DIY Media Discussion

I wanted to post some information related to the event last Thursday that many were unable to attend.


The conference, held at the Cable Center, was titled "Untold Stories: Truth and Consequences." The presentation, "YouTube & Do it Yourself Media: Challenges to Traditional Media from Outside the Maistream Fewturing Stories from Diverse Communities" was led by our very own Dr. Adrienne Russell, along with a number of staff/contributors to Denver Open Media: Tony Shawcross (read his advice for an 18 year old letter), Deborah Lastowka (Outreach Coordinator, crator of "The Key of D"), Ann Theis (creator of "VLogTV"), Paula Rhoads (producer of talk show "Brainiacs"), and Emmanuel Eliason (pastor for World Gospel TV).

The discussion centered around the idea of public representation, and the ideas of the do-it-yourself forms of media. The concept of public access television is dualy shown through what is broadcast by DOM. Each submission is guranteed to air once, and may be shown again based off of the votes it receives from viewers, who are prompted to vote via a scrolling marquee on the screen giving the instructions. Here at DU, channels 56 and 57 are the DOM broadcasts, with 56 being the "fresh" shows, and 57 giving viewiers those

Also, through Deproduction/DOM, video services and media education programs/workshops are offered, allowing for the public to pay to learn various media skills related to video/film, such as field production, Final Cut, and web video workshops. It is this effort that enables the public to contribute to the DOM television to take their first steps into the public realm via filming.

Also discussed were issues of television censoring/censorship and the application of a 3-strike policy by DOM, as well as a brief bit about the Digital Divide and access to the means for production, as well as viewing of the shows provided. They also discussed Drupal, a free and open source modular framework and content management system (CMS), which is used to manage the television shows and viewer voting interaction. They also spoke to community interaction and the Creative Commons, with the use of ccMixter, and also the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

There was much discussed between the six presenters, and the Clarion has a piece covering some of the event as well, for those of you interested.