{"id":75715,"date":"2023-10-05T08:25:46","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T11:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=75715"},"modified":"2023-10-14T12:27:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-14T15:27:00","slug":"media-coalition-representing-brazils-peripheral-favela-quilombola-and-indigenous-communities-use-ancestral-technology-to-democratize-communication-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=75715","title":{"rendered":"Media Coalition Representing Brazil’s Peripheral, Favela, Quilombola, and Indigenous Communities Use Ancestral Technology to Democratize Communication Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Quilombola technology: “bamboo drone,” created by TV Quilombo<\/em>. Foto: TV Quilombo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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

The Peripheral, Favela, Quilombola, and Indigenous Media Coalition<\/a> brings together a network of journalism initiatives as ancestral technology to end the silences in the media market and change the future of journalism in Brazil with Black, favela, indigenous, peripheral, and quilombola voices, chanting “from within to within,” highlighting location, race, ethnicity, gender, and class.<\/h4>\n

\u201cWe are the Peripheral, Favela, Quilombola, and Indigenous Media Coalition. A set of journalistic and ancestral technological solutions to produce and share information of public interest in social contexts in which Internet access is precarious or non-existent… We work towards a media that is anti-sexist, anti-racist, anti-ableist, anti-LGBTQIA+phobia, and anti-ageist<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u201d \u2014\u00a0Coalition launch manifesto<\/a>, May 2023<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The initiative is concerned with knowledge-producing technologies in service of the collective work of peoples, territories, and ancestral wisdom in favelas, urban peripheries, villages, and quilombos. The Coalition has been developed by 11 organizations: Periphery in Movement<\/a>\u00a0(SP),\u00a0Desenrola e N\u00e3o Me Enrola<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(SP),\u00a0Third Street Margin<\/a>\u00a0(SP),\u00a0Mar\u00e9 Mobilization Front<\/a>\u00a0(RJ),\u00a0Fala<\/em> Ro\u00e7a<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(RJ),\u00a0Turmoil Network<\/a>\u00a0(PE),\u00a0Mojub\u00e1 Media and Connections<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(BA),\u00a0TV Comunidades<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(MA),\u00a0Quilombo TV<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(MA),\u00a0Tapaj\u00f4nico Youth Collective<\/a> (PA), and the Media Collective for the National Coordination for the Articulation of Rural Black Quilombo Communities (CONAQ<\/a>). Officially launched during the Digital Journalism Association’s (Ajor<\/a>) 3i Journalism Festival<\/a>, the Coalition wants to reinvent journalism in Brazil, starting from the grassroots, rooted in what is happening on the ground.<\/p>\n

\"Coalition<\/a>
Coalition meeting held between March and April 2023 in S\u00e3o Paulo’s periphery. Photo: Event Promotion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another way of explaining the initiative is through a Yoruba proverb<\/a>: “Eshu throws a stone today and kills a bird of yesterday.\u201d The proposal is not about visibility or having a voice but about building the future of journalism in Brazil.<\/p>\n

To achieve this, the Media Coalition works in three primary ways: “Local and national advocacy, knowledge exchange of ancestral technologies for communication and journalism, and a consortium of content production.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not just community media doing journalism, we are also media that want national and regional political influence. We want to argue for and encourage public policy through the media we produce,” states Michel Silva, director of reporting at Fala Ro\u00e7a<\/a><\/em>, a community media outlet in the Rocinha<\/a> favela, in Rio de a Janeiro’s South Zone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Silva, community-based media face a “barrier” in the media culture instilled in the general population by the mainstream media. He believes that working to create a viable and sustainable ecosystem<\/a> of peripheral, favela, indigenous, and quilombola media is essential to break down this social barrier.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to break down [this barrier] because the majority of our communities have their critical thinking contaminated by the mainstream media. How can we argue with society, with the opinion of our own people about, for example, violence against Black youth, if we live with our own people saying ‘good CPF’ [Brazilian tax ID] or ‘cancelled CPF’ about people in the community? This thinking and way of seeing life didn’t come out of nowhere. It was built by lunchtime sensationalist TV news reports. So, we need to find ways to sustain ourselves, but we also need to share our content and make it visible. And for this we have to have content exchanges, an accumulation, a coalition platform.\u201d \u2014 Michel Silva<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For grassroots journalists, this is the principle of existence for community media: to value and respect ways of living in communities. Another common thread is the recognition of ancestral practices in communities as technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As such, the Media Coalition does not want to be just another tool to access communications rights<\/a>, but a political platform for lives, bodies, and identities in areas that are historically neglected<\/a> and silenced by traditional media<\/a>. This is how the group chose the name Media Coalition, as activist Gizele Martins explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an indigenous village they maybe use a different communication concept. In Mar\u00e9, we call ourselves community communication. Fala Ro\u00e7a, in Rocinha, self-defines as favela journalism. So we talk about ‘media’ [in the plural] and a Media Coalition so as to respect [territorial] differences.\u201d \u2014 Gizele Martins<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Martins is a community journalist from the favelas of Complexo da Mar\u00e9<\/a>, in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone, human rights defender, and member of the Mar\u00e9 Mobilization Front<\/a> which was founded in March 2020 to combat misinformation<\/a> during the coronavirus pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spent a lot of time distributing baskets of basic foodstuffs because we went in to combat hunger<\/a>. But the Front is a community media collective. For us, this is like a continuation of the work we did in the pandemic…<\/p>\n

