20 years after the EU's far-reaching decision to engage with its neighbours to the South, Jemstone's begun a drive to reconnect the 1,500+ members of its network. See http://stayhungrystayangry.com/ It's also announced its return to the Middle East. According to the Jemstone Director, Tudor Lomas, the need has never been greater for journalistic support.
The Arab Spring has
demonstrated the power of new media.
We produced a session last autumn at the IBC in Amsterdam on the
ground-breaking way user-generated content there has influenced events and is
changing mainstream media. The
role of new technology has been litterally pivotal.
We were at least part of the
background noise in the Middle East.
It's exactly twenty years since the European Union launched its Med
Media programme, to reach out to journalists across the Mediterranean. We ran the biggest of the projects, the
Jemstone Network, with over 1,500 journalists from more than 60 media
organisations. We helped to open a
lot of eyes. This network still has much to teach us all. We want to
re-energise it; reconnect you all.
IBC in autumn 2013 would be
a great opportunity. We have hopes
for a follow-up conference session.
And for most of you the chance to evaluate the latest technology, meet
up again, and share your experiences would be important. So, please, contact anyone
you still know who was involved with us; both participants and experts! and ask them to visit this web-page .
We know of Jemstone
'graduates' who've played a significant part in opening up their nation's media
and supporting calls for change and debate. There must be many more. We want to hear from you.
The easiest way is to
comment on the blog stayhungrystayangry.com ; tell us what's happened to you in the last two years;
what media ideas you have now; how
the Jemstone Network might help.
NB no comments are published directly; they come through me and I will
make sure your identity is kept confidential, if that's what you prefer, let us
know.
We want to expand the
network as well. Our activities in
the late 1990s and beyond were hamstrung by the fledgeling ICT's then available. When we began, internet hardly existed;
yet still we built and enthused an effective inter-active network. We've often thought how much easier it
would have been if we'd begun ten years later. And how much more impact we might have had.
I would like to explore this
now. If you believe that 'good'
media have a role to play in reshaping society, in giving voice to people's
hopes and ideas and preferences, then email us now (tudor at jemstone dot net).
We can expand the
network. And share the experiences
of the original 1,500 Jemstone 'graduates', enhanced and strengthened by new
recruits with the same core beliefs -- that the function of 'good' media is to
give people the information they need to take decisions about their lives. Not just to peddle the soporific,
bread-and-circus sops we're mostly fed these days.
Jemstone has a 20-year track
record of independence; we remain known and trusted; and we have experience and
contacts. We're planning to return
next year from Amsterdam to our base in the Middle East. We have special expertise in news for
young people (see www.shababnews.tv ), in developing sustaintable media
strategies and in training and motivating.
The IBC session last autumn
broke new ground. Chaired by ex-FT
media correspondent, Ray Snoddy, it featured Nart Bouran of Sky Arabia and
Fayed Abu Shammalah, a Jemstone graduate, who was on the ground in Egypt and
Syria during the push for democratisation and saw the empowering impact of new
and social media.
Nart Bouran agreed that the
new technology was imposing a lot of pressure on the journalism with the
demands to be fast and live crunching up against the need for 'verification' --
"once it's out it's out!".
A third expert, Jonathan Marks of Critical Distance, warned of the
dangers that the loud and activate would be heard disproportionately. Traditional media was not changing fast
enough, he said, and the role of good journalism was as important as ever.
The session was reported in
the IBC Daily (the_facebook_revolution) and attracted a large audience including a junior
minister from Saudi Arabia. The
aim now is to explore further this interface between technology, social media
and mainstream media and find ways to avoid the rich and powerful re-exerting
their control over the means of communication.
If you have ideas or
examples where this is being achieved please let us know (tudor at jemstone dot
net). It's never easy and an
initial break-through is no guarantee of success, as the protesters at Seattle in
1999 discovered in the years to come -- see page 39 of tl-dissertation.
Most important though, is to
connect and re-connect like-minded journalists and media people, so please send
this link to any of our Jemstone graduates and anyone else who might be
interested. It's time to begin again.
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