Welcome
Welcome to the MURLbuildingblocks blog and the launch of our "Building Blocks" initiative.
The Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab (MURL) is the cornerstone of Temple University's Journalism Department and its mission to better tell stories in the under-covered and under-served neighborhoods of Philadelphia.
Central to the MURL mission is exploring ways to better tell stories in our under-served and under-covered urban neighborhoods. And, in the process, give some voice to those working to make their neighborhoods a more livable place. But to do it – “give voice to voiceless” - assumes the neighborhoods have a certain ease of access to technology and the means to pull-in multimedia content, “news.” We don’t make that assumption. Gut instinct and observation tells us something different. People are focused on survival; generated a decent income; and maintaining some balance in their world and with neighbors along the block.
This year in our MURL capstone class, and in partnership with WHYY-TV, we'll experiment with some relatively new technology - "datacasting" - to deliver hyper-local news content back into targeted Philadelphia neighborhoods. Our efforts are supported by a "New Voices" grant from the J-Lab at the University of Maryland. The J-lab projects are supported with grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.
Over the next year, we'll select two neighborhood locations along Philadelphia’s “golden block.” In partnership with WHYY-TV and using the station’s “datacasting” system, MURL students will send out a hyper-local neighborhood newscast/program/stories targeted to that community. The “datacasting” technology will enable us to send the content directly over the air to rooftop receiving antennaes and down to desktop computer(s) located at the community centers. The program built by Temple University Journalism students - MURL students – will be a mix of multimedia stories and “service news” produced by students and neighborhood “news” stories as seen through the eyes of the residents themselves. Neighborhood residents will use a combination of disposable digital still and video cameras as well as low-end digital audio recorders to tell the multimedia stories of their neighborhood and their “block.” All of this will contribute to building a 360 degree media view of the neighborhood
This MURL brand of news provides a form of hyper-local coverage missing from our urban communities. In an environment of where Journalists are mistrusted and a media that sees the dark side of their neighborhood, a level of transparency is created by this project - we hope.
There it is. This is our start and a place to begin building blocks in the neighborhoods.
posted by Professor TP @ 9:52 AM
17 comments
17 Comments:
Where do we begin MURL and the “building blocks” effort?
As I thought about a beginning, I thought about an email I received a few months back. I think it’s the perfect beginning. The individual somehow tripped over our MURL website and read our Reading Viaduct story. I’ve saved the email…but I’m not sure why. In many ways it reflects the opinions of those who have given up on our neighborhoods. Here it is…what do you think?
Professor TP
Dear Tom,
I just came across your website and recommendations to solicit contributions to refurbish the Reading Viaduct for the benefit of Philadelphia and its immediate neighborhoods. The article peaked my interest as I worked in Philadelphia for 24 of my 38 years with the 'telephone company'.
I vividly remember (in 1970) the forced introduction of the 'city wage tax' which we paid for the privilege of working in the 'city'. It was supposed to guarantee us 'police protection', but - in reality - was just another way to help shore up the decaying infrastructure of a crime ridden city on its way out.
I also remember Wilson Goode's Osage Avenue incident, the scandalous rebuilding of the homes that his 'non incendiary' device destroyed and the lawsuit successfully brought by (I believe) Romona Africa, all of which was at least partially funded by the infamous city wage tax.
Take a look at the 'projects' built for the inhabitants (at the expense of the contributing taxpayers) and you'll see decay, neglect, drugs, crime and graffitti.
You could argue that this is a very pessimistic view, and you might be right. However, it is one shared my many of us who worked in Philadelphia and who found the best thing in Philadelphia was leaving it behind us on the Reading for the relative peace and quiet of the suburbs.
It wasn't long, however, before some of the ubiquitous signs of city life regrettably began to appear in the suburban train stations that city residents apparently used to commute to jobs in my neighborhood - such as King Kool on the wall and urine in the corners.
Until the residents of Philadelphia learn to appreciate any help given them by maintaining their neighborhoods, you are - in my opinion - just wasting time, money and resources.
Clearly, this man has been directly affected by the negatives of Philadelphia and hardly ever experienced any positives. I really do believe he's just angry about his less-than-stellar telephone company career and was unaware that positive programs such as MURL and Men For a Better Philadelphia do exist. In my opinion, the suburbs can have him because we have a future to look forward to in this city. I believe that MURL is a way to illuminate otherwise ignored and underrepresented communities. As we move about these neighborhoods as journalists, we will converse, relate, infer, question, and answer any and every piece of information collected. I'm very excited to get started becuase I think this experience will change my perspectives about the pros and cons of 'street beats' and how to handle them efficiently and in a timely manner. I thought it was interesting how Prof. Petner called MURL a 'voice of voices', because we as seniors get to have hands on field experience with citizens of this city who wouldn't be given even the slightest backward glance if not MURL. We are going to become their mouthpiece and relay their stories while looking at their surroundings, resources, and community. I am anticipating this joint venture and I hope the obviously misguided individual who wrote with such spitfire hate of this city reads every story we do. Reading this has empassioned me even more to take full advantage of this class to show him that Philadelphia is one of the most culturally enriched and diverse cities on the Eastern Seaboard and the only waste of resources going on here was the taxpayer funds that the city used to pay his salary.