If you look at the organizations that are part of the Coalition, you’ll notice that they are media outlets that have worked in these territories fighting fake news and hunger. Beyond media, there are collectives that we also identify with as those that have worked during the pandemic. They are the ones doing community journalism and communication that takes a stance, that is ideological, anti-racist, and that aims to challenge the journalism agenda. Actually, not only the agenda, but also the concept of journalism within universities. We want to challenge what journalism is.\u201d \u2014 Gizele Martins<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Michel Silva says that the idea for a Media Coalition emerged in a meeting in 2022 in S\u00e3o Paulo. People who build community media in different parts of Brazil came together and realized they share the same concerns over how they can sustain their activities in the long term. So they decided to join forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was already thinking about how community media in Rio de Janeiro can become sustainable. How they can be seen by organizations as a whole, as a consortium of media outlets. I found out that the people in S\u00e3o Paulo also had the idea to build something like a network to value urban periphery media outlets working on communication in Brazil… There are people who are in the Coalition to discuss and consider ways of nurturing media, there are people who are more interested in the issue of creating media, others want to value reporting and networking relationships.<\/p>\n

The Coalition is a mix of common interests. We come from and use community media, grassroots media, as a tool for political struggle. This is why, among the possible names, we chose the word ‘coalition’ as it has this political aspect. The aim is that we have a strong network in which we can build Brazilian [grassroots] media.\u201d \u2014 Michel Silva<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"#CoalitionofMedias<\/a>
Ancestral innovation looking towards the future: national coalition brings together urban periphery, favela, quilombola, and indigenous medias. Photo: PEM Twitter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Ronaldo Matos, co-founder and editor of Desenrola e N\u00e3o Me Enrola<\/em>, the Coalition initiative represents a “democratization movement” that is emerging to have a direct contribution on the future of journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis gap, this abyss of journalistic coverage we currently have in communities doesn’t just happen in S\u00e3o Paulo but across the whole country. This is the problem we are attempting to attack and overcome.\u201d \u2014 Ronaldo Matos<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Matos shares the example of technology developed by Desenrola e N\u00e3o Me Enrola<\/em>: “It was significant [in] developing a methodology for teaching journalism that nurtured the debate with youth, making them reflect on the political context of their neighborhood, the memory, and public policy that either doesn’t come or is denied.” The process also influences the reporting produced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started out, you didn’t really use the term peripheral journalism. There was community journalism, citizen, independent journalism, alternative media, but the term peripheral journalism didn’t exist.\u201d \u2014 Ronaldo Matos<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ancestral Journalism<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Quilombo<\/a>
Quilombo Rampa’s Quilombo Radio and TV in Vargem Grande, Maranh\u00e3o, with a humble donated smartphone stuck inside a cardboard box made to resemble an old TV camera, Jos\u00e9 began recording and producing stories from the eldest members of the community. Photo: Quilombo TV<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Located in the Vargem Grande municipality in the state of\u00a0Maranh\u00e3o<\/a>, Quilombo Rampa produces technologies that are not just ancestral but based on the land, according to Quilombo Radio and TV founder Raimundo Jos\u00e9.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Using a humble smartphone donated by his sister stuck inside a cardboard box made to resemble an old TV camera, Jos\u00e9 began recording and producing stories from the eldest community members.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don’t have money to buy anything. No camera, no cell phone, not even a tripod. So, out of necessity we created an alternative based on our reality, creating quilombola technology… It was a huge challenge because they had never seen a camera before; even though it was a cardboard camera, it was a structure they’d never had contact with before, it wasn’t part of our reality… for each need that emerged, we’d create an alternative. That’s how the cardboard camera and bamboo camera support, the tripod, came about.