People's Voice Media

People’s Voice Media (PVM) is a charity and not-for-profit community development organization based in Manchester, UK. The organization works in deprived areas across the UK and aims to empower local communities through the use of social media technology. PVM works in partnership with the BBC, Further and Higher Education institutions, the third sector and public sector to develop a network of community reporters and social media centres.

History

People’s Voice Media was founded in 1993 as Manchester Community Information Network (MCIN).It became a charity and a company limited by guarantee in 1995. At a time when the internet was a relatively recent phenomenon and used mostly by scientists and academics, MCIN aimed to make public information accessible to people in the most deprived areas of Manchester. The organization formed part of a wider Mancunian movement which promoted the use of ICT for urban regeneration in the wake of the industrial downturn of the 1980s.1

One of MCIN’s projects was TARDIS (Targeted Delivery of Information and Services). The scheme provided disadvantaged communities with access to the internet through the use of multimedia kiosks which were erected in supermarkets and other public areas. The first kiosk was launched in Crumpsall public library in 1995 which was soon followed by over a dozen more across the city.

Over the years MCIN has been involved in various technological regeneration projects across Greater Manchester, working with communities to develop a number of community websites and running ICT training inside local communities. With the dramatic growth and widespread availability of the internet in the late 1990s and post 2000 the organization evolved to seek new and innovative ways to achieve its goals of supporting civil society and improved governance. With the development of Social Media, broader possibilities emerged to support local communities to have a voice. This, along with a desire to create a national network of community reporters and develop a "Reuters of the community" to distribute community based content, meant that the name MCIN was too restrictive. This led to the organization re-branding itself as People’s Voice Media in 2009. According to Chief Executive Gary Copitch,

"The main reason for re-branding was that the old name meant we were perceived as Manchester organisation and in order for us to achieve our objectives we needed to have a national brand."

Activities

People’s Voice Media actively encourages members of socially excluded communities to gain new skills and have a voice by taking part in their community reporters training programme. Individuals who participate in the programme are taught to use social media technology and are sent for training with the BBC. The trainees also learn basic camera filming techniques and are taught to create video, audio and text blogs which are subsequently published on the various local community websites set up by PVM. The programme aim is to produce content in any format in order to reflect the views, experiences, wishes and objectives of the local communities. The community reporters programme is about empowering people to have a voice and to support dialogue between agencies and communities. Reporters are not citizen journalists 2 who tend to report on communities. Community reporters are from communities producing social commentary and documentaries about themselves. People's Voice Media is now working across a number of locations in the UK to develop community reporters.

People's Voice Media is also working on the Local Voice project which supports the development of Social Meida Centres which are based at existing community centres. These centre's offer informal access to equipment and support. Social Media Centres also act as local communication hubs to support dialogue between different parts of the community including residents, agencies and business.

Values

People’s Voice Media states it is committed to:

• Local community ownership.
• Principles of openness, transparency, diversity and equality in all that it does.
• Developing the journalistic skills of local people, particularly those of hard-to-reach and marginalized communities.
• Placing the citizen at the forefront of content creation and distribution.
• Ensuring that communities and individuals can have a voice that is heard.
• Sharing knowledge and skills in the production, delivery and marketing of content.
• Making full use of open source software and the Creative Commons licensing process.
• Support, innovation and risk taking.
• Continually evaluating whether our enterprise is sustainable and accountable.