My first vlog subscription

So, I’ve never really subscribed to a blog before.  I never really found one that was compelling and interesting. Then again, I never really looked.  I’m not the most outgoing person.  I get up, go to work, come home, watch some TV, read a book (though both of these have been replaced with homework for now), go to bed.  My internet time has been limited and I’ve never really found stuff online that I absolutely HAD to check daily.  Maybe I just didn’t know where to look?  I’ve learned a lot about the Internet from the classes that I’m taking.  Last semester, I subscribed to my first podcast to see what they’re all about.  I searched for one that would be interesting to me and found Broadway Bullet.  I listened to a few episodes and then stopped.  I have other things I’d rather do with my time.  It was interesting but not interesting enough to keep me listening.  This is what happens to all my subscriptions.  If it comes at me regularly, I ignore it.  If I seek it out it’s interesting.  We’ll have to see what happens now that I’ve subscribed to my first vlog.  I looked at a couple of episodes first and it seems compelling.  I subscribed to Rocketboom.  I just don’t know where I’m going to fit this into my day.  I listen to my audiobooks while going to and from work. Maybe I’ll have to throw in a vlog daily during my commute too?  (I take the train.  Didn’t want you to think I’d be watching while driving.  Though, in some commutes that would be entirely possible.)  Anyway, are blogs becoming more relevant?  Will vlogs take over from blogs?  I know I’m dissatisfied with the mainstream news.  Maybe Rocketboom will be the answer to my prayers.  If not, I can always return to books about utopia . . .

www.rocketboom.com

A blog for Cedar-Riverside

OK. So I’m far from an expert on blogging.  In fact, if it weren’t for the classes I’ve been taking, I probably wouldn’t have read or written a blog for many years to come (if ever). 

 

That said, I was asked to find a blog about my community . . . and I couldn’t.  At least, I couldn’t find a blog specifically about my community of Cedar-Riverside in Minneapolis.  This is sad but not surprising to me.  I did find a blog about Minneapolis but it appears that it is written by only six people. 

 

The motivation to look for a community blog came about because our class was looking at a blog for Lowell, MA.  That blog had many posts with many sections where people could discuss issues of concern to the community. 

 

The Minneapolis blog I found is part of Metblogs.com, which has a mission – they want to bring the type of locally focused coverage that old newspapers had back to the community.  There is some community involvement on the blog.  People post replies but they aren’t substantial replies.  The blog seems more focused on putting information out there than on creating a public dialogue about the subjects.  And I’ve never seen any advertising on the street that the blog exists. 

 

For a community blog to truly be a source of discussion about community issues, the community needs to know it exists.  As time goes by, I can see blogs becoming places of social discourse within communities but I don’t think we’re quite there yet.

The biggest problem that I see with this blog is that there is no organization to the information.  The posts could be separated by subject so that one can search for specific content.  Instead, they just have politics, community events, restaurant reviews, and the arts all mixed together on the same page.  This lack of organization makes the blog less interesting because one never knows what the next post will be about.  If one is looking for politics, a restaurant review is not likely to hold their interest and bring them into the conversation.

 

Here’s the link if you’re interested: http://minneapolis.metblogs.com/

 

A great use of community media!!

In doing my readings for another class, I ran across the Twa Zanmi (Three Friends) Project.  The project is directed by Susan Foley, Senior Research Associate with The University of Massachusetts at Boston’s Institute for Community Inclusion.

The Twa Zanmi Project is using community-directed television to bring together the Haitian immigrant community in Boston for the purpose of addressing mental health issues associated with immigration.

The project is creating a telenovella program about three recent Haitian immigrants.  The project description states “It will show feelings of isolation, separation from friends and family, and the struggle to develop a new identity in a new community.”

Mental health issues are a taboo issue in the Haitian immigrant community.  This project is designed to open a dialogue within the community about this subject.  The creators want the telenovella to be relateable for the people in the community.  They want people to see that this could be anyone in their community.  With the stigma about this issue, they wanted a medium that would be able to reach the audience without their having to identify themselves as having these mental health issues.

