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Thanks to the Mark over at AppleMotion.net for linking to my new tutorial on making vines in Motion.

Dolores Huerta on Human Rights

Cesar Chavez is well known, but perhaps just an important figure in the fight for farmer workers’ rights is Dolores Huerta, who cofounded the United Farm Workers Union with Chavez.

I was able to hear her speak twice today here at my college. Her speeches were wide ranging, covering everything from immigration to Venezuela to NAFTA. You can hear the first speech here.

Huerta took quite a lot of time to talk about immigration in light of a new bill that has passed the Indiana House of Representatives which would severely hurt the immigrant population in the area.

I was grateful that Huerta brought up the fact that NAFTA is a major cause of immgration, I topic I have written and talked about.

Huerta also spoke about the dignity due to people who work with their hands, which by chance I had written about for last week’s editorial in The Record. I have wondered, then, what my role is as I graduate from college and become a professional media producer. Huerta said it is the role of professionals to help the people who work with their hands, the people who society does not give the respect due to them.

And is this not what Socially Aware Media should be? I have these talents, and I need to make sure I use them to help, and not to hurt.

Huerta also spoke in support of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, which prompted a Venezuelan immigrant to refute some of what she said. This brought up what Huerta called a “schizophrenia” about world leaders – select ones are demonized, but other ones who are much worse in many ways are supported by the United States.

Up and running

Well, I’m happy to say that my new computer is up and running, a complete editing machine. I installed Final Cut Pro, and it seems like everything is working fine.

This means that I’ll be able to do freelancing a lot easier now. So if you have any video needs, let me know. Check out my Services page to see what I can do for you!

Sorry for the lack of updates- I’ve been busy getting my computer working and editing the newspaper. You can read more about that at my Editor’s Blog.

Contest

Here’s an interesting contest I came across today. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum is asking people to answer this question:

“What advice would you give the next U.S. President on preventing and
responding to threats of genocide and related crimes against humanity?“

Answers will be accepted in video or essay form.

For more info, click here.

The page offers good links not only to info on the Holocaust, but also about ongoing genocides throughout the world.

Fuerza showing at 4f Film Festival

Fuerza will be shown this Friday night as part of 4F (First Fridays Film Festival). We’re returning to the place
we premiered, Goshen Theater, in downtown Goshen. We’ll be talking a little before the film plays at 6:20. We’ll also be hanging around and selling some DVDs. There will be about 40 different shorts and movies playing, all for free, so stop by even if you have seen Fuerza 20+ times.

What I’m trying to do

So exactly what am I trying to do with this site? What is this whole Socially Aware Media thing that keeps coming up?

I have no easy answers as to what Socially Aware Media actually is, and I don’t claim to even have any answer. All I have to offer is a continual questioning, and to look critically at different media to see how it can be done.

Here’s an example of what I’m trying to do, from BoingBoing Gadgets. The blogger takes a look at his own role in the larger picture in “Do Gadget Blogs Hurt the Environment?”

While this specific question doesn’t pertain to Socially Aware Media, it does do a good job asking the kind of question I hope to ask here, and hope that you also ask yourselves.

MediaStorm: Deeper understanding

In response to my earlier post about MediaStorm (MediaStorm Doesn’t Go Far Enough), Brian Storm, the founder of the company, contacted me with a reply, and permission to pass on his response.

My main critique was that MediaStorm doesn’t go quite far enough on large
issues. Storm responded, saying, “I don’t agree with you that we don’t
touch on big issues. Big issues are all over our site,” mentioning
stories from the site that do touch larger issues. Some of these
include AIDS, Immigration, Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder, and more.

Storm goes on
to say, “If we can help people gain a better understanding of these
issues, isn’t that a worthy goal? Do you really believe the stories
don’t inform or educate? If our stories help people see or understand
something they’ve not seen before, I think we have succeeded. To me,
the statistics are less relevant than creating human
connections.”

I agree that a better understanding
of the issues is most definitely a worthy point.

But I would also like to suggest that Socially Aware Media perhaps
should go a step further. Often, with these larger issues, there is
something that is simply not right about the situation. In these cases,
why should we be content to stop short of including some kind of
proposed action? While watching several of MediaStorm’s stories, I
found myself wanting more than just knowledge; I wanted to know what I
could do about it, or at least what could be done by somebody about the
situation.

MediaStorm has a pretty interactive Web
site, with links for everything, comment forms- a whole slew of ways to
be involved. Some (but not all) of the stories, including Chernobyl
Legacy, have links to Web sites where people can find out
something more to do. These links are adding what I think is a
necessary aspect to the viewing experience. I think that this kind of
information would be appropriate and is needed within the actual
presentation. On the other hand, MediaStorm seems to be concerned that
including this may detract from the real story, the human experience.
What do you think?

As for me, I’m planning on adding
a bit more in the way of follow-up on my movie pages, by adding
relevant links and the like.

I’d really like to thank Brian Storm and MediaStorm for being willing to respond as I critique the
site through the lens of Socially Aware Media in order to understand a bit more of what that phrase actually means. They really do excellent work, and do contribute to increasing understanding of complex issues.
Continue to check them out as they release more.