team progress

We have just recruited a new member to the team- Geraldine which evens the sides up a little as Christine was a bit lonely as the only other woman apart from the media team staff.
Alan is fast becoming the new team photography, and Peter is buddying him to learn how to use our cameras and how to look for exciting pictures. We will put some up next week.
Zoe has been leading the training and doing a great job, next week she is going to be observed leading the group.
We are going to get the new team to start blogging soon so keep a look out for lots of new faces & stories. This afternoon we are visiting Nick to talk to him about starting a blog about his new photography course.

training team 3

We are now into the 4th week of training with the latest recruits. There are 6 new members who are being buddied by Peter & Hobbow from team 1. We also have the help of a new volunteer called Steve. Everyone is really keen to learn about the media and are full of ideas and skills that we can use.

Michael has campaigning experience having been a member of HAVOC for 3 years and involved in many successful campaigns.

Alan is a very good photographer, he is currently exhibiting his work at the Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry and in the summer he had his own book called Alan's Coventry: a photographic record of Alan's favourite parts of the City.

Christine is chair of Birmingham People First and brings lots of experience of campaigning, she is an accomplished photographer and she has already recruited someone else to join next week.

Edward is really interested in the news and current affairs. He will always be ready to challenge and get more information so will make an excellent interviewer if we need one.

Scott is a keen fan of soaps and has just started a drama course, he is also very keen to do extra work outside of the training time.

Philip has wanted to be in the team since the project started so is full of enthusiasm as he has finally managed to fit us in. Philip has lots of confidence and is always happy.

The project staff are looking forward to working with the new team members and getting to know them.

parents with learning disabilities

We are shortly about to go public with a campaign about parents with learning disabilities having their children taken away. The team have conducted some research and are working with a feature reporter for the Coventry Telegraph. One of our team is willing to be a case story and her personal story will be central to the feature. Once we are ready to go live with the story I will post the link here. If you know of any similar articles or cases please do contact us.

exhibiting our photographs

5 young people are displaying their photographs at the Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry alongside a Victoria & Albert Museum touring exhibition, from 16th September until 21st October.
None of the photographers had used a SLR camera before the project and only had one month to get their photographs taken. They then had to sort through the 100's of images to pick the best 30 to be exhibited. Once this was done we had to quickly learn how to mount and frame and curate, we had less than a week to do this.
On the 18th September the Herbert held a private viewing event, attended by lots of people as well as our photographers. The reception for our part of the show was very positive. We have set up a flickr website for those that can't physically visit the Herbert.
www.flickr.com/photos/something_that_i_never_really_see

learning disability week

I'm starting this blog with an apology, sorry we haven't updated for a while. We were very busy with learning disability week, then I was on annual leave and now I have my arm in a sling as I have cracked my elbow. There enough excuses let's tell you how learning disability week went:Paul got his dream of hosting his own radio show on Hillz FM. During June and early July HillzFM had an FM licence to broadcast live alongside their Internet broadcasts, Paul was given a weekly one hour show, so well done DJ HObbow. Lisa and Rosie were invited onto Hillz FM as guests (June 16th) to talk about learning disability week. They took along Denise for support and Adam a young man on work experience came along too.As we said in an early posting we had expression walls around the city & in Nuneaton. On Tuesday 17th June the team were invited to launch the wall live on the Annie Otham show (BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.) Annie also interviewed 2 parents about their experiences. Mel & Donald gave fantastic interviews, talking about how it felt to find out your much wanted baby has Down Syndrome. They spoke about the highs and lows that their families have experienced since, and they spoke of their dreams for the future.(We are hoping to get a snap of this posted on this site and Grapevine's website).Later the same day Paul, Alex, Denise & Adam went back to the BBC to do a live interview about the photography competition. " days after that we had some of the young people from the WATS project live on the breakfast show talking about their lives. We were very pleased to get so many radio interviews in one week.During learning Disability week we were also featured twice in the Coventry telegraph and on the city council's news page. Couple of the stories were about the photography competition but the most exciting story was written by Louise O'Farrell about her life as a young person with Down's Syndrome (see the separate blog to read her story).