The show will be aired in Creole on the radio, the web, and on CD/DVD.

Issues such as Depression are never talked about in the community.  It is expected that people will have “problems in their head” that they need to deal with.  This attitude precludes the identification of the symptoms of things like depression.  By creating a dialogue about the subject within the community, the program can help to reduce the stigma and help the people suffering with mental health issues to live happier more fulfilled lives.

Links:

One of the groups working on this project is the Haitian American Public Health Initiative

Here’s a video where some people working on the project talk about it: http://newroutes.org/node/10014

Some information about the project: http://newroutes.org/projects/twazanmi

More information about the project: http://www.communityinclusion.org/project.php?project_id=53

Mainstream Media working for he common good?

Mainstream media without commercials bringing important information about the local community to the local community?  Has anyone ever seen this before? 

 I have. 

I’m talking about KCRG-TV9 the local ABC affiliate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  For the past day, I’ve been streaming a live feed of their broadcast on my computer.  There is major flooding in Eastern Iowa – Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Coralville, Columbus Junction, and more are all slowly sinking under the Cedar and Iowa Rivers.  The broadcast team at KCRG has been broadcasting live updates on the flooding nonstop throughout the crisis.  They have been sending their reporters around the area to find out what’s happening.  They even bring their producers in on the production aspects during a crisis.  The production quality of KCRG broadcasts does fall slightly during crises of this nature because the station brings information to the screen as soon as it is available. 

I used to live in Iowa City/Coralville, Iowa and I’ve been paying attention because I still have family in that area.  From my time there, I knew that during a crisis, KCRG preempts the national ABC programming in favor of local programming of import to the area.  They provide quality information quickly and accurately.  This is a breath of fresh air when compared with KFXA’s normal response to a crisis.  I remember that when I lived in Coralville, a tornado went through Iowa City.  KCRG let us know it was coming and suspended normal programming until the crisis had passed.  KFXA broke in during commercial breaks and ran a tornado warning at the bottom of the screen.  KFXA continued to run normal programming during that crisis. 

KCRG has a refreshing sense of commitment and responsibility for the community that they serve.  The reporters are relatable and are clearly members of the Eastern Iowa community.  During a crisis, they bring common sense to the screen and provide a cool head and sensible advice to help the community deal with the extraordinary conditions.  I have always been a loyal NBC viewer because of the NBC station in Washington, D.C. where I grew up.  When I moved to Iowa City/Coralville, KCRG was simply the best broadcast network in the area that I switched to ABC there.  I admire the commitment KCRG has to Eastern Iowa and feel that this particular affiliate transcends many of the negative aspects associated with mainstream media.  For this affiliate, public safety in Eastern Iowa is more important than the revenue lost from advertisers when a crisis is facing the community. 

Thank you, KCRG for the great job that you do.

Defining Community

Abstract

 

An examination of sociological texts about community reveals many different definitions of the term.  When conducting social research, the approach to a study and its results are influenced by which definition a researcher chooses.  This paper synthesizes, from some of the definitions currently available, a broadly applicable definition of community suitable for use in social research.  Through a review of other works attempting to define community, this paper shows that current definitions of community are unsuitable because they narrow their focus to individual interactions rather than examining community through the interaction of groups.  A new definition of community is provided that focuses on group interaction within society and will allow better analysis of community both today and in the future.

Defining Community

 

            Traditionally, the basic concept used to define community has focused on individuals working together toward a common goal.  This approach to defining community makes the mistake of focusing on the individual social units formed by the interaction of individuals rather than focusing on the social interaction that takes place between the groups or organizations.  According to R.E. Park, “Not people, but institutions, are final and decisive in distinguishing the community from other social constellations.”  (1952, p. 66) Community only develops through the interaction of the various social organizations, or institutions, to which individuals belong.  Each individual person maintains membership in various social organizations whether they be personal relationships such as family or friends or business interactions such as visiting the grocery store or riding the bus.  The individuals involved in these actions do not themselves form community by their physical presence in these social organizations.  The organizations will exist with or without the individual.  Community is formed through the interaction of these organizations with the individual representatives of other organizations.  The mother riding the bus is a representative of the familial organization and the community of bus riders is formed when individuals such as the mother ride the bus.

