Radical citizen journalism

[Regicollis]

My girlfriend an I are editing and writing a small tenants' magazine that is distributed among 300-500 households in the social housing project we live in. Naturally a lot of the material is about practical stuff like new maintenance work, local activities and the like. We also have some more general articles about topics that could be of interest to people in the area.

I have thought about sneaking radical stuff into the magazine. The readership is mostly working class with many immigrants and many unemployed and poor families so they should be open to leftist ideas. I don't want it to turn into a propaganda leaflet but rather give people food for thought so they eventually become more class conscious.

I'm writing here hoping to get some ideas about how I could use a magazine like this one with its small local perspective to present things from a radical world view. If you have participated in local citizen journalism and have some good tips I would also be happy to hear from you.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

That's rad. Is it being written and edited exclusively by you and your girlfriend, or is content written by a bunch of tenants?

I was involved in publishing a couple issues of a broadsheet aimed at fellow shit-wage workers taking a particular bus in my hometown. While there were a handful of writers, it was grossly disproportionately my friends; there was a real difficulty w/r/t getting submissions from a broader spectrum of people. If you've had luck getting other people to write, could you elaborate a bit on why/how you think it came about?

Concerning politics, we received mostly positive responses to our "political" content, which was rarely capital-P political, but involved candid approaches stories of firings/quitting/subversion, and news/current events analysis. For example, in one issue, we carried an article written by a woman who had been fired for calling in sick on account of H1N1 ("Swine flu"), despite employees having been told specifically to not come in if they had swine flu. Next to it, we ran an article about Glaxo-Smith-Kline, who were raking in fat stacks on their H1N1 vaccine.

[Regicollis]

My girlfriend and I write most of the material ourselves. Getting other tenants - especially those who feel unsure about spelling and writing - to contribute something is really hard but we have managed to get a few submissions. We have also been joined by two other people. One is a tenant like us. The other is employed in a "social housing master plan" - a sort of half-municipal, half-housing association project that is to improve the area. We are a little weary about the last one. On one hand the master plan is behind a lot of the activities happening in the area so keeping them close is relevant. On the other hand we are concerned that they will try to take control of the magazine.

In order to get more people to write we have constantly encouraged people to write for us and have constantly told everyone that they should not worry about spelling and that small submissions are welcome too. As people get to know the magazine better they have become more confident about writing.

I like your idea about matching content. In our next issue we are going to do something about a club for seniors, bullying in the workplace and an informal club for young men, including those who could be involved in crime. What could be some good twists to those stories?

[blake 3:17]

More than anything -- given you've got something that is addressing community concerns and has some elements of democracy (like a call for contributions / letters / basic info about the publication) --

IS.... Make it something people want to read, or tip them off to the resources that'd serve them best.

And ** maybe most importantly ** and this is a question, not an answer -- how's it distributed? For small circulations, a personal touch matters a lot a lot a lot.

[Hit The North]

A key ingredient of radical media is that it is dialogical where the distinction between writer and reader is abolished. Calling for the community to participate is therefore essential.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

My girlfriend and I write most of the material ourselves. Getting other tenants - especially those who feel unsure about spelling and writing - to contribute something is really hard but we have managed to get a few submissions. We have also been joined by two other people. One is a tenant like us. The other is employed in a "social housing master plan" - a sort of half-municipal, half-housing association project that is to improve the area. We are a little weary about the last one. On one hand the master plan is behind a lot of the activities happening in the area so keeping them close is relevant. On the other hand we are concerned that they will try to take control of the magazine.

Do you get funded by the municipal project in question? Or any funding at all? What was securing funding like?

And, actually, on that practical note, what's your process of going to press like? Where is it done, how much does it cost, what are the timeframes, etc.?


In order to get more people to write we have constantly encouraged people to write for us and have constantly told everyone that they should not worry about spelling and that small submissions are welcome too. As people get to know the magazine better they have become more confident about writing.

Has this mostly been face-to-face conversations? Do you publish "Looking for writers!"-type ads in the magazine itself? Do you use other outreach materials (posters, handbills)? If so, what do the ads/other materials look like and say?


I like your idea about matching content. In our next issue we are going to do something about a club for seniors, bullying in the workplace and an informal club for young men, including those who could be involved in crime. What could be some good twists to those stories?

