[Media-watch] FW: OURMedia IV - Building Communication Societies

[David Miller {FMS}]

-----Original Message-----
From: Rodriguez, Clemencia [mailto:clemencia at OU.EDU] 
Sent: 05 May 2004 22:29
To: OURMEDIA-L at LISTS.OU.EDU
Subject: OURMedia IV - Building Communication Societies


SUBJECT: please help us promote the conference!

 ( versiones de este documento en español y portuges vienen 
aparte)

Dear OURMedia Members,

The Conference Planning Committee-- 45 people from 18 countries-- has 
been hard at work to develop a very exciting and important conference.
We
hope you are all making your arrangements to attend  OURMedia IV in
Porto
Alegre, Brazil this July 22-25, 2004 and we look  forward to seeing you
there.

 Below is the conference announcement for OM IV and we need your help to
circulate it and invite people who want to join us. We also hope to soon
receive your proposals and ideas for conference sessions!

1) Please forward the announcement below to anyone you think might be
interested. We need your help to attract people in (from) your region,
networks and field of action. If you send it to any email lists
(listservs),
websites or newsletters where it is posted, please contact Liza at
om2004 at ourmedianet.org so we can keep track of all  e-lists, newsgroups,
websites, newsletters where the announcement has already been sent.

2) Please let us know if you have ideas for local Porto Alegre groups
and
people we should contact about the conference. We are looking for
contacts
in Brazil and particularly in the Porto Alegre region and the state of
Rio
Grande do Sul who work with community radio, 
community TV or print media, "communications for development" projects,
youth and ICTs, popular education using media/ICTs, media and
communications
policy activists/advocates, as well as indymedia and other grassroots
political ICT projects (other suggestions welcome!). Names and
information
for groups and people to contact in Porto Alegre and around the region
can
also be sent to om2004 at ourmedia.net.

 More info below!

Thank you and hope to see you in July!

The OURMedia/NuestrosMedios IV Conference Planning Committee


 * * * * * * * * * * *

 {{please forward}}

 OURMedia/NuestrosMedios IV: Building Communication Societies
 An International Conference
 July 22-25, 2004 Porto Alegre, Brazil
 :::: CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PROPOSALS ::::

 Proposal Deadline: May 10, 2004, 22:00/10pm GMT (17:00/5pm EDT).

 OURMedia/NuestrosMedios is an international network of more than 270
 academics and activists: researchers, practitioners and advocates
working
in more than forty countries to strengthen media and
information/communication technologies (ICTs) that support social
justice,
human rights, community autonomy and grassroots empowerment.

 Our work spans many fields: community media, independent media, radical
media, citizens media, grassroots networking, telecommunications policy,
indymedia activism, cultural arts, communications theory,
social-movement
research, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies,
development communication and communication for social change.

Our annual meeting is a time for OURMedia members to learn from each
other
and to strengthen our analyses, strategies, collaborations and
campaigns. At
this point, membership is free and open to anyone  who shares our
guiding
principles: please see our website: 
http://www.ourmedianet.org.

We invite you to join us (membership is included with conference
registration).

OURMedia/NuestrosMedios IV: "Building Communication Societies" 
will take place in Porto Alegre, Brazil, July 22-25, 2004 as a
pre-conference to the 
IAMCR, the International Association of Media and Communications
Research,
but is independent from that event, with our own program, specific
criteria
for session proposals and registration fees (scaled to the participant's
ability to pay,
no-one will be turned away for lack of funds).

Please see http://www.ourmedianet.org/om2004 for more information.

This four day conference will feature:

++ FIELD TRIPS to local Brazilian grassroots media and ICT projects,
 advocacy campaigns and popular education centers

++ PRESENTATIONS AND PARTICIPATORY SESSIONS: panels, workshops and
 strategic discussions to focus on connecting research, advocacy and 
practice.

Topics include:
** Connecting Research and Advocacy for Citizens' Media, Community Media

** Current Media/ICT Policy Issues and Implications.
** "Best Practices" and "Notable Failures," (stories and lessons from
citizens' media and grassroots networking projects, media/ICT advocacy
and
policy campaigns, researcher-practitioner collaborations and other
social
movements that relate to current efforts for 
community/citizens  media, "communication rights," "media democracy,"
"free
speech,"  "media  diversity," "media justice" and other goals.)

 ++ POLYMEDIA LABORATORY: "NossoMidiaLab" -- an open space for 
experimentation,  creation, collaboration and skill-sharing to explore
autonomous and 
community uses of video, audio, Internet and other traditional and new
media

technologies 
 
A Call for Proposals is currently open until May 10. You do not have to
submit a proposal to attend the conference. For more information on
registering to attend or submitting a proposal, please visit our web
page or
write to om2004 at ourmedianet.org to request a copy of
 the Call for Proposals or the Registration Form.

 OURMedia/NuestrosMedios
 http://www.ourmedianet.org