Yeah, I think MURL will have an impct, but what the heck do you do wen you realize there's a ton of others out there who feel the same. Change the neighborhoods? Change the image perception?
If you drive up Girard and cut over towards Temple you see all those homes under construction...it looks like what some have described as "suburbs in the city." While the new homes are nice, somehow the "character" of the neighbor seems to get lost.
I think this man's letter speaks to those who are not willing to look at the bigger picture. We have endured terrible phases in our city and our country as a whole, but the pendulum inevitibly begins to swing the other way. But the pendulum needs help.
Huge organizations like the Red Cross and Habitat for humanity are great, but they are just the first step in the right direction. Giant dino-sized entities are extremely inefficient, and vast amounts of money and time get lost in the cogs of their massive beuracracies. But they generate awareness -- which I beleive is key to solving our problems in the underserved urban areas.
If the reality of those areas, was the reality we consume with our dinners on the six o'clock news, there may be more hope for these areas.
Maybe it's not as much about the shootings, as it is about the ethnic groups whose resources have been "headlined" away -- scared out of the community; creating the disparity and degredation that we see.
Since moving to Philadelphia a little over a year ago from Wisconsin I have been continually struck by the negitivity and self loathing most Philadelphians are prone to. When I tell Philadelphia natives that I really don't think the streets are that dirty or that SEPTA could be a lot worse, they look at me like I have two heads. Hell, Philadelphian don't even like santa! Furthermore, when tell people from here that Philadelphians are as nice to you as you are to them, I always feel like I get this, 'why would I be nice to someone for no reason?' vibe.
This cycle of self loathing ought to be broken. I think that in a lot of ways, most of our problems come from racial tensions rooted all the way back to when demographics began to change in neighborhoods in the 60s and 70s.
I agree with Chuck. I think everyone needs to completely clear their minds of residual feelings and attitudes about the neighborhoods you'll all be reporting on and simply report what you see.
Plenty of people may complain about these neighborhoods, but imagine what it must feel like to be the callus on Philadelphia's heel.
That guy sounds quite angry. Just leaving the urbvan neighborhoods be will only make things worse. Do I like the fact that I get bothered by vagabonds while waiting for the subway or in shady sections of the city? No. But does that mean I am to move out to the suburbs to keep distance from all of that? Heck no. I love being in the city and actually having phone things to do. This angry writer needs to get a life. Referring to events like MOVE that happened 20 years ago has no bearing on whether or not what we do in MURL or what any others trying to make a difference in unfortunate neighborhoods. Just a cheap way to drump a point across by merely pointing out some negatives. If he's so bitter about how city life keeps moving to the suburbs, tell him to purchase a farm in Idaho and pick potatoes with his free time rather than waste his time ranting about how his suburbia is going down.
I wonder after being in the community yesterday, what the people we interviewed thought of us.
I beleive they understood what we were doing, but not why. I don't think they felt that their situations were newsworthy. The irony is that it may be the most newsworthy story in the whole nation.
The events that unfold overseas and the suffering and neglect that occurs in other places is important to note--but this is happening right here!
Somehow the people living in Hantranft and other communities in the Golden Block, seem surprised to see us. It seems less like, "of course you are here" and more like, "why would you care about us?"
But they ARE us, and somehow that seems lost on the mainstream media. They are as much US as anyone else in this country, and that facet of US needs to be explained and explored as much as any other.
Hi folks, I've been impressed with many of your postings, but I also think people are either holding back, or saying things that are very PC...."under-covered...under served" and all that.
I was thinking about a few things I've spotted over the past 24-hours. Pappas Television has launched something they call "community coorespondents" at many of their television stations and within their news operaions. hey just added a few more stations to the project. Average folks can publish material, write scripts, do all the things that a 'journalist' would do...they say it's their effort at "citizen journalism." Do a little research on it. I'd be curious whether it's a worthwhile effort. Do you think something like this will engage people? WCAU locally has something simlar going. I believe the Cox stations have also started something.
Did any of you watch the Couric debut, or second night? I was struck by something Professor Harper found in his class and frankly something I've seen in mine...many of you don't watch TV or network news. True? What does that mean for news?
Back to the urban issues and the Philadelphia neighborhoods. I saw a statistic about the homicide rate about the same as last year, maybe a little lower. What the heck is going on? It's still high. And when you turn on the news, it's the violence in the neighborhoods that stands out. Is it my perception? I think this goes to a post...Carrie I think...where we seem to have this lousy self-image in the City? Ya'think?