Life as a young person with downs syndrome Louise O'farrell

The following was an article written by Louise O'Farrell and appeared in Coventry Telegraph 20/06/08 for part of learning disability week:

Having Down's syndrome is a hateful condition because I do not like my size, my weight or my looks.

Some people stare at me when I go out on my own. Sometime I get people asking me how old I am and when I tell them they don't believe me. I also find it hard to express my feelings and thoughts to other people when in turn they aren't prepared to listen to me. They nearly always speak over me which leaves me frustrated and angry that I can't get my views across.

I feel that I have a full life and have achieved a lot. My best achievement was getting a distinction in my history OCT Certificate Achievement Award. The certificate and prize were presented by HRH Duke of Edinburgh at a ceremony in London.

I enjoy reading Harry Potter books and could tell you the story by heart. I go to the cinema sometimes; some of the films like Harry Potter are good, although there are some I'm not so fond of. I also like going out with friends around Coventry and going for pub, Indian and Chinese meals.

I attend the Grapevine drop in centre where I have joined the Healthy Living Team. They go to hospitals and do presentations on how to have a healthy lifestyle.

I also do DJing. I have done scratching, beating and cross fading and made a CD of different songs. I am part of D:Vine a group that runs monthly club nights at Taylor John's in the canal basin. I play pop music which makes people want to dance. My DJ name is DJ Wizard, because I put on wizard music.

I have been a dancer since I was eight years old. I have danced for my grade work and really enjoy it. Every year we put on a show and I like practising for the shows. This year I did a tap number to 'Puttin on the Ritz'. A ballet number for 'Nobody does it better' Goldfinger from James Bond and 'One' from a Chorus Line. It was a difficult dance to learn and at the end of the final performance my dance teacher congratulated me on how well I did. My sister Alice cried when she saw me doing the dress rehearsal because she had never seen me dance before. She was always in the performance dancing on the opposite side to me. She said I did it perfectly and kept in time with everyone.

I have lots of good friends and family who like to look after me and help me do things that I'm not so good at. I make everyone laugh when I say funny things. My laugh is always a happy laugh, which makes people want to smile.

Quick catch up

It has been very busy in the media office recently, we are getting ready for our first big PR campaign and have lots of things planned for the next few weeks. The team have also had a training day at BBC Coventry and Warwickshire and they are going to talk about that on their chattervine.blogspot.com site. I thought the BBC training day was very good we were given chance to look at using the internet, learnt about how to catch the attention of editors with our press releases- who would have thought it is common for an editor to get 500 emails a day! We also had a go in the radio studio doing interviews with each other- great practice for the ones we have planned for the next few weeks.

We have just held a photography competition for people with learning disabilities living in Coventry or Warwickshire and had over 90 entries, with many very good photographs sent to us- there is lots of talent out there. I'm just glad that I was only organising the competition not doing the judging! Still after a couple of hours on Monday our 4 judges finally chose the winners and we have launched a website with all the entries on it: www.flickr.com/photos/grapevinecomp2008

All the photos are going on public display from 16th-30th June in Coventry Council House and the Lord Mayor is presenting the trophies on Tuesday 17th, hopefully with our local press in force. The competition is just a small part of the things we have planned for Learning Disability week starting 15th June.

The team have designed some hanging expression walls which are going in public spaces in Coventry & Nuneaton. The idea is for people to come along and write comments about what learning disability means to them. The biggest wall is going in the BBC open centre in Coventry and we are hoping that as well as it being featured on the morning show of 16th June that the TV cameras might be around.

