journalists in an OS

[Peggy Holman]

Winston wrote about the journalism question:

...arrange for a prior briefing about the process and the meeting and then invite her to conduct "before and after" interviews with participants like Harrison did in the videotape of Bell South 

While not a journalist, we were concerned when making the film Winston refers to of whether the cameras would be too intrusive and if people would be concerned about privacy.  (The company was actually U S WEST.)  The director and camera crew were there for the entire Open Space filming.  They did not participate, they filmed and interviewed people before the space opened, throughout the 2.5 day event and about 6 weeks after it ended.  They got signed releases from everyone who spoke in the film but not from anyone else.  Before we opened the space, we told people of the intention to film and how the film would be used.  We asked that if anyone had issues that they let the people doing the filming know and they wouldn't film them.  

In practice, there were no objections and once explained, the cameras sort of disappeared into the background in spite their size and the bright lights that accompanied them. 

Peggy


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Winston Kinch 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 9:46 AM
  Subject: Re: journalists in an OS


  Hallo Tova:

  From your reply I'm going to assume for the moment that not only is there no specific community named as yet, but that the O/S will not take place in the context of a particular community but rather between and among the various "professional" stakeholders.  I insist on this point only because if there were a specific "target" community it would be important to me to understand whether or not those who lived there were invited...

  I'm afraid I am going to be a little tougher than Lisa in my response. You say the journalist in question is informed about these issues: so she would seem to qualify as a stakeholder. I would support inviting her only as a participant and subject to the same guidelines as everyone else. Then she can really write a good story dealing with the content, the results, and the process.  And more importantly having been through the experience she will be "coming from the right place" when doing so. Both my intuition and (admittedly limited in this case) experience is that even with the best of intentions and pre-briefing of participants, it is very difficult for the presence of "observers" of any stripe - especially "recorders" of the event - not to have a negative impact on the proceedings; not to somehow "skew" the way people behave...

  If this is not possible (Lisa mentioned the time requirement for example), then one suggestion would be to arrange for a prior briefing about the process and the meeting and then invite her to conduct "before and after" interviews with participants like Harrison did in the videotape of Bell South - an excellent source of "sound bites" - as well as perhaps providing her with access to the proceedings after the fact (I'm hesitant about this part but I don't really have the full context...).

  Shalom
  Winston





  --- Original Message ----- 
    From: Averbuch 
    To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
    Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 10:38 AM
    Subject: Re: journalists in an OS


    Winston,
    Thank you for helping me clear up what needs clarification,  - 
    So:
        "the community" potentially is all the state of Israel (every place that there are physical building and development) but there is no identified community as of yet.
         The invitation went out to all/most the government, municipal, academic, professional, NGO, voluntary bodies that have to do with this issue and is announced in professional and organizational gatherings about relevant issues. People who were not invited directly call to register after hearing from some one and join. 
        The journalist we know about is a good one and covers this type of issues in an important Israeli daily newspaper. I understand she was offered to come "as a Journalist", whatever that means. Intuitively I would be all for her coming as a participant but I keep asking myself what happens if people find their name and picture and words quoted (or twisted) in the morning paper...

    I hope this helps - thanks again
    yours
    Tova

    ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Winston Kinch 
      To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
      Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 3:49 PM
      Subject: Re: journalists in an OS


      Some questions on Tova's post:

      Are members of the "target" community invited to the O/S? Are the journalists in question members of the community or representing community news sources? And, the key question, would the journalists be there as participants or as some kind of "observers"?

      Winston
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