2006 World Summit
Our aim
with Images & Voices of Hope has always been to support the journalist and
media professional in the significant work they do in the world and to
inquire into the most constructive impact our field can have on the world.
The 2006 World Summit for Images & Voices of Hope opened new worlds in both
areas.
This
year's topic, "Media's Creative Potential to Transform the Public Space"
lent itself to looking out - at the public space, and in - at the inner
creative space from which we all work.
Peter
Senge helped us frame the concept of the public space on Friday morning and
moved the 65 journalists and media professionals present into a World
Cafe model dialogue about what it is we would most like to see in the
public space. At small tables we moved into intense conversations,
exchanging perspectives from Cape Town, Johannesburg, Montreal, Oxford,
Paris, Sao Paolo, Singapore, Switzerland - as well as Boston, Duluth, Los
Angeles, Miami, and New York.
One of
the most important roles of the media is to call public attention to the
significant subjects of the day - to topics that are crucial for our
collective future. We considered the quality of the public space and how
the "tyranny of the immediate" may crowd out some of the most significant
subjects from public awareness. What is it that the world should be talking
about at this time? And what can the global media community do to amplify
those conversations?
Later
that day Jon Funabiki, recently Deputy Director of the Media, Arts & Culture
Unit at the Ford Foundation, and now at San Francisco State University's
journalism department, framed a premise that what is really transforming the
public space may not be "big media" so much as "little media" or "passion
media," media that targets narrow constituencies to bring their voices and
world views into the broader community. He moderated a panel that
drove that point home: Ryland Fisher creator of a series in the Cape
Times called "One City Many Voices;" Nancy Gruver, creator of a
magazine written and edited by girls called New Moon, and Geraldo
Villacres, 20 year veteran of CBS and publisher of Hispanic newspapers in
Eastern Massachusetts.
In the
evenings, we screened and heard about the work our colleagues are doing. We
celebrated them and heard about the ways they are using media to mediate
conflict, bind communities, expose injustice, and showcase important
models for the future.
Finally
we laid some groundwork for the future - new conversations in cities around
the world, a move into internet television, a newsletter and film festival.
Jon Funabiki sent this in a note after he had arrived back in San
Francisco:
I hope
you will continue IVOH. Many journalism organizations, media reform groups,
movements and campaigns already exist. But it strikes me that your focus is
quite different. It seems to take a strike at helping us to clarify
personal mission or purpose, and then to think of ways to amplify and
leverage our impact.
Awards of Appreciation
Press Release
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