Colin Rhinesmith

I realize that many of my blogposts relate back to the Berkman Center. This is because much of what has gone on at the Berkman Center, since I started working there, is of great interest to me based on my background in media studies.

So much so, that I believe I will take many of the concepts I’ve learned, and have been able to participate in, with me into my graduate program at Emerson College.

Three related areas in particular, strike me as issues with which I might be able to focus my scholarly attention during the coming years:

1. The Role of Digital Media in Education
2. Citizen Media and Participatory Culture
3. Public Access and Community Media

The Role of Digital Media in Education

I am currently working on a podcast for AudioBerkman with my co-worker Amanda featuring the results of research conducted by William McGeveran and other members of the Digital Media Project team.

The project, Educational Use of Content in the Digital Age, has considered the following:

“(1) the ways in which digitization alters the use of content by teachers and scholars in their educational mission; (2) what obstacles (legal, technical, or institutional) prevent the full potential of digital learning; and (3) what reforms might improve the situation.”

Since beginning work on the podcast, I’ve been curious to know if there has been any attempts to build an online database of Creative Commons educational curricula available for educators for use in the classroom and also for use in sharing with other educators.

This seems to me to be a worthwhile endeavor considering the increasing difficulty for educators to create and share educational content on the web–which Bill McGeveran’s project looks at in great detail.

Citizen Media and Participatory Culture

While I have great admiration for mainstream journalists and their craft, I am also concerned about the role that the bottom-line plays in the ability for journalists to do their job–to help create and sustain an informed “democracy”.

It’s not news, that those with affluence, influence, and access take center stage in the headlines, shaping the debate in our mainstream media and society. This, coupled with the fact that fewer multinational corporation control more of the media which most people consume, has contributed to a culture of decreasing public debate, excluding many from having a seat at mainstream media’s table.

How often do we here about structural racism in the news? Or, about the impact that media consolidation has had on media ownership and localism?

The status quo does not cover the status quo. “Voices from the edge” on the internet, with new communication tools like blogging, podcasting, and videoblogging, are rising up to challenge mainstream dominated public opinion offering many new voices in the debate–challenging traditional media and their economic models.

It’s no surprise that Net Neutrality has taken center stage, threatening to stifle innovation, freedom of speech, and civic participation on the Internet. The “promise of the Internet” has created much debate. Many of the arguments I have agreed with.

But, it does not mean that we should allow politics and policy dictated by the powerful few, to overcome the possibility of a new communication medium that is slowly, but increasingly proving to be successful in providing a platform for those who have been and continue to be marginalized and shut out of the mainstream debate.

So, how can the role of Citizen Media continue to provide an outlet not just for those with access to the world wide web, but for those who have been economically and, as Andy Carvin points out, culturally denied access to relevant content on the web?

Global Voices continue to play a significant role in this area, through the communication and sharing of ideas and events “on the ground” around the world, redefining the definition of participatory culture and the world wide web.

Public Access and Community Media

As a Staff Assistant at the Berkman Center and a member of the Board at Cambridge Community Television, I have been fortunate to be at the center of two important worlds coming together for creative and innovative collaboration and future possibility.

Thanks to Charles Nesson, Harvard Law School and Berkman Center founder, a relationship has been established this year between CCTV and the Berkman Center. Recognizing CCTV’s embrace of new media technologies, the Berkman Center has reached our to CCTV and the two have come together with similar goals in mind to help create and share content on the web in new and innovative ways.

Two of the inagural projects have included CCTV’s coverage of the Berkman Center sponsored Beyond Broadcast conference and Charlie Nesson’s “At Charlie’s Table” series.

In my work as President of ACMEBoston, I am excited about the upcoming videoblogging workshops that ACMEBoston will participate in with members of the Boston Neighborhood Producer’s Group, “Boston’s first and only nonprofit advocacy group which was formed in response to the need for increased neighborhood representation and involvement in the public access television process.”

The purpose: to train public access producers in Boston to learn the tools, skills, and knowledge to share content produced for public access television on the world wide web. And as an advocacy organization for public access and community participation in media content production, BNPG members will gain the skills needed to share their mission and vision using the Internet as a tool to help accomplish these goals.

1. The Role of Digital Media in Education
2. Citizen Media and Participatory Culture
3. Public Access and Community Media

With these three areas outlined above, and also from my work as a podcaster for AudioBerkman, I am looking forward to focusing these interests during my graduate program at Emerson, with the help of collaboration and learning from faculty there.

Citizen Media, Community Media, Emerson College, Media Education