The Misrata trainees have so far done justice to their town’s reputation as a hard-working, can-do kind of place, and are well on their way to fulfilling the mission we set out: to produce four videos in four days. They seemed to be satisfied with our second day spent covering production basics, as many of them have prior production experience (more on that below) but none have had formal training.
Most of the guys (they are all guys, unfortunately) picked up cameras during the fighting that ravaged their town last year and became the media arm of the uprising. Some worked as fixers for the international press. They are amateurs who have more experience filming in situations of intense stress than most professionals. But though they have proven their bravery and bonafides as war photographers and cameramen, displaying their trophies– I was shown several pictures of Qadaffi’s corpse with one of our proud trainees working a camera in the frame (pictured above)– they seem to have not quite figured out how they will transition to becoming peacetime media professionals.
In addition to their inexperience, we can add their youth and thirst for adrenaline as obstacles to professionalism. Maybe there is less glory in covering a local election than a firefight, so there’s a constant push to spice things up, to add special effects to any production. Dramatic music. Anything from After Effects: explosions, fire, wild text animation.
What kind of work will they produce? Will they take up the calling of journalism and its accompanying watchdog ethic, at least as we traditionally understand it in the west, or will they continue to produce propaganda for their “side”– their town and their Katibas [militias or brigades]– as they risked their lives to do during the revolution?
Our challenge is to temper some of their enthusiasm and show that there is satisfaction in assembling a documentary style story about real life. To that end we are pushing them to defy their own instincts and make something “boring,” maybe just to make us, the foreigners, happy. So far it’s working: all the trainees are making projects that conform to the vision we set out, showing disciplined and respectful attitudes toward what we are telling them to do (they take pride in having that kind of attitude here).
Misrata is not traditionally a media town, but the field is open for these young guys to build a professional media sector here, if they want it.
Our second workshop is being held at the office of the Misrata Media Union. The MMU is an organization that hopes to work for the support of all Misrati journalists. They provided Small World News a warm welcome. They have a large conference room more befitting an executive boardroom than a training space. I’m learning that the impact of comfortable chairs cannot be overestimated in improving the demeanor of trainees over a long day.
Sixteen journalists and mediamakers from all over Misrata were present. Misrata TV, Tobacts TV, Tobacts FM and the Freedom Group all sent representatives to the training. It was great to see journalists from across the city sit together and collaborate. We saw similar attitudes in our training in Tripoli, however its clear that there is a quite a bit more competition between media in Tripoli, while in Misrata they seem less concerned about competing directly with each other.
We hoped that being able to show the results of our first training in Tripoli would make it easier to explain the goal of the workshop and the national campaign. This was not the case. I think its quite possible this made our task more difficult in some ways. The trainees latched onto whatever criticism they had of an individual video. Only a few seemed able to recognize the greater impact or potential reach. Its an understandable difficulty, there is very little history of individuals speaking for themselves, and even less of listening to such individuals.
Perhaps it just takes time for the notion to sink in. Later in the day several individual trainees presented quite compelling story ideas, after previously seeming to have not a clue how to approach the concept. It is my belief that one of the best ways to assist Libyans to move toward unity and broader understanding, is simply to show as diverse an array of individual Libyans as possible. Opening a space for Libyans to hear from a truly diverse cross-section of their fellow citizens can serve to create bonds not possible through more direct means. Yet when you have never had a space for individuals to speak their minds freely, its hard to grasp the importance, or even the relevance of such stories.
By the end of the day the trainees had broken up into a half dozen groups. They told me most of them in each group were from different organizations and had not worked together before. I’m looking forward to see what the Misrati trainees produce. They are a strong and dedicated bunch. If they apply themselves, and believe in the value of human stories from everyday Misratis, I expect they’ll create some great work in the next four days.
Tonight we’ve arrived in Misrata, the site of our next workshop. The city lies along the Mediterranean coast 187 km (116 miles) east of Tripoli and is Libya’s third largest, a commercial hub hit hard by the war. It’s been a year since revolutionaries cleared the city of Qadaffi loyalists after months of deadlocked fighting, and the blast marks of howitzers and machine gun fire still scar Tripoli street, the now infamous main drag. Misrata has a fiercely independent streak within Libya today, due to its unique role during the war and the contributions of its militias to Qadaffi’s final overthrow (it was in Misrata that the leader’s body was displayed to the public in a meat locker). Misrata’s name is also freighted with significance within the community of foreign reporters, as it was here that the distinguished photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were killed.
