NeighborMedia

Formerly titled Neighbor to Neighbor
Susan Fleischmann, Executive Director, Cambridge Community Television

• Cambridge, MA

CONTACT INFO

Cambridge Community Television
675 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 661-6900
E-mail

Web site

An innovative citizen journalism initiative empowers local residents to use technology to bring attention to issues in their community that they deem newsworthy.  NeighborMedia’s nine citizen journalists, based in all of Cambridge’s zip codes, are using a unique combination of web and television media to promote community events, alert neighbors to proposed development, and explore difficult issues like violence and racism.  NeighborMedia content is available for viewing on the web at www.ccvcambridge.org/neighbormedia and on CCTV’s community cable channels.

Check back for future news and updates.

• August 2008
• March 2008
• November 2007
 
 

NeighborMedia from J-Lab on Vimeo

2007 grantees Julie Adler and Clodagh Rule of NeighborMedia discuss the rewards of their program. This interview took place on April 5, 2008, at the New Voices 2007 Grantee Meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn in Washington, D.C.

---

Blogging From the Backyard

August 2008

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but at Cambridge Community Television, you can take Cambridge residents out of their neighborhood meetings and into the digitally dominated 21st century.“  So begins a glowing article about CCTV’s NeighborMedia in Wicked Local.  The piece profiled NeighborMedia’s Karen Klinger, a longtime journalist who resigned from the board of the Porter Square Neighborhood Association to avoid a conflict of interest while reporting for CCTV. 

“I don’t think you should both cover a neighborhood association and be one of the board members,“ Klinger told the Wicked Local correspondent. Klinger is the mover behind one of NeighborMedia’s most popular features, Cambridge Eyesores, which documents decrepit and abandoned buildings that seem to have escaped official notice or attention.

In its first nine months of life, NeighborMedia’s six citizen journalists have covered gentrification of Central Square, the delayed opening of city parks, proposed development projects, and have provided information about holiday events and citywide emergencies. They have posted 110 blog entries and hosted 27 half-hour BeLive interview programs on local topics.

In recent months, NeighborMedia has taken its message of civic engagement through information to community meetings throughout the city, learning from residents about the issues that matter most to them and making them aware of the project. NeighborMedia has received a grant from the Cambridge Commission for Persons with Disabilities to produce media that brings attention to accessibility issues across the city.

Meanwhile, NeighborMedia leaders are in the process of evaluating the program’s goals and impact as they head into their second year.  Some changes they are considering include:

• Creating a larger group of technical mentors.
• Offering open office hours for technical assistance.
• Developing a new training program which offers opportunities for gradual skill building.
• Making portable, easy-to-use video equipment available to NeighborMedia reporters.

The project is recruiting additional citizen journalists. “Are you interested in digging deep into Cambridge to highlight meaningful issues and events? Are you passionate about storytelling but don’t know quite where to begin?“ Thus reads a recent email blast to CCTV listserv subscribers.  You can also check out NeighborMedia’s own recruitment page and application here.

Correspondent Sharon Steniford, who has covered the 02139 ZIP code, says it’s a rewarding experience. “You have your hand on the pulse of what’s happening in your neighborhood - things that may not be covered in the local newspaper but are important, anyway.“

---

Building Skills and Community

March 2008

Since September 2007, Cambridge Community Television’s NeighborMedia project has been giving its six citizen journalists the tools they need to cover the homefront. A new Blogging 101 class is assisting reporters in strengthening their posts. And reporters have been using CCTV’s easy-to-use BeLive set to host discussions about local concerns. In fact, between November and February, the NeighborMedia team hosted 10 half-hour BeLive programs that aired Wednesday and Sunday evenings on Cambridge Channel 9 and streamed live on CCTV’s Web site.

Each NeighborMedia citizen reporter zooms in on the ZIP Code where they live, posting and hosting about a slew of issues:  Gentrification and development, traffic issues and snow emergencies, energy efficient homes, and even a coyote sighting in a local cemetery. A new project called “Cambridge Eyesores” invites residents to help photograph and document abandoned businesses that cause urban blight.

The recent gunshot death of a Haitian-American teen prompted messages in memory of a promising young man.

“I knew not Lucien, but his face is familiar to me. Surely I have bumped into him on some basketball court around the city, I must have said ‘hey now’ ... with a ‘y’all be safe’ to boot. I must have seen him amongst the gaggle of teens who weekly liven up the CCTV hallways - and matter of fact he made his mark by getting involved at CCTV in 2005.“

While NeighborMedia members have been writing, uploading photos and anchoring on-camera conversations, they haven’t yet leapt into the heart of field production. To address this challenge, CCTV has recruited a seasoned community TV producer to serve as a technical mentor.  They’ve also offered a new four-session class in news production, which will lead students through the stages of planning, shooting and editing stories for broadcast.

In the meantime, a CCTV video editor is creating monthly wrap-up shows using segments produced by the NeighborMedia team. Those shows are airing on Channel 9 and on Blip TV.

And, the citizen journalists are hitting the streets to promote NeighborMedia, attending community meetings throughout the city to make residents aware of the project and get their input about issues of concern.  As NeighborMedia coordinator Julie Adler described in her year-end blog post, one clear goal of this outreach is to inspire more engagement from the community.

---

Lights! Camera! InterAction!

November 2007

Over the last few months, Cambridge Community Television (CCTV) staff has been implementing a comprehensive outreach plan, hiring a project coordinator, recruiting 7 citizen journalists, and a team of news correspondents for Neighbor to Neighbor, newly renamed NeighborMedia. CCTV has promoted the program to city departments and community organizations that are searching for ways to promote their issues.

In April of 2007, CCTV began a collaboration with the CTC VISTA, a program that connects Americorps*VISTA members with nonprofits that use information and communications technologies to address the needs of low-income communities.  Through this program, CCTV recruited a Boston University College of Communications graduate Julie Adler to coordinate all aspects of the NeighborMedia project. 

Over the summer, CCTV interviewed candidates for its citizen journalist positions. Each must have a history of working in the neighborhoods in the Zip Code to which they are assigned. The citizen journalist’s job is to identify important local issues not adequately explored in the media, and lead the planning and production of news segments to cover those concerns. 

Seven journalists were invited to join the NeighborMedia team. These individuals attended a training program where they learned about the project and some basics of citizen journalism with Lisa Williams, founder of Placeblogger and H2otown.  After orientation, participants jumped right in, creating blogs on CCTV’s Web site.  They’ve written about topics such as greening of Cambridge schools, the delay in opening a much-anticipated public park, and the Arts Central festival in Central Square.

The citizen reporters have been using CCTV’s BeLive single-camera studio to hone their interviewing skills and get comfortable on camera.  Since mid-September, the NeighborMedia team has produced six 27-minute BeLive programs which aired on Cambridge Channel 9 and streamed on the CCTV Web Site.

“While NeighborMedia journalists have been producing a wealth of content, many are struggle with the technology,“ says CCTV Director Susan Fleischmann.  So, CCTV staff members are recruiting technical mentors to assign them in field production. And they are seeking an intern to edit video segments into a monthly NeighborMedia program.

The project is also monitoring closely NeighborMedia’s effectiveness in facilitating civic engagement, while working on building CCTV’s Web capacity to foster more participation and interactivity on local issues. Recently CCTV launched a Groups feature on its Web site in an effort to foster a dialogue about events at CCTV and in the larger community.

Back to Home Page | E-mail This | Print This