{"id":32373,"date":"2016-08-31T09:25:31","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T12:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=32373"},"modified":"2016-09-08T11:32:09","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T14:32:09","slug":"we-verify-the-truth-they-leave-out-favela-journalists-share-perspectives-in-first-community-communication-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=32373","title":{"rendered":"“We Verify the Truth They Leave Out”: Favela Journalists Speak at First Communication Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

On Saturday, August 27, journalists, students and members of community media<\/a> organizations from across Rio de Janeiro gathered at the Museu da Mar\u00e9<\/a>\u00a0to debate the role of Rio’s community media<\/a> in the first Community Communication\u00a0Congress.<\/p>\n

The Congress was hosted\u00a0by the journalists of O Cidad\u00e3o<\/em><\/a>, a newspaper based\u00a0in Complexo da Mar\u00e9<\/a>\u00a0in the North Zone<\/a>. Around\u00a045 audience members listened to a discussion on\u00a0topics including\u00a0the definition of community communication, community versus mass\u00a0media<\/a>, the importance of supporting local creators and artists, production practices\u00a0and challenges and whether objectivity is possible or even desirable for community reporters.<\/p>\n

The event\u00a0received support from the city’s Secretary of Culture, the Mar\u00e9 Center of Solidarity Studies and Actions<\/a> (CEASM), the Museu da Mar\u00e9<\/a> and the N\u00facleo Piratininga de Comunica\u00e7\u00e3o<\/a> (NPC), an NGO that supports communications initiatives within social movements<\/a> and unions.<\/p>\n

According to organizers<\/a>, the Congress was inspired by questions that emerged\u00a0among\u00a0members of community media in response to the past\u00a0decade of mega-events<\/a> in Rio, culminating with the Olympics<\/a>, and the corresponding\u00a0repression of favela residents and censorship\u00a0of community media outlets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The broad themes up for discussion\u00a0included how to strengthen favela identity within the city, combating criminalization<\/a> of favela media and the population, bringing more reliable information to\u00a0a broader audience, promoting and supporting local artists through community communication and leveraging community media to express and reflect\u00a0the interests of favela residents in a post-Olympics context and municipal\u00a0election year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Community media and mega-events<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Participants tackled these complex questions in a series of three panels. The first, on community media and mega-events, featured Mar\u00e9 resident and O Cidad\u00e3o<\/em> journalist Gizele Martins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Martins discussed some of the challenges facing community media outlets, including the power of a\u00a0mainstream media and society that marginalize\u00a0and stigmatize\u00a0favela residents<\/a>,\u00a0contributing to stereotypes<\/a> that favela residents are “criminal, violent, marginal.” She also criticized\u00a0the fact that ownership of Brazilian mainstream media is dominated<\/a> by a few wealthy families.<\/p>\n

Martins presented\u00a0community media as a vital contrast\u00a0to the racist, discriminatory\u00a0ideas and images\u00a0spread by\u00a0commercial media outlets.<\/p>\n

“We’re talking about our identity,” she said. “It’s very important that we are a source of information, both for each other and for favela residents. We need to organize ourselves, to create alternatives, to continue creating a network of community media in the favelas. Community communication is a form of mobilization, primarily of thought.”<\/p>\n

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

Martins also pointed to the important role of independent\u00a0media in bringing attention to\u00a0topics and stories that rarely appear in mainstream media through community-run\u00a0channels\u00a0like the Mar\u00e9 Vive Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“If we didn’t have Mar\u00e9 Vive, we wouldn’t know about all the people killed<\/a> in Mar\u00e9 during the mega-events,” she said. “Who is going to talk about the genocide of the black population<\/a>, if not us?”<\/p>\n

Challenges for community media<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The second panel, on challenges facing community media, included Silvia da Costa, columnist for the\u00a0Jornal Abaixo Assinado de Jacarepagu\u00e1<\/em><\/a>; Wladimir Aguiar, a radio journalist with R\u00e1dio Mar\u00e9<\/a><\/em>;\u00a0and two representatives from independent street cinema collective TV Tagarela<\/a><\/em>, in Rocinha<\/a>\u00a0in the South Zone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Da Costa highlighted\u00a0the importance of making community media democratic and accessible to both\u00a0its audience and contributors. The Jornal Abaixo<\/em>, based in Jacarepagu\u00e1<\/a> in\u00a0Rio’s West Zone<\/a>, accepts contributions from anyone who wants to write, regardless of formal training or previous journalism experience.<\/p>\n

“If you have opinions, if you have ideas, you can write,” she said. “We’re producing another kind of media. Community media can reflect\u00a0what people think.”<\/p>\n

The commitment to publishing a wide range of contributions can lead to internal debate, she said, since staff\u00a0may not always agree with the content being printed\u2013or even with each other.<\/p>\n

“It has a good side and a bad side,” she said, but emphasized that maintaining the right to freedom\u00a0of expression is more important than agreeing with everything that appears in print.<\/p>\n

