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Message 8 (184 lines) From mtb.und.ac.za!PEPPAS Wed May  3
15:48:28 1995 Return-Path: <PEPPAS@mtb.und.ac.za> From: Mr Mikhail
Peppas <PEPPAS@mtb.und.ac.za> To: videaz@web.apc.org (Vinny Mohr)
Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 20:06:05 +0200 (SAST) Subject: Re: answer to
clips Return-receipt-to: "Mr Mikhail Peppas"
<PEPPAS@mtb.und.ac.za> Priority: normal X-mailer: PMail v3.0
(R1a)

The Visual Voice Confests are hosted by the Centre for Cultural
and Media Studies at the University of Natal in Durban, South
Africa.  This year's Confest takes place around the anchor weekend
of June 24/25, 1995. The Confests all have the 'Cultural Dimension
of Visual Communication' as a central focus but have different
themes every year.

This year's theme is: The Role of Community Access Media in
Reconstrucion and Development

Presentations will include panel discussions and plenty of
opportunity for audience participation. As a lead into the Confest
a number of workshops for NGOs, CBOs, cultural workers and other
interested parties will be conducted by prominent access media
practioners from the USA, Canada, Britain, India and Australia. A
vital feature of the Confest is the planned test transmission of a
community TV station, Greater Durban Television, from the foyer of
the Confest venue. This will provide an opportunity for both
community TV trainees and the public to become actively involved
in community tv production and broadcasting.

The Confest also seeks to encourage greater interest in the making
of films and videos by people from Southern African countries,
particularly productions which help the users to gain a better
understanding of other cultures and to promote better
inter-cultural communiation. This is especially relevant as 1995
celebrates the centenary celebration of the motion picture
industry.

A special 'ACCESS' edition of the Visual Voice Journal will be
available at the Confest. It is a popular journal revolving around
visual communication and development. This special edition is
intended as a teaching aid and long term reference guide to
Community Access Media.

An extract from our Conference package titled Backup Document
One:

Brief history, philosophy and potential of Community Media related
to Confest '95:

Community communication has taken root where the opportunity to
harness the computer, radio and telecommunications technology for
villages and small communities has been recognised. International
speakers will address how community access media works -- looking
at a number of different countries and the implications of
community communications globally.

Communities as divergent as a remote mountain town in the
Honduras, a suburb in Los Angeles, a village in India, a ghetto in
New York are making community access media work and speak for them
to share information. In community TV when the people film,
programme and transmit the signals, working on the principle of
community participation we then begin to approach democratric
broadcasting.

This assumes that freedom of expression exists. Where the
telecommunications infrastructure is inaccessible and highly
controlled, community media offer alternative ways of building and
defining the community and pursuing development goals.

The focus on local community initiatives -- on the second day of
the Confest -- shifts the spotlight from the global axis of
community communication to emerging community accesss media in
South Africa.  The Confest offers a vital opportunity to explore
and share the ways in which public access media can become an
integral part of the new Government of National Unity's
Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Community driven
communication in radio, TV and computers has the potential to
shape local policy and to promote information sharing where it is
most badly needed.

Several community media initiatives have recently come into
existence or are planning to operate in villages and townships
where communication and other infrastructure are minimal. Input
will be sought from those able to shed light on the future role of
the SABC TV (the national South African Broadcasting Corporation)
in regional broadcasting as part of the RDP in the 90s.

Dr Z Pallo Jordan, national minister of Post, Telecommunications
and Broadcasting, in his opening address at the launch of the Cape
Film and Video Foundation on 12 January 1995 stated: "The most
vital facet of our media could be community TV. Rooted in civil
society rather than in political parties, community TV has the
potential of becoming a key player in shaping South African
democracy and giving real content to the empowerment of
communmities".

International attendees include the following:

*  Tony Riddle, chairperson of the Alliance for Community Media,
USA

*  Dr Bob Devine, Vice President of Antioch College. Co-ordinated
the start-up of the community TV stations in Manhattan, Dallas and
Milwaukee

*  Jesikah Maria Ross, University of California, Davis Community
TV/Network. Acknowledged leader in training and human resources
for community media.

*  Prof Ron Burnett, Director, Graduate Programme in
Communications, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

*  Susan Robeson, independent film and video maker for community
TV stations, USA

*  Korula Varghese, Visiting fellow, Department of Communications,
Cornell University, USA

*  Shenid Bhayroo, Masters student in Mass Communications,
Louisiana State University, USA. Researching the role of public TV
in developed and developing countries

*  Tamara Gordon, Producer, VIDEO DIARIES, BBC TV Community
Programmes Unit, London

*  Tracey Naughton, Community TV consultant from Melbourne,
Australia.  Known as the "Mother of Australian Community TV"

I trust this info is useful. Please request whatever else you may
need. I will be sending more information on the history of the
struggle for freedom of expression in the former apartheid era in
South Africa and show how this opposition has finally triumphed in
the establishment of the Government sanctioned Independent
Broadcasting Authority -- the body entrusted with issuing
community radio and community TV licences.  stay connected

Warm greetings from the Great Continent -- yours in community
access

Mikhail Peppas

Forwarded by Videazimut
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