Media has a role in improving the public spaces that we inhabit in our cities. It also shapes our imagination and structures our interactions in the public sphere.
Citizens across Europe are raising their voices to reclaim their right to participate in those debates that help us improve the quality of our daily lives.
MediActivism connects young citizens working on the right to the city through media to foster more liveable public spaces, better housing conditions or measures to struggle against climate change.
Displaced in Media
Refugees have entered European countries, but they haven’t entered the public sphere. When they do, it is as characters in other people’s stories - desperate faces, surging hoards and floating bodies - something ‘other’. We rarely hear from young refugees as experts or legitimate voices. If refugees and migrants are to become citizens of Europe, we believe they need to be participants in - rather than subjects of - public debate. The strategic partnership Displaced In Media contributes to an innovative and collaborative infrastructure in Europe that supports refugee participation through media. This infrastructure consists of
a sustainable community of practice that entails the participating organisations and their networks and a peer group of young migrant citizen journalists
a shared methodology of media literacy education for young migrants
a collection and dissemination strategy of migrants’ media works from across Europe
improved policy awareness on local, national and European level for the democratic participation of young migrants in their communities.
Read more on this programme in this ENCATC Scholar publication by ZEMOS98's Lucas Tello. Via this playlist on MediActivism you have access to the videos produced in the programme.
This programme runs from 2016 until 2018 and is co-developed with ZEMOS98 (Seville), Association of Creative Initiatives “ę” (Warsaw), British Film Institute (London), MODE Istanbul, Les Têtes de l’Art (Marseille), Fanzingo (Botkyrka), Kurziv (Zagreb), Here to Support (Amsterdam).
Media Collection - MediActivism.eu
MediActivism.eu consists of a series of activities happening in different cities of Europe: a Hackcamp, a format of encounter oriented to face challenges by designing prototypes that give an answer to the needs of the local context; a Right to the City Laboratory, a group of diverse participants to implement a campaign claiming the demands of citizenship; and a Policy Fora to foster changes in our cities’ policies regarding the right to the city. These activities happening in different local contexts are connected and scaled up to encourage a broader discussion in the European public sphere.
MediActivism.eu sustains an ever-growing collection of 500+ alternative media created by active citizens, artists and civil society groups from across Europe. This archive includes short films, remixes, mixed media, music videos, social commentaries, animations and artworks that document Europe’s most pressing social issues.
A video by MODE Istanbul as a part of Youth MODE "Local Heroes" Workshop in Eskisehir, Turkey.
A video produced by BFI Future Film.
Doc Next Network
In 2010, Doc Next Network was initiated by the European Cultural Foundation. It brought together Mode Istanbul (Istanbul, Turkey), ZEMOS98 (Seville, Spain), BFI Future Film (London) and Association of Creative Initiatives "ę" (Warsaw, Poland) who engage with media makers, activists, researchers, programmers, educators and innovators.
Doc Next strives for social justice and inclusive public opinion in Europe, through a common methodology that supports the ideas of access, free culture and expanded education. In line with ECF’s strategic focus on culture, communities and democracy, the achievements in the past years include
an engaged community of media activists
a media collection by activists
a shared methodology for expanded education
Doc Next has evolved into an organic association of organisations and individuals engaged in activist media for a more inclusive Europe. They initiate projects and actions in changing coalitions and shape together the start of what could be called ‘a commons’ for socially engaged media makers across Europe.
More from the doc Next Network:
