{"id":29415,"date":"2016-06-09T10:55:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T13:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=29415"},"modified":"2016-07-04T04:00:13","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T07:00:13","slug":"favela-journalists-give-lectures-on-local-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=29415","title":{"rendered":"Favela Journalists On Local Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

On June 3 the Communications Faculty at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC) brought together a group of favela journalists to\u00a0take part in a “Morning of Local Media<\/a>” lecture series.\u00a0<\/span>Michele and Michel Silva, siblings from Rocinha<\/a> and founders of <\/span>Jornal Fala Ro\u00e7a<\/span><\/a><\/em> and <\/span>Viva Rocinha<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>Gizele Martins<\/a>, a journalist with O Cidad\u00e3o<\/em><\/a> from Complexo da Mar\u00e9<\/a>, and Claudia Santiago Giannotti, the coordinator of a popular\u00a0communication\u00a0course<\/a> at N\u00facleo Piratininga de Comunica\u00e7\u00e3o<\/span>, all\u00a0<\/span>addressed a crowd of about one hundred people\u00a0<\/span>on the <\/span>importance of favela residents reporting<\/a>\u00a0on their own stories and lives. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Community Communication <\/b><\/h3>\n

\"M\u00eddiasThe speakers all emphasized the value of empowering favela residents to engage in\u00a0community communication<\/a>,\u00a0which\u00a0<\/span>establishes favela residents as the content-generators and narrators in their own stories. When favela residents engage in journalism, photography<\/a>, filmmaking, music, and generally express the lives of their fellow residents for other residents, this is community communication. As Martins told the PUC crowd, \u201ccommunity communication recognizes the\u00a0value of\u00a0our lives, it is a creation of our identity.\u201d Furthermore, homegrown networks of expression are those that most effectively get messages across to the entire community.<\/span><\/p>\n

Martins explained how instead of going in to a community and deciding what is appropriate communication, \u201cyou have to accept how <\/a><\/span>favelados<\/span><\/i> already communicate.\u201d She showed documentary films created by residents and emphasized\u00a0how the film creators, protagonists, and even soundtrack artists were all <\/span>favela residents<\/span>\u00a0communicating in ways that suited the needs of their community. She provided the\u00a0example of funk as a revolutionary form of music that acts as a <\/span>living cultural museum<\/span><\/a>\u00a0as well as a means to communicate in spite of\u00a0literacy barriers<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In an effort to promote\u00a0<\/i>community<\/span>\u00a0journalism, Claudia Santiago Giannotti created a journalism course for favelas in which\u00a0interested residents develop the practical skills to report on their own lives. From the course, the online journal\u00a0<\/span>Vozes das Comunidades<\/span><\/a><\/em>\u00a0emerged as a platform to\u00a0publish the work of\u00a0each year’s group of students in an annual magazine available online<\/a>. The platform explains that students are “residents of favelas or occupations, diverse social militants, journalists, students and others interested in building\u00a0community communication, which gives voice to those who normally don’t have space in traditional forms [of media].”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Vozes<\/a><\/p>\n

Similarly, Gizele Martins developed\u00a0<\/span>Favela Fala<\/a>,<\/span> a two-month course on community communication for residents of Mar\u00e9. She disputes the notion\u00a0that because some favela residents\u00a0can’t read, they\u00a0can\u2019t communicate: \u201cTo communicate is a human right. Favela Fala is a course happening tomorrow and it will prove how all can communicate.”<\/span><\/p>\n

As Michele and Michel Silva have also created workshops through Fala Ro\u00e7a<\/em><\/a> to support young aspiring journalists in their community, these journalists collectively demonstrate a\u00a0trend\u00a0in favela journalism for participants to support others in joining the field. This both offers new opportunities to individuals and strengthens entire communities\u00a0by empowering a plurality of\u00a0previously marginalized voices.<\/p>\n

Challenges and\u00a0strategies<\/b><\/h3>\n

The panelists also spoke about challenges community communication encounters such as <\/span>censorship and threats<\/span><\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0funding shortages, and the simple fact that not yet all their potential readers or followers have regular Internet access, although one study\u00a0suggests favela residents are more technologically connected<\/a> than the average Rio resident. However, in true favela spirit community journalists are resourceful entrepreneurs and have found tactics to overcome these difficulties.\u00a0As Michele Silva put it, \u201cwhen you have contact with the other side of the story, you can\u2019t keep quiet.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"PUC<\/p>\n

Online platforms may be limited to those favela residents with Internet\u00a0access, but\u00a0digital media is also a <\/span>cost-effective way to publish<\/span><\/a> a lot of content and communicate quickly<\/a> with an ever-growing network of people. The team behind Viva Rocinha<\/em> also decided to print\u00a0limited hard-copy publications of their online newspaper to accommodate residents without Internet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michele Silva addressed some of\u00a0the complications of securing funding without compromising the integrity of a community newspaper. She said: \u201cWe have to put logos on various shirts but today we are already thinking of how we can use the funds we have to make the most without selling our souls. We are always trying to lower our costs because needing money from NGOs also comes with a mountain of strings attached.\u201d By using community\u00a0advertisers\u00a0and maintaining a digital presence and workspace, Fala Ro\u00e7a<\/em> is able to keep costs down. <\/span><\/p>\n

Documenting the documenters<\/b><\/h3>\n

Towards the end of the lecture series, Claudia Santiago Giannotti and Gizele Martins shared their co-authored book,\u00a0<\/span>Experi\u00eancias em Comunica\u00e7\u00e3o Popular no Rio de Janeiro Ontem e Hoje<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>(Experiences in Popular Communication in Rio de Janeiro Yesterday and Today)<\/span>, published on May 10 and documenting the history of resistance through communication in Rio\u2019s favelas. <\/span>Experi\u00eancias em Comunica\u00e7\u00e3o Popular<\/span><\/i> provides in-depth context to the grassroots work that has inspired many favela journalism projects and includes\u00a0case studies on numerous community communication groups in favelas. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas On June 3 the Communications Faculty at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC) brought together a group of favela journalists to\u00a0take part in a “Morning of Local Media” […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":29425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1294,1290,1333,1268,1271,329,1329],"tags":[24,977,1303,1653,756,280,397,2084,501,1399,1117,666,37,1292,12,796,156,1843],"writer":[2083],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-29415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-communitymedia","8":"category-civilsociety","9":"category-event-reports","10":"category-favelaculture","11":"category-favelaqualities","12":"category-solutions","13":"category-by-international-observers","14":"tag-alternative-media","15":"tag-citizen-journalism","16":"tag-communication-rights","17":"tag-community-media","18":"tag-community-organizing","19":"tag-complexo-da-mare","20":"tag-education","21":"tag-fala-roca","22":"tag-funk","23":"tag-jornal-o-cidadao","24":"tag-journalism","25":"tag-literature","26":"tag-north-zone","27":"tag-organizing","28":"tag-rocinha","29":"tag-social-media","30":"tag-south-zone","31":"tag-voz-das-comunidades","32":"writer-mikayla-ribeiro"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29415"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=29415"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=29415"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=29415"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=29415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}