DEF at AMC

Written by Kyra Joseph Wednesday, 22 July 2009 14:31

Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, flourished from July 16th — 19th, as hundreds of alternate media makers and activist came together for the 11th Annual Allied Media Conference (AMC).The conference is the place where media makers and social justice workers intersect to develop media strategies and to discuss more effective ways to get the voices of the community heard through media.At the Conference many social justice and alternate media groups were represented.
People attending the AMC ranged from Germany, Puerto Rico, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Georgia,  New York City and many more .Specific workshops were geared towards addressing issues surrounding several hardships faced within minority, immigrant, and low income groups. For me the experience was like no other. My fascination stemmed from how such a diverse group was so unified. Everyone was very friendly, and social.It was amazing that everyone was so excited about the work they were all doing in their respective communities.

One of the projects we all at People's Production House is excited about is, the work that The Digital Expansion branch is doing, surrounding unfair cell phone policies.When planning for the trip to Detroit to attend the AMC, we explored how we can use the trip to gather more information for our project.We generally explore why the cell phone, the plan and the service are all merged, i.e, to have an iphone you are subjected to have AT&T  and a  two year
contract. At the Conference we interviewed people who could strengthen and clarify our investigation.

One interesting group that we interviewed was Mobile Voices, they actually provide a platform for immigrant workers in Los Angeles to create stories about their lives and communities directly from cell phones.This is an example of how media makers are finding new mechanisms to combat injustices, the cell phone companies assume that their unfair policies will have a negative effect on most people but mobile voices actually use these phones in a positive way . Mobile Voices spearheaded a workshop that demonstrated hands on, how to upload and share ones stories by simply sending the sound bites, pictures, and or video to the website, where the story is compressed.Throughout the Conference people were flooding the site with updates.

The People's Production House staff were very involved as we were all participating in various events around the conference. We were involved in the organizing of the conference, the workshops,the bus ride to and from NY, and we actively did interviews throughout the conference. The AMC was a success! Not only was it a very enriching, learning opportunity but we accomplished exactly what we set out to do which is  to strengthen our documentary about cell phone policies. Watch out world, a new exploration of unfair cell phone policies is on its way!