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

Aguiar discussed\u00a0the role of community media in serving the needs of its audience and empowering them to participate more in civic life.<\/p>\n

“We can lead the community to empower itself,” he said. “Favela residents live what’s happening around them, and we can\u00a0amplify that conversation.”<\/p>\n

He also provided\u00a0a historical overview of the development of community radio in Mar\u00e9 and other favelas, reflecting on the progress since the days of the military dictatorship<\/a>, when such forms of communication were banned.<\/p>\n

Camila Perez, from\u00a0TV Tagerela<\/em>, explained the history\u00a0of the street cinema collective and its recent achievements, including hosting the first Favela Film Festival\u00a0in June 2015<\/a>. She also highlighted some of the challenges facing the collective, including obtaining permits, working around the\u00a0disruptive and intimidating presence of police, and widespread discrimination against favela residents.<\/p>\n

“I can’t believe that this [discrimination] still happens today,” she said. “Everything is more difficult when you’re from a favela, but we keep fighting.”<\/p>\n

Moderator Carolina Vaz, from\u00a0O Cidad\u00e3o<\/em>, described some of the newspaper’s\u00a0challenges, including the lack of an established workspace. The journalists meet regularly in Mar\u00e9 to coordinate and discuss their work, but their meeting space has no Internet access, so they do most of their writing independently.<\/p>\n

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

Da Costa concluded\u00a0with an impassioned take on\u00a0the political\u00a0role of community media and the illusion of objectivity.<\/p>\n

“There’s no such thing as impartial media,” she said. “Any form of communication\u2013oral, audio, visual, TV\u2013is partial. When you decide to be someone who shapes information, you have to choose a perspective. Choosing has a consequence of picking a side, a partiality.”<\/p>\n

“At the Jornal Abaixo<\/em>, we have an editorial line,” she continued, explaining\u00a0that the publication’s position on issues reflects the views of residents. “For example, we don’t understand the UPP (Pacifying Police Units<\/a>) as providing security, but rather as repression,” and\u00a0articles reflect that perspective.<\/p>\n

She emphasized\u00a0a link\u00a0between community media and activism, echoing other speakers who acknowledged\u00a0the inherently political nature of alternative media.<\/p>\n

“Every one of us, within our vehicles of communication, has to take a position, and that is a political position.”<\/p>\n

Community media and corporate media<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The third panel\u00a0examined the roles of community and mainstream media, and featured Thain\u00e3 de Medeiros<\/a>, a member\u00a0of\u00a0Coletivo Papo Reto<\/a> in Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>, and Tatiana Lima, a journalist with the communication NGO\u00a0NPC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

De Medeiros\u00a0traced the history of\u00a0Papo Reto, which was created in 2014 as a means to share information, support and mobilize community members<\/a> in Alem\u00e3o.<\/p>\n

“Papo Reto is an exchange of experiences,” he said. “We engage in communication to mobilize people. Not just to go out into the streets to protest<\/a>, but to create actions in the communities.\u00a0Sitting down to talk is very different from going out and doing something beyond the conversation.”<\/p>\n

\"Thain\u00e3<\/a><\/p>\n

He described\u00a0Papo Reto’s efforts to counter\u00a0the narrative promoted by mainstream media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We do communication to guarantee our rights,” he said. “We take an article that appears in corporate media, and we do our version.”<\/p>\n

In discussing mainstream media’s treatment of favelas<\/a>, he also critiqued the broader\u00a0appropriation of favela culture<\/a> by other parts of society, from funk-themed parties with expensive cover charges and mostly white attendees,\u00a0to wealthy\u00a0Brazilians wearing t-shirts featuring\u00a0the word “Favela.”<\/p>\n

Lima seconded the importance of using community media to fight appropriation of the work, identity and culture of favela residents.<\/p>\n

“We’re producing content for corporate media,” she said, pointing to examples of community media organizations and residents sharing information through Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media channels<\/a> that mainstream media then uses\u00a0for their own reporting. “This is the people’s technology, favelas have this technology.”<\/p>\n

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

The difference, she said, is that community media organizations do this reporting\u00a0to inform their audiences and help them navigate their daily lives, while mainstream media outlets use information\u00a0on police operations or\u00a0violence to continue stigmatizing and criminalizing favelas<\/a>,\u00a0portraying them as dangerous.<\/p>\n

“We need to think about our practices, dialogue and empower ourselves as communicators,” she said, asking other community journalists to take pride in their work and their publications. “The space doesn’t just belong to corporate media, although\u00a0they have a very strong presence. But I don’t think it should be closed, we can’t give up all the space to corporate media.”<\/p>\n

She also cited\u00a0a speech by\u00a0Marcelo Rech<\/a>, the president of Brazil’s National Association of Newspapers<\/a>, in which he stated the role of journalists is to\u00a0“verify\u00a0the truth.”<\/p>\n

“What is our role?” she asked. “What truth\u00a0is it that they [mainstream reporters] verify? We verify\u00a0our truth. The role of community media is to verify\u00a0the truth\u00a0that they leave out.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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