The BBC have really championed our cause and are giving us live interviews during the week covering a wide variety of stories. We also have a live interview on Hillz FM radio, a Coventry based community radio who are celebrating their live FM licence at the same time. They have offered Paul his own show during the 1st week of their FM month and perhaps he might get to do shows for the other 3 weeks.
As things happen we will keep this blog updated so please do visit often, and tell us what you think. Denise

Coventry Team's photography session

We were lucky to have a photographer come and work with the team, to help us understand what makes a good image and how to take a decent picture. After we had learnt about how a camera works and some of the technical stuff. We looked at a variety of pictures and then went out in between the April showers to take photographs of Coventry. We only had time to walk around Spon End and medieval Spon Street but the team managed to get some great images. We have opened a flickr.com website called grapevinemedia67 and have also posted lots of pictures to the BBC's record breaking attempt project called the Big Picture 2008.
Why not visit our flickr website and have a look. Peter has also opened his own flickr website and will be adding some of his pictures next week.

Visit to the BBC Mailbox, Birmingham

Recently the team visited the BBC at the home in the Mailbox. We had a chance to do a weather forecast and a news reading. There were exhibitions about the history of the BBC and a chance to see into the production office. Unfortunately we didn't get to see anyone famous.
After we had done all this we took a long walk around Gas Street Canal Basin to Centenary Square. Everyone had a good time but there were lots of aching feet.

Update on training (Nuneaton Group)

The Nuneaton group have only been together for a few weeks but are doing really well. They have put together a newspaper and last week they made a TV programme. The team spent some time planning what sort of programme they wanted- they settled on a lifestyle and called it the Media Show. Jo & Zoe were the hosts, but everyone else had a slot, Sarah did a cooking sketch, David H. read the news, David S did a report on local pubs closing, Jason was sports reporter and Lesley was special guest, talking about his new film. By the end of the day we had more idea about what goes into a programme and who is responsible for what jobs.
This week the team are going to look at how the media uses images and then, weather permitting, we will go out and take lots of photographs.

Update on training (Coventry)

The coventry team have almost finished their training and are already planning a positive images campaign for learning disability week starting 15th June.
Recently we have looked at how to change people's minds and how the media can influence how we think. This might sound boring but it was great fun. We spent some time looking at clips on YouTube to decide whether the clips were real. We looked first at http://youtube.com/watch?v=sCOLZJIfbc4&feature=related which is the Sony Bravia paint advert. The group thought that this had been computer generated. Next to challenge their views we looked at http://youtube.com/watch?v=HC65uIu0j-Y which is a spoof of the Bravia advert, this made people think that perhaps the paint exploding had really happened. Finally in this section we looked at http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z66_Y72ZYb4 which shows how the advert was made.
We also looked at the Polo advert featuring the singing dog and some Dom Jolly Trigger Happy TV sketches to decide if they were real. Finally we looked at a couple of April Fool sketches, the first was Hilary Clinton turning the presidential elections into a bowling match and the second was the BBC and flying penguins. Why not take a look, tell us what you think.
Later Zoe and Lynne acted out a scene where Lynne tried to change Zoe's mind, she didn't manage to so the team talked about how they would have got Zoe to change her mind. Finally the team split into 2 groups and looked at a subject bound to get people arguing, they picked vegetarianism and the war in Iraq. They had to present 'facts' to the other group and get them to change their minds. The team used a variety of tactics including the guilt factor and cute pictures of lambs (the veggies), or pictures of coffins and lots of hard facts (Iraq). By the end of the day the team all agreed that they will no longer believe everything they read in the papers or see on the TV.

survey results

Thanks to everyone who took the time to take part in our survey. 53% of you thought that people with learning disabilities hardly got a mention in the media. So how do we change this?

press attention- just like busses

Isn't it funny how you try to get some attention from someone and just when you think no one is listening you find out that they are. Last week we managed to get 2 stories in the media. The first was an article about this very blogging project and appears in Learnign Disability Practice. the second was a story about our photography competition and appeared in our local paper the Coventry Telegraph.
We also had some more good news today, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire are willing to give us some live interview slots during learning disability week June 15th-22nd; which is great for our planned positive image campaign running from now until learning disability week.
Now how do we get to appear on TV? we had a practice run last week when the team visited BBC Birmingham at the MAilbox, where we got the chance to do weather forecasts and read the news. But it would be great for the team to do it for real- any ideas?

