As a newly-declared Media Studies major, I have a lot of media-related thoughts in my mind. An ocean of ideas. So I thought I could share a few of them with you all here.
A Documentary on Asian American Immigrants in Los Angeles
Rowland Heights is about half-an-hour’s drive away from Claremont. The citizens of this
area are mainly Asian immigrants. The project I’m working on focuses on the struggles of the homeowners of a mobile home park in Rowland Heights. They have been chronically suppressed, harassed and exploited by the landowner. There is evidence of serious human rights infringements by the park owner. I first got in touch with the community through Pomona Asian American Resource Center, which organized a student support activity for the community. In May, we participated in one of the homeowners’ protests to show our support. That was when I first visited the community.
The mobile home system is a historical remnant of the post WW2 era, when it was necessary to construct a large quantity of cheap housings. However, today the separation of house ownership and land ownership has created opportunities for exploitation. The homeowners of the park (who own the mobile homes but not the land) are mostly new immigrants who are not fluent in English and have no choice but to pay when the landowner unreasonably raises the land rent. The contract they signed without comprehending its implications has numerous loopholes the landowner can utilize to exploit the homeowners. Complaints on the part of the homeowners often lead to serious retaliations, including threats of eviction and suppression of organized efforts.
My documentary will seek to present both the individual stories and the broader context of the community. It will address the long-term political negligence of the new immigrants community and the prevalent racism and human rights infringement. For most people in America, this is a land of freedom and democracy. But it is important to remember that for many communities, this is not. Even just 30 minutes’ away from our Claremont.
CCTV (Claremont Colleges Student Television)
I just started this media group (within the framework of Studio47) with two other Pomona students, Alex and Daniel. Student TV is something I have been doing in high school and I’m super excited to be able to introduce it to the Claremont Colleges. I hope CCTV can provide a platform for students who are interested in journalism and media work to express their creativity and practice their skills. Anyway, since I am a video person, I made a video to explain my idea of having a student television station in the 5Cs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F82b_g0lXt4
We managed to have almost 40 students from all over the 5Cs on board. Last week we just had have our first general meeting and we were thrilled to have unexpectedly good attendance! Starting a new organization is always requires a lot of energy and efforts. You have to have total faith in what you are doing. But in the end, everything pays off when you see that you have created something meaningful, and when you see that your fellow students are as excited as you are. I’ll write more about CCTV in another post.
To learn more: http://studio47.aspc.pomona.edu/?p=144
Grassroots Journalism
Why does Vimeo still have a market when YouTube is the dominant user video site? Because Vimeo is marketed towards more video-artist type users who want something more formal than YouTube. Vimeo has this high-end, artistic, high-quality aura even though it provides basically the same service as YouTube. It has a market because it narrows down a broader service and it targeted a narrower range of users.
So can grassroots video journalism be the next theme of a user video site? Nowadays, the people who get the news first are ordinary people with a phone. What other than grassroots journalism can better provide an alternative source of information in countries with heavily government-controlled press? I was excited to find this app that seeks to help ordinary people produce news reports on their phones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ysdt7-r5TA
So could there be a video site that can serve as the platform for this kind of civic journalism? So ANYONE can become a reporter and help spread the news. And it does not have to be big news. It could just be the lack of organic food in your neighborhood. But a little bit of reporting can go a long way.