404/) and Flujos Vivos (http://elotrolado.flujos.org/>). Each project will offer lessons and challenges from their work, while reflecting on the larger question of how we can create a cultural shift within society as a whole, towards becoming not only consumers, but producers of information and media. In small groups we will simulate grassroots media-making around the issues impacting the communities of workshop participants. Everyone will leave with a deeper understanding of what transformative communication means and how we can practice it in our daily lives.
Description
This session will showcase how different grassroots communication projects have been producing information in Spanish about the issue of immigration in the State of Arizona . This workshop is an invitation to reflect about how communication media works in our contemporary societies, as a fluid site of constant negotiation where we all have a role to play. Media through practices of representation contribute to the different ways in which information and meaning circulate in the public sphere. How different issues affecting the Hispanic communities in the US are portrayed in the mainstream media and in our grassroots communication projects? Participants in the workshop will look in depth to the different ways how different stereotypes that affect our daily lives are built through media. We will explore how to partake in that process, not just as consumers but also as producers of information.
Outline
(10 mins) Warm- up activity: The hammer (The different things you can do with a hammer; this will guide us into a discussion about the ways communication can be used in our societies)
(10 mins) Screening of how mainstream media has produced information about immigration issues in Arizona.
(15 mins) Introduction and presentation of the work that grassroots communication projects have have produced information about immigration for Latino communities in the U.S.
(20 mins) Activity: Work in groups on a simulation of how to cover a story in the media about a relevant topic.
(20 mins) Work in break-out sessions. What are common experiences that have come up in the various media projects? What kind of challenges do we face everyday when producing information?
(10 mins) Presentation of how this hypothetical issue or issues was/were portrayed through different media outlets.
(10 mins) Conclusions
Essential Questions:
How we can be responsible producers and consumers of information? How the representations that are produced in media can affect our daily lives? How media can be an empowering tool that can foster social transformation in our communities? How this new conceptualization of communication can transform the way how we communicate with each other every day?
Practical Questions that will guide the content of the workshop:
How are problems that are common to Latino communities in the US are portrayed in the mainstream media?
How do community and grassroots media inform their audiences about these issues?
What are the headlines of the day? Who determines what they are? and, What can we learn about the voices that are narrating what is happening in the world, the U.S. and our local communities?
Goals:
The participants will experience how the same issue can bee seen through different lenses through media. By making participants aware of the different ways in which information can be produced will expand their role as producers and consumers of information. The main goal is to empower participants to be more responsible in the role they play in the consumption and production of media.
