A View from the Center: Raise Every Voice
by Michelle Sedaca, Program Associate
South Africa Partners
 A staff member of a NonProfit Center tenant organization, Michelle writes this monthly column on life at the center, and the unique culture of a multi-tenant center created specifically for nonprofits. Photo:Michelle (left) meeting with Jackie Cefola, program coordinator at the NonProfit Center
Although communications isn’t central to my on-paper job description, I am increasingly fascinated by its role in shaping public opinion about social justice issues. Having attended several media workshops/conferences, I was curious about what fresh ideas I would learn at the recently held Be the Media Mini-Conference: Raise Every Voice on November 29 at the NonProfit Center. The conference was co-sponsored by TSNE, Project: Think Different, and the Progressive Communicators’ Network. With over 50 media and communications practioners present, the conference pushed me to consider media with a new angle.
Outspoken Community Voices:
Contemplating New Media, Ethnic Media and Creative Communications Strategies
First, a lively morning panel jumpstarted the day. Moderated by Richard Chacón, director of the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants, the panel included Lee Matsueda, organizer at Alternatives for Community and the Environment (ACE); Nettrice Gaskins, adjunct professor at Mass College of Art; Yawu Miller, organizer at The Policy Institute and senior editor at the Bay State Banner; and Dorie Clark, principal at Clark Strategic Communications.
 Matsueda discussed challenges that ACE faces in accessing the media and possible solutions to surmount these adversities. He offered an example of ACE’s creative strategy to raise awareness about the MBTA’s sluggish pace to fix its transportation system by timing a Bus-athon to coincide with the Boston Marathon. This stunt illustrated the MBTA’s failure to adequately meet the needs of its commuters. Matsueda urged participants to leverage calendar events occurring in the community to create innovative events which often raise awareness and attract a higher level of media attention than just a press release might do.
Gaskins updated participants about cutting-edge technology which nonprofits can access for free with Open Source software. Through utilizing Open Source software, Gaskins explained that “everyone can have a voice.” Miller emphasized that media relations practioners should include ethnic media in their outreach strategies as many communities use this as their information source. Lastly, Clark provided concise steps to create a competitive communications strategy; identifying your target audience and knowing your goals are key. Another practical tactic involves developing relationships with reporters; not babbling about one’s organization aimlessly and wasting a reporter’s time over lunch, but asking the reporter about how you can help the reporter with his or her writing and become a resource.
How to Raise Diverse Voices
 The workshop How to Raise Diverse Voices: Including Diverse Voices in Communications Strategies, by Brenda Cotto-Escalera of United for a Fair Economy, pushed participants to consider whose voices are heard and whose are silenced in mainstream media. Through a media literacy activity, small groups chose an article and deconstructed whose perspectives were represented and whose weren’t.
This interactive activity was highly effective as each person shared unique critiques. Subsequently, we retold the story by framing the article with those voices which were missing. This exercise underscored the significance of paying close attention to whose voices are prominent in your organization and whose may be missing. For me, this lesson reinforced the need to ensure that the voices of people living with HIV/AIDS about whom I am writing are heard in my organization’s e-communications. Contacting our members in South Africa is challenging at times; but Cotto-Escalera’s powerful workshop demonstrated the importance of having the voices of the communities we work with in the forefront.
Introducing Podcasting, and Exploring New Media
An afternoon workshop presented the basics of how to produce your own podcast and feature it on your website. Through having participants actually create their own mini podcast, new media specialist Nettrice Gaskins broke down the technological jargon in an accessible manner, demonstrating how user-friendly the technology has become. Learn about resources available to help your nonprofit create podcasts.
New media is constantly evolving to immerse people in surprising worlds. Second Life, a computer program that creates a virtual world mimicking the real one, illustrates this well. Whether using Second Life as a teaching tool in which students’ critique their peers’ art work as Gaskins does in her classroom, or as a social justice tool to simulate a detainee’s experience at Guantanamo Bay, Second Life pushes new media to another level of connection. Nonprofits are just beginning to find a place in Second Life, a medium in which for-profit corporations have been flailing.
 Bringing Tools Back to the Office
The second annual Be the Media Mini-Conference reinvigorated my media and communications work at South Africa Partners. I returned to the office renewed to place media and communications in their proper place: at the forefront. As Clark pointed out, “Media not only raises awareness, it also gives [your organization] credibility to donors.”
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