An Activist Portal Like No Other

The tool you’ve been looking for is now at your fingertips: the NYCGMC web portal at www.nycgrassrootsmedia.org! Part of the Compass for Change, New York City’s online activist portal, the site offers a wealth of information from how to make media to facilitating media coverage of social justice events across the city.

Click on “Skill Share” and learn how to design your own press campaign, make your own radio station or start a copwatch program in your community – and submit your own tools to educate others! Then distribute your new video or news article through the “Distribution Outlets” section, or blast-fax your press release to a wide range of press contacts – in just a few mouse clicks.

Make media justice a reality in New York City at the “Dispatch Center.” Coming soon, the “Coverage Center” promises to be one of our most exciting features. Media makers and independent journalists will be able to coordinate media coverage of social justice events across the city, helping to drive attention and audiences to activities and campaigns ongoing throughout New York’s diverse communities.

In our ongoing effort to avoid duplication of efforts and to maximize our limited collective resources, the portal offers a platform with links to a variety of organizations, to promote the work of our neighbor groups doing important work around media and social justice.

Visit and register today. Make www.nycgrassrootsmedia.org your online community media tool! This site will be as powerful as what we all can put into it. If we can harness the energy of New York’s activist community – there’s no telling just how powerful this tool can be.

Compass for Change is a set of free, easy to use online tools designed to help activist and community organizations connect with one another, share information and resources, find funding for their projects, and expand their ability to work for social justice. The Compass for Change is a project of the North Star Fund and the Ya-Ya Network, in collaboration with backspace.com, May First, the NYC Grassroots Media Coalition, and the NYC Social Forum.

DIY Tool of the Month: The new WITNESS guide to Video Activism

One of the features of the web portal www.nycgrassrootsmedia.org are resources and skills sharing exercises that offering tips on media making and organizing activities. The NYCGMC will be highlighting different lessons and tools on a rotating basis on our website. Organizations are invited to browse through the list for relevant lessons and to submit their own to add to our collective resources. Our current spotlight is aimed at the recent release by Witness entitled "Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism" a must-read for human rights, environmental, and social justice organizations wanting to use video in their work.

WITNESS (www.witness.org) uses the power of video to open the eyes of the world to human rights abuses. By partnering with local organizations around the globe, WITNESS empowers human rights defenders to use video as a tool to shine a light on those most affected by human rights violations, and to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools of justice. Since its founding in 1992, WITNESS has partnered with groups in more than 60 countries, bringing often unseen images, untold stories and seldom heard voices to the attention of key decision makers, the media, and the general public -- prompting grassroots activism, political engagement, and lasting change.
To access a free version of the guide visit the NYCGMC Resources Page

News / Actions In Brief from SAVE ACCESS! Manhattan Neighborhood Network

Legislation has been introduced in Washington that could undermine or even end Public Access TV. For grassroots progressive organizations such as Paper Tiger TV, National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, Picture the Homeless, and many others, Public Access TV is an indispensable source of equipment, training, funding and distribution. All of this is now in jeopardy.

Public Access TV has a huge constituency – over a 1.2 million people volunteer at access TV centers nationwide, and over 250,000 community groups regularly work with access TV. The challenge is to turn this constituency into a coherent opposition to this anti-democratic and anti-local legislation.

If Public Access TV is to survive people are going to have to get involved RIGHT NOW! MNN is asking people to sign up as participants in their phone-tree, letter campaign, and other advocacy efforts. These efforts are ongoing, and more people need to get involved as Washington pushes to finalize and vote on this legislation early in 2006.

This is a long term issue. Media technologies are changing and so are the rules that govern them. We need media that serves the public interest, that supports local communities, and that fosters democracy. As one part in the jigsaw of a fair, accessible, and democratic media, we need to sustain and expand Public Access TV. To do this, Public Access TV now needs your support, your activism, and your commitment!

Contact MNN to become a Public Access TV advocate and to participate in these efforts.
For more information, an information packet, or to get involved in this campaign please contact:
Betty Yu (212) 757-2670 x346 (betty@mnn.org)
Lyell Davies (212) 757-2670 x343 (lyell@mnn.org)

For additional information/resources visit:
SAVE ACCESS!/Manhattan Neighborhood Network (http://mnn.org/saveaccess/)
Defend Local Access/The Free Press (www.freepress.net/defendlocalaccess/)
The Alliance For Community Media (www.alliancecm.org/)

Upcoming Events:

SAVE THE DATE!

The 3rd Annual New York City Grassroots Media Conference returns to New School on Saturday, February 11, 2006! Join hundreds of fellow media makers, activists, artists, academics and youth for an action-packed day of informative panels, hands-on workshops, strategy sessions and an evening networking party.

The conference provides a unique space in New York City to forge linkages between the growing independent media movement and local social justice campaigns. As 2006 will be a challenging year – from significant media policy issues in Congress that will affect our access to media channels to ongoing battles in our city for improvements in housing, education and healthcare for all communities – the GMC is an opportunity to envision and enact the social change we all want to see in NYC. Our mission is a more accessible and representative media infrastructure that serves the diverse communities of our city.

Panels will include discussions of race and independent media, culture jamming, and how participants can help save public access television; a series of compelling educational workshops designed just for youth; and a whole range of do-it-yourself, skill-sharing workshops designed to teach each other how to produce – and distribute – powerful and effective grassroots media.

We are accepting online proposals for workshops, art and film submissions, program advertisements, endorsements, and tabling reservations online here. Register online now to get a discounted rate. As always, we also welcome organizers, volunteers and donations of funds or materials.