            Most classical definitions of community contain the assumption that geography is a required element in the creation of community.  Bates & Bacon observe:

 

          …the tendency to define the community as a physical area with identifiable geographic boundaries.  This orientation precludes consideration of the essentially social nature of the community. (1972) 

The social nature of community requires that any new form of social interaction necessarily has the potential to be a conduit for the formation of community.  With the advent of computer technology, many new avenues for communication have arrived and these computer mediated communication (CMC) technologies offer new ways for people to interact and develop community interactions.   As observed by Bernard,

 

The distribution of people in dispersed social systems is not only spatial but mental. Some people are in a planetary community; some are in a national community; still others are in a community bounded by their limited interests. The bodies of people might be in one spatial area, but not their social worlds. The concept of locale has little meaning in this context. (1973, p. 183)

            While community need not have a geographic component to exist, there are some basic elements that need to be present for community to develop.  The basic building blocks for community were well laid out by Quentin Jones in his definition of a virtual settlement.  Jones states that a virtual settlement will require at least:

 

(1) a minimum level of interactivity; (2) a variety of communicators; (3) a minimum level of sustained membership; and (4) a virtual common-public-space where a significant portion of interactive group-CMCs occur. (1997)

These basic criteria can be expanded from virtual settlements to form a basic set of requirements for community in general.  First, there must be a certain level of interaction between the individual representatives of different social groups before community can develop.  Second, there must be input from a variety of sources.  Third, there needs to be sustained contact between the interacting groups.  Finally, there needs to be a public “space “ where the necessary interaction can take place.  This space could be virtual or physical.  The only requirement is that spaces for interaction exist.

            Social groups are formed by people with a common interest be it familial ties or the desire to collect stamps.  Within these groups, the social interaction that occurs is focused on the satisfaction of those mutual goals.  The cooperation inherent in these groups does not form community.  Bates and Bacon explain that

 

…the basic social processes which give a distinctive character to the community as a social entity – setting it apart as a type of social structure from groups and organizations – are the processes of conflict and competition, not the processes of cooperation and mutual aid. (1972)

The interactions between the individual representatives of different social organizations bring the type of meaningful interaction that allows for compromise and the development of community.

            The classical definitions of community tend to focus on the individual person as the source of community.  The idea is that the individual forms community through the connections that they form with others in their day-to-day existence.  The definitions are naturally limited to the geography that said individual occupies.  These definitions are short sighted and neglect the fundamental nature of community itself.  Any true and lasting definition of community needs to be flexible enough that the introduction of new technology and the opportunity for new types of social interaction does not make it obsolete.  A definition of community as the interaction of social organizations through individuals rather than as the interaction of individuals themselves  changes community from a narrow concept describing individual interactions into a concept broad enough to be useful in the analysis of society.

References

 

Bates F.L. & Bacon L. (1972, March). The Community as a Social System. Social Forces, 50 (3), 371-379. Retrieved June 8, 2008 from JSTOR database at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2577041

 

Bernard, J.S. (1973). The Sociology of Community. Glenview, Il. Scott Foresman.

 

Jones, Q. (1997). Virtual-Communities, Virtual Settlements & Cyber-Archaeology: A Theoretical Outline. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 3 (3). Retrieved June 9, 2008 from Blackwell Synergy website: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00075.x

 

Park, R.E. (1952). Human Communities. Glencoe, Il.: Free Press.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is Community Media in competition with the Mainstream Media?

I would say that the answer to this question is both yes and no.  The mission of the community media organization is providing education and access to media and media technology.  The mission of mainstream media is the accumulation of wealth through the creation of programming that will attract viewers allowing them to sell advertising.  These missions are completely unrelated to one another.  In the missions of these organizations the community and mainstream media are not in competition.