There is some sense in Libya that Misrata is a world apart, a sort of city-state where residents started the work of building the post-Qadaffi order on an accelerated timetable. City council elections were successfully held here in February of this year, months ahead of June’s planned national assembly elections (the national assembly will select a committee to draft Libya’s constitution). Misrata already has three of its own TV channels. Its victorious brigades have not been fully disbanded. As in much of the rest of the country these armed groups fall under the merely nominal authority of the national defense ministry, and do pretty much as they please.
We were received warmly by our hosts from the local media council at a spacious TV station by the sea. It was already late, but more than half of our prospective trainees were there to greet us. Brian introduced us with a now established good cop-bad cop routine, and prodded everyone to not be outdone by the Tripoli workshop’s videos; we expect strong work here. The facilities are excellent and the young people we met, many of whom established themselves with front-line reporting during the uprising, seem eager. We are told we are the first foreign media trainers in the city.
Guiding the enthusiasm on display to contribute to an election awareness campaign that is nationwide may present a challenge, as Misrata is still mending and residents are keen to display the wounds of their war. We hope to appeal to a sense of national purpose that will transcend local pride, as the contest of regional loyalties happening in Libya right now is one of the biggest obstacles in rebuilding the nation.
Small World News just completed the first in a series of video boot camps around Libya. Our first location was the capital, Tripoli. Several trainees work for television stations and production companies, while some are freelancers. We covered the basics of civic journalism, visual storytelling, and video production.
First we asked the trainees to propose compelling characters, initially a fish cleaner, teacher, revolutionary commander, Libyan Army soldier, an Amazigh elder, and a girl just one month too young to vote. After this we began focusing on the visual question. How can we tell the story of each character with visual sequences?
This is one of the most difficult concepts to teach aspiring video producers. Each sequence is generally made of five basic shots. Often trainees hear this and assume it means that any video can be produced with ONLY five shots. Often this mistake leads to videos with very little b-roll or visuals. The concept is to create series of sequences, each made up of any number of the five basic shots. These sequences are then put together, under the direction of the interview, to show the story being told by the interview subject.
Each group had to decide how to tell their subject’s story with visual sequences. Subsequent discussions led some groups to abandon their initial idea. Other groups found that their subjects, who had been receptive initially, became hesitant when faced with a camera. Others simply refused to answer their phones. This was a good lesson for all of the trainees in the importance of flexible planning on deadline.
We began the training with 20 trainees, by the end of day 2 there were less than 12. Such attrition has often been the pattern in Libya. Trainees’ work habits and commitments may be less than stable at times. When the trainees went out to shoot their stories, there were just 4 groups, of between 2 and 3 each. These groups subsequently produced 6 stories in part, completing just 4 by the end of the workshop.
The only similarity between the trainees who completed their video was an utter determination to complete their task. The skill level and previous access to camera equipment varied wildly. Two of the three tv stations represented completed a video, while the other half of the videos were produced by freelancers. Moving forward we will endeavor to provide more assistance to the less experienced and less confident trainees.
By the end of the next three weeks, and four more workshops,we hope to continue to diversify the content produced by trainees. We hope to produce videos representing a broader array of Libyan citizens, including women and conservative Muslims for example.
On to Misrata for our second workshop.
Small World News is in Libya for the third time since the revolution began. Although the revolutionary edge of the nation’s enthusiasm may have subsided, the enthusiasm itself has not. Libyans are excited to build their country, and actively looking for partners to provide assistance and mentorship. This desire led directly to the creation of our new project, a series of production bootcamps around the country. Throughout May, Louis Abelman and Brian Conley, along with Alive in Libya’s Mohamed M Essul will run a series of workshops across Libya.
We are excited by the broad support we have received from the Doha Centre for Media Freedom. With their support Small World News has developed a program that looks beyond training. We are using the phrase “production bootcamp” because we see each event as more than “training.” Our goal is to work side-by-side with Libyans across the country to produce a series of videos. These videos will form a campaign over the next several weeks encouraging Libyans to vote.
There is a general lack of capacity in the Libyan media to produce short, dynamic news packages quickly. Libyan news currently focuses primarily on talk shows, and studio-based news programming. By encouraging a bootcamp, on-the-job style experience, trainees will learn theory that is quickly informed by practice.
Currently there is also a huge lack of real information about the election. The day before registration began on May 1, many Libyans did not even know where to register. Others were confused about the exact purpose of registration. Furthermore, many Libyans are even unclear about when the elections should occur. Its June 19th according to our latest information, yet many still believe it is June 23rd.