\u201d \u2014 Raimundo Jos\u00e9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Quilombola technology also developed a “bamboo-drone,\u201d a 10 meter bamboo pole with a cell phone attached to the end. The “bamboo-drone” is used to capture aerial images of drum circles in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took bamboo from the bush there and managed to use it to develop this TV movement, filming [from above], reporting stories and showing them to people.\u201d \u2014 Raimundo Jos\u00e9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For Jos\u00e9, creativity comes from the community’s traditional wisdom and culture and not just out of necessity. The technologies are fruit of the observation, knowledge, power, and innovation presented by ancestry that is very much alive in the territories.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started creating our own materials to support our programming, to tell the reality of the community. We were born with this mission. Even though it’s difficult to access things, it also brings people closer because it makes real communication with the community happen.\u201d \u2014 Raimundo Jos\u00e9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to Jos\u00e9, taking part in the Media Coalition is an opportunity for visibility, but above all for building policies that democratize the means of communication.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live the reality of how these voices have huge difficulty reverberating. The content we put on Quilombo TV<\/em> doesn’t manage to reach the whole of Brazil, even on social media.\u201d \u2014 Raimundo Jos\u00e9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"The<\/a>
The bamboo-drone has a smartphone attached to the end of a curved bamboo pole and captures images from above like a drone. Photo: Quilombo TV<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the Coalition, Jos\u00e9 believes that grassroots journalists can carry out exchanges of content, possibilities, methodologies, and ancestral technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a coalition, we join forces. It is a necessary struggle because I often say that those of us who communicate from our land are fighting for life. It’s something bigger, it’s not just reporting. The struggle is to stay alive, to protect our communities, our cultures… That’s why we won’t give up until the silence is exhausted. We go together, with all these strengths, the power of peripheral, quilombola, indigenous, and favela media to shape a future.\u201d \u2014 Raimundo Jos\u00e9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

About the author:\u00a0<\/i>Tatiana Lima<\/a><\/i> is a journalist, popular communicator, and special reporter with RioOnWatch. She has a masters degree in Media and Everyday Life from the Fluminense Federal University (UFF<\/a>) where she is currently studying for a PhD in Communication and is a <\/i>member of Complexo do Alem\u00e3o\u2019s <\/i>Researchers in Movement Study Group<\/a>. A Black feminist<\/i> born and raised in Favela do Quitungo and Morro do Tuiuti, Lima currently lives in Rio\u2019s urban periphery.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\n

Support\u00a0RioOnWatch\u2019s tireless, critical and cutting-edge hyperlocal journalism, online community organizing meetings, and direct support to favelas\u00a0by clicking here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas The Peripheral, Favela, Quilombola, and Indigenous Media Coalition brings together a network of journalism initiatives as ancestral technology to end the silences in the media market and change the future of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":76330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1294,1288,1328,2242,1271,329],"tags":[2367,3451,1850,977,1303,280,3068,910,2860,715,23,1900,37,431,2942,450,12,406,156,128,731],"writer":[3125],"translator":[3452],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-75715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-communitymedia","8":"category-highlight","9":"category-by-community-contributors","10":"category-democracy","11":"category-favelaqualities","12":"category-solutions","13":"tag-amazon","14":"tag-aquilombamento","15":"tag-bahia","16":"tag-citizen-journalism","17":"tag-communication-rights","18":"tag-complexo-da-mare","19":"tag-coronavirus","20":"tag-creative-organizing","21":"tag-creative-tech","22":"tag-indigenous","23":"tag-mass-media","24":"tag-media-narrative","25":"tag-north-zone","26":"tag-northeast-of-brazil","27":"tag-para","28":"tag-quilombo","29":"tag-rocinha","30":"tag-sao-paulo","31":"tag-south-zone","32":"tag-technology","33":"tag-traditional-peoples","34":"writer-tatiana-lima","35":"translator-staff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75715","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\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75715"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=75715"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=75715"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=75715"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=75715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}