I was asked by Johan Flyckt from Sollentuna Radioin Stockholm to talk about Community Reporting and the way it could work in Sweden. This builds on the work we have already done in Stockholm and hope to continue. The written report is in Swedish but you can listen to the broadcast at the end. There is a real appetite for this in Sweden and as it developes the reporters will join our growing network of European reporter’s.
Is there such a thing as a ‘typical’ Community Reporter?
I am often asked about our Community Reporters – who they are, where they come from, a typical motivation for wanting to create and share content. So when I saw the following posts from one Community Reporter I thought it would be an interesting way to explore what, if anything, is ‘typical’ about our reporters.
Phil is a Salford resident who is heavily involved in his local community and does a lot for the good of the groups he’s involved with. He recently started to post content to the Community Reporter site and already we can see a real diversity of interests and motivations.
Take his piece on the Manchester club, Band on the Wall that was hosting an over 50′s disco. This piece is really personal, anecdotal and shows someone interested in having a good time.
Then there’s a piece on the group Start in Salford – a mental health charity that does excellent work supporting people to well-being through arts and crafts. Phil visited the stall they had at the Christmas markets selling high quality pieces that group members have made over the year. This piece demonstrates someone with a passion and committment to the important work done by charities in communities.
And finally, another post by Phil, this time exploring the campaign started by a NHS consultant Dr Kalash Chad who is worried about the cuts to the NHS. Here is a considered, balanced and heartfelt piece about the campaign and their call to action for people to get involved.
These three posts clearly demonstrate to me what we tell new Community Reporters all the time – the tools are the least interesting part of what it means to be a reporter. Learning to blog or edit or create podcasts is just a means to an end. The exciting part is the stories that people have to tell – about their lives and the lives of their communities. Phil’s posts show me someone who is really alive and engaged and thoughtful – and inspired by social, civic and political stimulus. And maybe this, if anything, is what we might call the most ‘typical’ of Community Reporters.
Visit the Community Reporter site and subscribe to Phil’s channel (salfordhart) to receive more posts as they’re uploaded.
Filed under Big Society, Community reporters
Community Reporter photo gets onto authors web site
Julie Spellman a Community Reporter has had exciting news. Author Shelley Harris has written a book called Jubilee and contacted her to request the use of a photograph she posted on the community reporter webs site as background on her website which launches in December. Its a photograph of the 1977 Jubilee street party on Old Road in Blackeley in Manchester taken by her Grandad. Julie said “Little would he have known when he took the photo how many people in the future may get to view it.”
Julie thanked the communityreporter.co.uk web site for bringing this to Shelley Harris’ attention. Have a look at the photograph and see other’s that Julie has posted.
Filed under News from PVM
People’s Voice Media launches new website!
After weeks of work we’re really pleased to be finally launching our new website at www.peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk.
It’s much more focussed on finding solutions for your problems and we hope you like it.
How did we do it?
As with many organisations, our work has been extremely varied over the years and grown organically so the web content had become a bit disorganised.
We went about restructuring the website by asking ourselves the question, “If I worked in a housing association (or school, or charity or health authority) and had an idea about engaging more creatively with people, would I find this website and would I find an answer?”
Part of that process was examining our website analytics.
By looking at how people arrived at the website we could tell that if they already knew us as an organisation, or by person or by product then they were finding the site quite easily. What they weren’t doing was finding us if they had an idea about community engagement, participation, consultation or voice that they wanted to explore. That was a real issue for us if we were going to find new organisations to work with.
We’ve now structured what’s on the site to be much more outcomes focussed with clear links to our products.
What’s new?
The three main sections of the site help you to develop your ideas about community voice and engagement.
Finding your voice gives an overview of what can be achieved when communities have the confidence and skills to make their voice heard and organisations have the mechanisms in place to listen.
Strengthening communities looks in more detail at possible methods for dialogue, consultation and co-production.
Working with you goes into the nitty gritty of how we work with organisations, including details about the Community Reporter Programme, running consultations and social reporting at conferences.
As you’d expect there are also case studies, with lots more examples of content over at www.communityreporter.co.uk.
We’d love to know what you think about the new site, please leave us a comment below.
Filed under News from PVM
Things are looking rosy for community reporting
Another day, another fascinating report about neighbourhoods and technology. This time it’s the “Councils and Online Neighbourhood Networks: Report of the second Networked Neighbourhoods survey of council officers and elected members” from The Networked Neighbourhoods Group.
http://networkedneighbourhoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-Online-Nhood-Networks-final.pdf
One of the key findings from the report is that awareness of local sites has increased over the last year (from 63% to 84% amongst members and 55% to 92% amongst officers) and the proportion of members that perceived local sites as negative dropped from 17% to 12%.
There’s clearly some way to go as fewer members felt the relationship with local sites was “co-operative” but they can obviously see the benefits, such as ‘quickly identifying issues of concern for residents’, acting ‘as a link to council online services’ and ‘sharing council news and information on council services and events’.
The most interesting further development for me was that 63% of officers claim that their authority already has, or will be developing, a policy for engagement with neighbourhood websites. A great development for community reporters.
Filed under Research
Gary
Louise
Teresa Wilson
