News Desk on Access SF

Marc Smolowitz, Development Director/ Staff Producer, Access SF

• San Francisco

CONTACT INFO

Access SF
1720 Market St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 575-4947
E-mail

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To train San Francisco nonprofits to produce a monthly community news program with a neighborhood focus for cable access television and video blogs. Five special interest desks will produce stories targeting youth, LGBT issues, arts and culture, age and disabilities, and multi-lingual stories. Each special interest desk will have its own video blog, supported by Access SF, the city’s community television corporation.

Check back for future news and updates

• August 2008
• March 2008
• November 2007
 
 

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Access SF: Gaining Momentum

August 2008

In its first year, NewsDesk on Access SF has provided TV production training to 30 individuals representing 16 nonprofits in the Bay Area. Those producers-to-be learned how to use Access SF’s two-camera studio and half went on to participate in workshops on news gathering, interviewing techniques and story construction. Volunteers were given portable flip cameras to gather video in the field about their community organizations. That footage was integrated into segments which were later combined into a series of final 30-minute NewsDesk programs cable-cast on a rotating schedule.  Access SF also created a Web page for NewsDesk, including a video player where visitors can watch the seven programs produced in all.

Bryn Murray, of the local nonprofit World Savvy, says the production training was valuable. “I’ve learned to view our work from the outside in which gives me quite a different perspective.”

All of the eight participating groups that completed both phases of training have indicated an interest in continuing to produce citizen journalism shows on Access SF.  For example, James Ross of the Quesada Gardens Initiative plans to produce a live call-in show focused on his neighborhood.

In the coming year, Access SF will offer more workshops to deepen the skills of current participants.  They will learn how to develop and produce short reports that will air as interstitials, brief segments that air in between regular programs. And participants will learn how to create blogs and vlogs using video-to-Web software. Eamon Martin and Brendan Conley, producers from the award-winning Global Report, which has empowered hundreds of citizen journalists, will help lead the effort to teach NewsDeskers how to produce a studio-based news show. 

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Turning the Beat Around:
New People and New Partnerships for News Desk

March 2008

Some of the names and faces have changed, but the mission of Access SF’s NewsDesk remains the same: To give local community nonprofits the tools and skills to produce a monthly cable news program with a strong neighborhood focus. The departure of two longtime station staffers (to for-profit media companies) has forced some delays and the loss of some professional contacts and connections. 

But just as the Chinese character for chaos includes the character that means opportunity, Access SF is seizing the day and recalibrating plans to train a corps of community partners to create content.  Instead of trying to cultivate local TV news professionals as mentors, Access SF will draw on the talents of its own seasoned staff to act as the advisory board and do the training.

NewsDesk originally envisioned five special interest desks producing video blogs featuring stories targeting youth, LGBT issues, arts and culture, age and disabilities, and multi-lingual issues. But on re-examination, Access SF realized that the organizations that signed up to participate in the program (see list below) did not necessarily fit into the special-interest categories set forth in its proposal. As a result project leaders have decided to forego the special interest format and focus the programming more broadly.

Between February and April, Access SF will train its key nonprofit partners. It will post their training curriculum, photo galleries, video excerpts from training events, and test segments online. They will use an existing in-house live series, SF LIVE, as a testing ground for nonprofits to gain on-air experience. SF LIVE unfolds on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. on Comcast Channel 76, Astound Cable Channel 30, AT&T Channel 99 and streaming on Access World at www.accessf.org.

From March to June, Access SF will work with nonprofits on producing two 30-minute programs for cablecast each month, for a total of six shows.

In addition to previously announced partners Chalk/Youthline, Booker T. Washington Community Services Center and Excel After School Program, Access SF is also working with a diversity of other local organizations that will become video producers. These include:

• World Savvy, a group whose mission is to get youth engaged globally.
• California Institute of Integral Studies, an accredited institution of higher education for intellectual and spiritual pursuits.
• Senior Action Network, a citywide federation of groups organizing to improve the lives of retirees.
• SF Living Wage Coalition, an economic justice advocacy group for low-wage workers.
• Ozcat Entertainment, a non-profit promoter of local performers.
• Quesada Gardens Initiative, a neighborhood improvement and community building project.
• Streetside Stories, a local literacy group that helps young people find their voice.
• Praise Time, a gospel TV ministry.
• KPFA - La Onda Bajita Rafe Café, a radio program aimed a Chicano youth.
• Independent Arts & Media, an organization promoting civic dialogue.
• Just Think, a youth media literacy and training group.

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A Cable Access Project In Process

November 2007

Access SF has identified key partners for outreach, training and production of its News Desk, a program to recruit new producers from and develop more coverage of diverse communities.  he final product will be six 30-minute News Desk TV programs, but along the way dozens of San Franciscans, young and old, will learn the tools of television news production.

The Booker T. Washington Community Center offers skills and job training to low-income teens of color. Booker T. staff and teens will be trained to serve as crew on the programs. The teens will also develop a special interest Teen Desk aimed at covering stories of interested to 12-17 year olds. Eight youth have been selected for field and studio production training at Access SF this winter.

CHALK YouthLine is a leading youth and young adult technology program. This group will develop a Youth Desk that will create content appealing to ages 18- 24. CHALK youth have been trained in the station’s flash studio and main studio, and several will serve as on-air talent for the programs.

Excel After School Programs of the San Francisco Unified School District will develop an After-School Desk which focus on community health issue and will include a live call-in program for middle and high schoolers.  Training will take place in late November and December and test segments will be produced at the start of the new year.

Access SF is working with two of its staff members who are fluent in Spanish and Cantonese to develop original language training materials for nonprofits that participate in the development of a Multi-Lingual Desk.

Access SF has recruited an advisory board of local TV news people, video bloggers and others who will support the development of community news training for nonprofits.

On Monday, December 10, Access SF will host an open call community meeting in its main studio to begin a full-scale outreach to local nonprofits that can serve as partners in developing additional special interest desks that will focus on Age & Disability, LGBT community, Multi-Lingual, and Arts and Culture.

Throughout the winter, Access SF will begin posting its training curriculum, photo galleries and video excerpts from training events.  They plan to use their in-house live series SF LIVE as a testing ground for nonprofits to gain on-air experiences.  In the spring, Access SF plans to work with local nonprofits to produce the six half-hour programs featuring segments from five special interest desks in each episode.

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