The workshops will bring together a diverse group of media makers in each city. These trainees will work together in a series of production teams, conceiving a story, shooting the story, and finally assembling, all in a matter of days. We have crafted the campaign around the idea that individual Libyans are best suited to convince their fellow citizens to vote. We are attempting to blend short documentary features, telling one individual story, with energetic, get-out-the-vote style language. We hope this innovative approach will connect with average Libyans and educate them about the upcoming election.
The shaky footage and highly zoomed images of smoke, helicopters and gunfire have become hallmarks of visual reporting on events in Syria. With the increasing risks and mounting death toll of foreign journalists, citizen journalists have become an increasingly necessary source of information from Syria.
The increasing carnage has also led to an increasing insistence that more technology is the answer. Whether we are talking about drones, more drones, internet access, satellite imagery, or curating Syrian images, the discussion revolves around increasing the distribution of images and information from Syria.
I would like to propose an alternative perspective. I think the accessibility of images of carnage, awareness of the toll of violence and the assaults by Syrian security forces against civilians are currently sufficient. The issue is not the lack of images, the issue is the lack of stories. If narratives are not being crafted by the Syrians themselves, they will need to be crafted by those reporting on them. This is a dynamic that dramatically limits understanding, despite the broad spread of awareness.
Take for example this video shot in Syria earlier this year:
It’s great that the shooter recites the location and date of the video, at least it provides some level of context as to when and where it happened, but there is nothing telling the for more important details of how or why.
Now let’s compare it with a similar video from Alive in Baghdad in 2006, just a year after YouTube was launched:
I understand some may be inclined to say, “But the Alive in Baghdad team were trained and experience journalists, you cannot compare their work with Syrian citizen journalists and activists.” In that case, let me suggest this video from Alive in Libya, shot last summer, that depicts a similar situation:
Fortunately there are already some Syrians who have recognized the need to do more than document atrocities. Ahmed Khalaf, a British Syrian, has been producing some compelling work from northern Syria over the last week.
I hope his work will increase awareness that training in visual storytelling and an emphasis on developing sympathy and understanding of the issues facing Syrians are far more important currently than a focus primarily on increasing the volume and visibility of more common user-generated content. Unless Syrians take responsibility to tell their own stories, and trainers and journalists outside encourage this development, I fear we won’t likely see a change in the status quo. We will continue to lament the plight of Syrians, while lacking any real context for how to help them, or any real awareness of the freedom they dream of attaining.
A confluence of recent events are highlighting an overlooked issue in Information Communications Technology (ICT) security. The most well-publicized event was the killing of Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik in Homs, Syria last month. Until recently, it seems that online security has always been the province of “geeks.” Organizations whether news outlets, corporations, or activists and advocacy groups have relied on employing IT experts to manage and maintain their firewalls, properly defend against SPAM and DDOS attacks, etc. This is no longer acceptable. Journalists, activists, human rights defenders need to start watching their own backs, and they need better tools to educate themselves.
Traditionally, organizations rarely expected that each individual should take responsibility for her own security. It’s not only the lack of personal responsibility, but also the accessibility of educational materials that is to blame. As Danny O’brien at the Committee to Protect journalists noted last month, high-tech security information needs better dissemination. Individuals working in hostile environments are largely aware of the need to recognize analog threats to security, such as kidnapping or getting shot. Its time to begin taking responsibility to educate yourself about digital security threats. Furthermore, it is increasingly important for journalists to educate themselves about the security threats to their sources or they may become complicit in reprisals against these sources.
Journalists and their sources aren’t the only ones who need to be mindful of how their online habits put them at risk. Activists all over the world are increasingly leveraging ICT. The growing reliance on ICT and lack of proper “digital hygiene” increasingly puts them at risk. The Tibet Action Institute is a project that has been working on increasing the digital hygiene of Tibetan activists, since 2009. They have focused on raising awareness among Tibetans about the risks of sharing information with social networks, opening attachments from people they don’t know, and ensuring they utilize effective passwords and SSL connections. You might expect Tibetans would have the *most* understanding of their risk, due their independence and free expression threatened by the Chinese government for more than 50 years. In my own experience training activists connected to the Tibetan struggle, many are just as likely to follow poor practices. Because of this organizations like the Tibet Action Institute are very necessary, not only for Tibetans, but for activists, journalists, and average citizens all over the world.