Uncover's 1st Birthday

It's really hard to believe that yesterday was our 1st anniversary, and what a difference a year makes. This time last year the project had recruited 2 staff (myself & Zoe) and were looking for a 3rd person to join the team. We didn't know much about the media and had very few local contacts. We were also faced with trying to find people who wanted to be on the media team, our target by the end of the project is to have worked with 35 people.

One year on we have 2 media teams, one based in Coventry and one in Nuneaton and we found a 3rd person to work with us in the office. We have also worked with some students based at Henley College, who are now our media minding group. They watch TV and tell us what they think of it. We will be looking to set up another team in Coventry during the summer and we have a big PR campaign running during June to cover Downs Syndrome Week and learning Disability Week.

So what have we done in the year?

2 of the team have been on the radio. Zoe has worked in the communications department of the city council and helped edit their bi-monthly magazine. The Coventry team have finished their training and are helping run the press office. We have starred in a video for the Big Lottery Fund website. Lynne has just done a placement with the BBC and Peter is doing a photography placement with Coventry University. We have set up 2 blog sites. The Nuneaton team have been asked to be in a feature for the Nuneaton Tribune. We have designed our own postcards and spoken at a number of events.

Not bad for our first year so HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY UNCOVER MEDIA TEAM.

Denise

photography competition

If you live in Coventry or Warwickshire and have a learning disability why not enter our photography competition? You can enter up to 3 pictures, they need to be at least 20cm x 25cm and can be in any of the following groups:My home town, my friends or family, my job, my life or wildlife.The closing date is 30th May and we will be having a public exhibition of all the pictures sent to us. If you are interested let us know and we can send you the enter form. Go on give it a go!

Media team grows

The media team has grown by 8 new members. We have taken the project into Warwickshire and now have our new members. All have been recruited through Aim4, in Nuneaton and will be taking part in an open day at Aim4, Nuneaton on Thursday 20th March. They will be hosting a Big Brother Style Diary Room for visitors, we want to find out what people think about media representation of learning disability. The team will also be encouraging people to look t our 2 blog sites, hopefully we will get more people talking to us. Finally, we will have a display stand and get people involved in a bit of myth busting.

Does the media treat people with learning disabilities with respect?

we want to know what you think about how the media shows people with learning disabilities-

is it with respect?

do you see people with learning disabilities on TV or in the papers enough?

should there be more actors with learning disabilities in soaps and dramas?

is it OK for actors to(act) pretend to have learning disabilities like Dustin Hoffman in Rainman?

What do you think of the language used by the media?

If you have anything to say about this why not do our quick survey?

Media Placements

As part of the Uncover Media Project we aim to put all the people involved on to a placement with something that is media based. We don't try to find placements that result in jobs, the idea is to give the team a chance to experience some aspect of the media that we can't offer.
Zoe had a 6 day placement with the communication team working for Coventry City Council. She learnt how they manage press cuttings, which has helped our team manage our cuttings. She also got involved in editing the Citivision newsletter, which goes out to all households in the city. Zoe was also featured in the issue she helped edit.
Peter is currently doing a placement with the photographer at Coventry University. He shadows the photography picking up tips to help improve his skills. He has taken photographs of the flight simulator and been involved in recapturing images that were taken of Coventry 40 years ago. Hopefully he will be doing some studio portraits so that he can then update the Grapevine staff photographs.
Lynne is looking forward to a 2 week placement with BBC Coventry and Warwickshire starting early in March. Rosie is hoping to repeat the placement that Zoe had.
For later this year some of the team will spend some time at the National Press Office for the charity Mencap and Suryabala would like to spend time with the Asian Network, so we have to talk to the BBC.
One final bit of good news is that Dee-anne is starting work next week, sadly though this means she is leaving the team.