BTW, on the Couric debut, I thought it was telling that one of the post on the CBS News web site was from a viewer who gave Couric heck for "wearing white after Labor Day." It's pretty bad when news is reduced to what someone wears. As a former news director, it was disheartening running a newsroom and rather than people applaud or pick on your jounalism, they would comment on the anchor's clothes or hair.
Wow, Tim. Just wow. Has the spirit in which our fore fathers granted us freedom of speech and the right to keep tabs on our government and society completely escaped you? I'm surprised--that I have found that theme to be constantly repeated here at Temple.
On those ground I do have to disagree. I believe that giving citizens the access to media that they can use to show people in the suburbs what is going on in these neighborhoods is vital to news. If anything I think that the dollar-ready demographic will stay tuned if only to appease the voyeur in them.
I say we give this citizen journalism a whirl and see what kind of new innovations it may lead the news world to...
I think that allowing average people to contribute is a great idea, but it requires some critical timing and planning in order to get the average hard-working person to take time out of their busy work and family schedule to do so. It might mean planning some corresponding activity for childeren, on nights when layout for the project takes place (sort of like daycare). Just a thought.
I guess I don't rely on network news stations, mainly because I don't have time to download that information, via standing still and watching it. Sounds a little ADD no? But we live in an ADD society. I think you have to be a little ADD to survive. Follow-through and thoroughness are not always rewarded -- punctuality and a good bottom line are. The bottom line is I have to make it to class and work on time. So I focus on what means the most to me, in as fast a manner as possible. For me that means using the web to get my news. A printed newspaper is the runner-up.
I think that allowing average people to contribute is a great idea, but it requires some critical timing and planning in order to get the average hard-working person to take time out of their busy work and family schedule to do so. It might mean planning some corresponding activity for childeren, on nights when layout for the project takes place (sort of like daycare). Just a thought.
I guess I don't rely on network news stations, mainly because I don't have time to download that information, via standing still and watching it. Sounds a little ADD no? But we live in an ADD society. I think you have to be a little ADD to survive. Follow-through and thoroughness are not always rewarded -- punctuality and a good bottom line are. The bottom line is I have to make it to class and work on time. So I focus on what means the most to me, in as fast a manner as possible. For me that means using the web to get my news. A printed newspaper is the runner-up.
Any thoughts on our visit yesterday to WHYY-TV and what you heard from the kids at the E3Center?
An interseting thing that was pointed out at the WHYY session, is that data casting is not simply another way to provide the services we will be providing, but in some cases it is the ONLY way.
The fact that there are areas in this city, in the year 2006, where the internet is virtually non-existent, is almost unimaginable to me.
I wonder how well our program will be recieved by the people that make the decisions as to what energy and funding goes into these areas? Is this something that outsiders will perceive as celebrating these nighborhoods, or as trying to make a dig at defective legislators and city politicians?
Hopefully it will do a little of both -- because the situation is not what it should be, and at the same time these neighborhoods are not the unsalvagable hell-holes they are often portrayed as either.
Lots of great comments. The visit did clear a few things up, and a pointed out, I was impressed with the kids....teenagers...who put that documentary together. It does make you wonder what goes on in their homes.
I'm probably overstating this, but I'm imprssed what you all have done so far in the neighborhoods. People seem to be really stepping out.
You can diagree, of course. How's everyone doing with the most recrnt assignment, the webography? Are you finding "that place" in your respective neihgborhoods?
Ater visiting the RW Brown center and Congreso I was really impressed. It is nice to see that the community is picking up the struggle of building itself up, where the city has either left off or never started. We met a man at RW Brown, who is a counciler, van driver, day care assistant, you name it he does it there. He does not get big bucks to do it either.
Congreso, on Somerset Street, employs 46, some of them are volunteers.
A story on either of these places sort of writes itself. The people we met were enthusiastic about where they worked and for the most part wanted to share their stories (as were the people attending those prorgrams).
Since we did away with the personal blogs, I guess I will make this post a little more personal.
I think it is safe to say that our group was pleasantly surprised by the honest and helpful attitude we have encountered so far from the housing authority. Our interview on Friday went really well. The general manager of Design/Development, never flynched when we asked him serious questions, nor did he try to side-step us. This was an important lesson I think in not pre judging out interviewee(s) before we get to talk to him/her.
In response to the email you received, Prof TP, I'm shocked at the writer's boldness. I think a lot of people feel the way he does, but aren't honest enough to admit it. It's also a very negative way of thinking and a lazy excuse for not making an effort towards change. If everyone thought that way, we would be living in a sad world. I really believe in the mission of MURL and think it's a noble one.
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