If you had any doubts that being careful about your online habits only applies to Tibetans and others living in authoritarian regimes, look no further than Wired’s article about the new NSA Center. “Sitting in a restaurant not far from NSA headquarters, the place where he spent nearly 40 years of his life, Binney held his thumb and forefinger close together. “We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state,” he says.”
Small World News trains journalists, activists, and human rights defenders around the world, and what we consistently find is that individuals far too often fail to commit to good digital hygiene. I consistently find myself reminding even small groups of activists, you are only as safe as your weakest link. As we learn more and more about the extreme insecurity of technology we have come to depend upon, such as satellite phones, it becomes all the more important to provide the best manuals and advice to ensure best practices. This is why we released a guide to satphone security that is a follow-up to our previous guide to creating effective, high quality visual media more safely, and we expect these will be part of an evolving curriculum, our little bit of help to educate journalists, activists, and human rights defenders alike.
It was in this vein that I recently traveled to South by Southwest in Austin to participate in a panel called “How Not to Die: Using Tech in a Dictatorship,” (listen to the audio here) and will be speaking on a similar subject at a forthcoming Techchange seminar, New Media Tactics for Democratic Change.
If you’ll be attending the Online News Association and think increasing the dialogue about these topics is important, please vote for my session with Martyn Williams, “Basic online security for journalists – and why it matters,” and consider attending.
If you’re still not convinced our failure as individuals to take responsibility for ourselves is unacceptable, ask Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik, these two anonymous Mexican twitter users, or finally, Maria Elizabeth Macîas Castro.
The recent hype and controversy around Invisible Children, and this post by Sam Gregory of Witness has encouraged me to expand on my initial thoughts seen here on Cartoon Movement. I hope this post can provide a bit of background on how Small World News came to its current incarnation, providing all manner of training and innovative support to journalists, activists, and citizen journalists, primarily in conflict areas.
It’s little known to those who first learned about Small World News in 2011, but Alive in was not chosen just as a catchphrase, but a core value. I first traveled to Iraq not to tell Iraqis stories *for* them, but to do my best to act as a window for the world onto the stories of Iraqis. While the traditional broadcast media reported to the world “Live from Baghdad,” I wanted to make the point that there were plenty of individuals capable to report “Alive in Baghdad.” I feel it is far more important to assist these individuals, individuals who were neither voiceless, nor invisible, but primarily unheard and unseen, to be heard and be seen, telling their own stories.
I will not disagree with Invisible Children on the point that images which reflect our own experience are easier to identify with. But this also means you are making a choice not to challenge your audience to consider different characters or voices equally valuable to the images traditionally seen on television. I didn’t start Alive in Baghdad and Small World News only to advocate for people in conflict areas and underdeveloped countries. Small World News was started out of a genuine desire to make the world smaller, by enabling citizens most affected by conflict to tell their own stories. I will not be satisfied just enabling them to tell their stories to Americans and first world citizens, i want to ensure they are able to tell them to each other.
Alive in does not seek to advocate for one policy or position. Small World News started Alive in to advocate for the presence of citizens in the stories told about them. Alive in suggests that no matter how good the journalist or the storyteller, it is no longer acceptable to only have stories told about people. Visual journalism and video advocacy is too often something done by experts and “humanitarians” to people or for people, not by people and with them.
Small World News exists on the notion that we want to change the course of media for the better. We want to ensure the existence of high quality, nuanced journalism into the 22nd century. The only way to do this is to ensure that those closest to the story have as much capacity and opportunity to tell their own story as the renowned, award-winning journalists currently telling their story to the world.
This week we released our latest guide. The new guide is an attempt to assist those who are forced to rely on satellite phones for communication, particularly in conflict areas and repressive states. Satellite phones are all closed source technology, making them an incredibly risky tool to rely on in life threatening situations.
Because satellite phones, or satphones, are an insecure tool, the first thing that must be said about this guide, is that this guide will not keep you safe and secure, but we believe it can keep you safer.
In the wake of the murder of two journalists in Homs last month, we published this guide as quickly as possible. It was originally developed to assist satphone users, particularly those working as activists and likely under severe threat from their government. It is not a complete guide for journalists, aid workers, or other use cases, though we believe it is a very good start.
Some individuals have already asked us about the risks of satellite modems.I Although this guide focuses on satphones, satellite modems share similar risks. The number one issue to remember is that it is very easy to locate your position via the radio transmission from your satellite broadcast. Whether you are using a phone, a modem, or a satellite pager, your transmissions are the first risk you take.
Please check out the guide, offer suggestions, and if we can assist you with better understanding the safety and security concerns around your technology and communications, let us know!
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