Spastic King

Just before Christmas Channel 4 (Nov 22nd) showed a short film called The Spastic King, made by IWC Media; directed by Peter Mackie Burns and starring With Andrew Stafford as Toby - a man with learning disabilities fearful of being evicted from the family home after the death of his mother.
Our group watched this and found it both insulting and confusing. The programme was listed as showing the struggles faced by the character Toby after his mother dies. However, our group were insulted by the use of the term spastic, as Toby self-titles himself throughout the programme. The team know that people can call themselves whatever they want but using spastic seems to undo lots of good work in using terms that people are happy with, this programme seems to say it's ok to call someone a spastic, and teh team don't think it is. The team felt that the character was shown to be a horrible man and that anyone who doesn't know about learning disability watching would get a bad idea about people with learning disabilities. We know that some people think that people with learning disabilities are loving and always nice or shouldn't be interested in sex, and this programme challenged that, which was a good. As part of our project we hope to show that these ideas are stereotypes and that people with learning disabilities are just as diverse as other people but we felt that the Spastic King only sent out negative images and the way the people around Toby talked about him was patronising, he wasn't a nice man but no one was honest enough to say that.
The team didn't like the way Toby was shown to live in a fantasy world, they thought people would think that people with learning disabilities are all like him. Our main problem with the programme was that it was unbalanced and we are glad that it was on very late so that not many people are likely to have watched it.
These are the views of people with learning disabilities who work on the Uncover Media Project.

how to blog

If you want to leave a message just click on the word comment a box will open for you to write to us- it's as easy as that.

Training part 2

Over the last few weeks we have looked at TV and newspapers. We have compared how different channels show news stories and then checked to see how newspapers tell the same stories. We looked at some of the things in people's lives, how we could make a story out of what we found out, and perhaps very importantly how we could get a journalist to show an interest.

We had a giggle when looking at newspapers, we asked people to turn the page and say what caught their eye first. Poor Peter and Rob had the Sun in front of them and we all knew what was coming! Still it was a very interesting exercise, try it sometime: turn the page and note what catches your eye. This helped to illustrate why journalists and advertisers like to get their stories on pages 1, 3, 5 or 7. The eye will naturally scan the right side of a paper as the pages are turned. This is why key stories, photos or ads are usually found here...unless of course you have the Sun in front of you.

We wanted to see what it was like to be journalists or an editor. Everyone was given a subject to research, using old papers. Rosie was voted editor and Peter was chosen as the picture editor. The aim was to put together our own paper, within a deadline, using cuttings from the old papers. Everyone got stuck in, we all felt the pressures that editors must feel, so maybe we might cut them a bit of slack next time we have a story for the local press.

Training part one

After finding 10 people to be in the team we began the training in August 2007. We are adapting a course written by Marion Jenner, who worked with Learning Disability Media. Marion has been a great help to us and continues to support what we are doing.
The first few weeks were about learning to work together and finding out what everyone could already do. We did some work on self-advocacy skills to give people the confidence to speak up. People put me to shame, they knew far more about TV than me. My homework was to watch more TV, especially the soaps- unfortunately the dog has eaten my homework!
None of the training sessions are about sitting still and listening to me talk. We have lots of activities and lots of fun. Sometimes we watch a film or TV programme and talk about how it shows people with learning disabilities. Over the next few weeks we will share our views on some of these and find out what you think.

How the project works

The Uncover Media Project, funded by The Big Lottery Fund, is aiming to change the way that the media portrays people with learning disabilities - including increasing coverage and hopefully changing public perceptions. As project co-ordinator my role is to support the two project workers and the volunteers we recruit to the team.
Along with the project workers, I have been adapting a University level media training course, to make it fully accessible and interactive to people with learning disabilities. Together we are learning how to be media savvy. I have to admit to having had a limited knowledge of the media and being very wary of how it all worked before starting the project. Mainly, this is based on previous experiences of how earlier projects had been dealt with.
Over the next few weeks I will share with you how the training is going and how, as a team ,we are getting ready to take on the media. We would love to hear from people working within the media, organisations that support people with learning disabilities, and of course most importantly people who have a learning disability. We would like to hear about your experiences from both sides of the issue. We would also like to hear about any positive coverage in local media, that we might otherwise miss.

Thanks, Denise