Showing posts with label Uncover Media Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Uncover Media Project. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Picking up the bits

This blog and the media team have been put on hold for a couple of months because I have been laid up with a broken foot. Zoe, Lynne & Rob have done a fantastic job in keeping the media team training going but now we are ready to get down to some serious campaigning with the team.
We have decided that Heavy Load's Stay Up Late campaign is really important and so we are going to see what we can do at a local level to help. Tomorrow the team are going to watch the Heavy Load film and start to think about what is going on in Coventry and Warwickshire. I'm sure most of the team will have a story or 2 about their own experiences on not being able to stay up late. We are also interested in the new campaign by Leonard Cheshire called social care matters and will think about how we can help support this. Both campaigns fit together because the reason people can't stay up late is because they don't have access to good/flexible social care.
If you don't know about either of these national campaigns take a look at these 2 websites and watch the Heavy Load film on BBC IPlayer (it was originally shown on BBC3 Storyville 9th Feb.)
http://www.lcdisability.org/?lid=9069
http://www.mencap.org.uk/case.asp?id=8599
Our other big challenge is getting people to read and comment on our 2 blogsites so if you can help with promoting this please do.
www.chattervine.blogspot.com
Denise

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

accessing the internet

We are always interested to hear about projects that aim to make the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Recently we were told of a project that uses QR codes, but we hadn't a clue what they were. Here is a link to a short video that makes it a little clearer.
http://thebigtree.org/blog/?p=66

Monday, April 21, 2008

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?

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

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.

Monday, January 21, 2008

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.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

About us

The Uncover media project was launched in April 2007, by Grapevine, a charity that works with people who have learning disabilities. There is one full time project coordinator and two part time project workers. At the moment we are supporting a team of 11 volunteers to learn all about the media.
Early in the project we had a design day with people from different media organisations to help us plan how the project would look if it works. The team members are all going to do work experience placements with our design partners.
So far two of the team have been on the radio and we have made a short video for The Big Lottery Fund, here is the link: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/englandvideos
One of the team has just done a 2 week placement with the communications department of the city council and helped put together the bi-monthly magazine that goes out to all households in Coventry. Another member will be starting a placement working with photographers at Coventry University.
This week we are visiting a group in Sheffield to talk about blogging, because we have decided that blogging is a good way for us to get our message across. We are interested to hear from other people and what they think of the way the media shows people with learning disabilities.