 

Despite the lack of competition between the community and mainstream media in regard to their missions, there is competition for money and governmental support.  The mainstream media view community programming as competition for their programming.  While programming is not the focus of community media, they do produce and distribute programming.  Often community programming provides an alternative viewpoint to that of mainstream media.  If the alternative viewpoint becomes more popular than the mainstream media’s viewpoint, there is the possibility that the community media’s programming could become competition to the mainstream media.  That potential is enough to make the mainstream media work to limit the community media.  In this way, they are in competition.

Cedar-Riverside (West Bank), Minneapolis

The Cedar-Riverside (West Bank) Neighborhood of Minneapolis
A Community Profile

The Cedar-Riverside (West Bank) neighborhood of Minneapolis is triangular in shape and is bordered on the East by the Mississippi River, on the South by Interstate 94, and on the West by Interstate 35W.  The neighborhood is situated just South-East of Downtown Minneapolis approximately one mile from the city center.

Cedar-Riverside is a neighborhood of predominantly college age residents who live in non-family households.  From 1990 to 2000, there was in increase in the number of family households in the neighborhood.  This small increase in the number of families was accompanied by a 231% increase in the number of Black/African American residents. (See Demographic Chart from the City of Minneapolis.)

Throughout its history, the Cedar-Riverside (West Bank) neighborhood has been a destination for immigrants and independent thinkers.  During the early years of Minneapolis, the neighborhood was called Snooze Boulevard because of the large Scandinavian population in the neighborhood.  The Snooze appellation derived from the Scandinavian “snus” which is a form of smokeless tobacco that was in common use by the Scandinavian immigrants.  The name was a reflection of the number of Scandinavian immigrants that lived in Cedar-Riverside during the 1890’s.

In the 1960’s, the University of Minnesota’s West Bank campus, located in Cedar-Riverside, became a center for the hippie counter culture of the day.  There were protests, live music and hip culture available throughout the neighborhood.  Today, the West Bank Campus is home to the University’s arts buildings, a large medical complex, and the law school’s Mondale Hall each providing different services and benefits to Cedar-Riverside. 

The latest trends in Cedar-Riverside have been caused by the arrival of large numbers of Somali and Ethiopian refugees.  Made famous as Mary’s apartment building on the Mary Tyler Moore show, Riverside Plaza, a 1300 unit apartment complex, attracts more refugees each year.  The complex has easy access to public transit, affordable rents, and already boasts a large population from East Africa helping to attract additional East African transplants all the time.  The sense of community among the refugees is strong as they band together to navigate the foreign American culture and make a place for themselves in their new home.  There is a Somali mall and there are a number of Somali and Ethiopian restaurants in the area serving both the refugee population and the more typical northern Midwest American population.

The neighborhood is also host to three higher education campuses: The University of Minnesota West Bank (including the West Bank Arts Center), Augsburg College, and The College of St. Catherine Minneapolis Campus.  Each of institution prides itself on diversity, and their student bodies reflect that diversity.  It is not uncommon to find a blonde Scandinavian descendent walking down the street laughing and talking with a Somali Sunni Muslim wearing a traditional hijab.  No one here thinks twice about seeing that.  Somali and Ethiopian men enjoying each other’s company and discussing the recent Somali Diaspora soccer league game pack the local Starbucks daily.  On the other side of the neighborhood, there are trendy restaurants and the experimental Mixed Blood Theatre.  The Mixed Blood is devoted to culturally diverse theatre and their plays are a wonderful reflection of the diversity present in the Cedar-Riverside community.  With rich theatre, fine arts, banks, restaurants, coffee shops, housing, a hospital, education, and a large riverside park the Cedar-Riverside (West Bank) neighborhood provides almost every basic service that its residents could need.  The rich culture in the area helps bind together the American college students with the East African refugees to form a cohesive community.