All very important. I think "bullying" is an interesting issue, because so often mainstream media discourse avoids talking about hetero-sexism, class, race, etc. by simply collapsing issues of youth violence into "bullying". "Bullying" of course, is easy for anybody to oppose (nobody self-identifies as a bully!), but if we start talking about the real underlying causes, we have to start grappling with some serious social contradictions.

I think talking about the conditions of seniors is super important. There are definitely way too many people, at least here in Canada, who are basically warehoused and left to die. It's pretty fucking fucked. The "club" is a really interesting model for self-organization - I think clubs one of the only forms of self-organizations that most people are confident they can really do themselves at this point.

[Regicollis]

Do you get funded by the municipal project in question? Or any funding at all? What was securing funding like?

Our funding comes from the local tenant elected board who had a mostly unused budget for this kind of activities. There was no problem getting funding and the board has been supportive.
We use our own private cameras and computers so the only expense is the printing.


And, actually, on that practical note, what's your process of going to press like? Where is it done, how much does it cost, what are the timeframes, etc.?

Luckily I know my way around Indesign so I do the layout, export the document as a pdf file and mail it to a printer down town. I can't remember how much it cost to have it printed but I think we paid around DKK 7000 for 300 A5 copies.

As for the time frame our printer can have it ready in about a week's time.


Has this mostly been face-to-face conversations? Do you publish "Looking for writers!"-type ads in the magazine itself? Do you use other outreach materials (posters, handbills)? If so, what do the ads/other materials look like and say?

We have a "writers wanted" ad at the back of the magazine. It is pretty boring right now but I've been thinking of improving it.

The most effective way of getting submissions have been from face-to-face conversations - especially with people we already know.


All very important. I think "bullying" is an interesting issue, because so often mainstream media discourse avoids talking about hetero-sexism, class, race, etc. by simply collapsing issues of youth violence into "bullying". "Bullying" of course, is easy for anybody to oppose (nobody self-identifies as a bully!), but if we start talking about the real underlying causes, we have to start grappling with some serious social contradictions.

Our bullying story will be built around a case of a woman who was bullied out of a trainee position as a social and health care worker. Her colleagues could not accept that she had a bachelor's degree in another field and froze her out, ignored her requests for allergy-friendly gloves etc. She actually got physically sick from the ordeal.


I think talking about the conditions of seniors is super important. There are definitely way too many people, at least here in Canada, who are basically warehoused and left to die. It's pretty fucking fucked. The "club" is a really interesting model for self-organization - I think clubs one of the only forms of self-organizations that most people are confident they can really do themselves at this point.

The club is more like a service offered for the elderly than a self-organized membership organization. We have not done this story yet but it still seems like a nice way for the seniors to socialise and get out of the house.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Our funding comes from the local tenant elected board who had a mostly unused budget for this kind of activities. There was no problem getting funding and the board has been supportive.
We use our own private cameras and computers so the only expense is the printing.

What's the story with the board? How was it formed (ie by the city, by tenants)? Is it politicized (for better or worse)? Did you approach them, or vice versa?


Luckily I know my way around Indesign so I do the layout, export the document as a pdf file and mail it to a printer down town. I can't remember how much it cost to have it printed but I think we paid around DKK 7000 for 300 A5 copies.

As for the time frame our printer can have it ready in about a week's time.

How many pages/colours?
What's your relationship with the printers like?
Are they "friendly"?


We have a "writers wanted" ad at the back of the magazine. It is pretty boring right now but I've been thinking of improving it.

The most effective way of getting submissions have been from face-to-face conversations - especially with people we already know.

What have those conversations been like?
What do you think the ad needs? What is lacking? Could you post a picture? (+translation to English?)


Our bullying story will be built around a case of a woman who was bullied out of a trainee position as a social and health care worker. Her colleagues could not accept that she had a bachelor's degree in another field and froze her out, ignored her requests for allergy-friendly gloves etc. She actually got physically sick from the ordeal.

The club is more like a service offered for the elderly than a self-organized membership organization. We have not done this story yet but it still seems like a nice way for the seniors to socialize and get out of the house.

Rad. You should let us know what sort of discussion these articles generate!