Participatory media as part of the world of community media enables public forums to arise in specific social contexts. They promote intercultural skills and democratic debate valuing popular and non-formal education. With participatory media the real purpose of video creation is self-expression. It is a means of social and cultural interaction as well as a pretext to get involved in popular and non-formal education. Participatory media gives a voice and raise public awareness of communities and individuals unheard in mainstream media. Their aim is to help adult learners coming from disadvantaged groups (people being reintroduced in the job market, homeless, long-term unemployed, people with disabilities, refugees, detainees…) gaining skills in video production. The « media fellow project » will help - share methods and tools used in the world of participatory media - train fellow learners and reinforce apprenticeship through an immersion learning process with the use of tools and methods - reinforce the bonds between partners and members as well as stimulate the desire to progress through national and European companionship Companionship is a fundamental part of the media fellow project. Peer to peer traineeship through practice enables each fellow trainee to gain new skills to bring to their own territorial project. 4 partners contribute to the « media fellow project » under the coordination of the French audiovisual federation of participatory media organizations: The Magdeburg open channel from Germany ; the Teleduca video project from Barcelona (Spain) promoting active citizenship ; the French audiovisual federation of 40 participatory media organizations ; the citizenship and communication faculty from the Santiago de Compostela University (Spain). The « media fellow project » combines experiments and analysis of best practice in order to identify clear pedagogical methods for participatory media. he « media fellow project » enables : 1/ Training and apprenticeship of 44 fellow learners that are all participatory media professionals, through an immersion learning process. 2/ The sharing of the best practices based on methods tested to emphasise the links between theory and practice. 3/ The production of an online map valuing the know-how and practices of 42 media organizations. 4/ The production of 3 movies about the Media fellow experience will provide communication support available : - internally to stimulate actual and future media professionals and serve as motivation to progress through companionship - and beyond to publicize the Media fellow project as well as promote the best participatory media practices.
The french Federation of participatory audiovisual, the Offener Kanal of Magdeburg, Teleduca from Barcelona and the university of Santiago de Compostela agree to claim that Media Fellow went really well, both in its organisation and in the results achieved. Relationships have been intense and powerful, and this project allowed all the participants to strengthen their knowledge of participatory audiovisual media on our respective territories and on an european scale together during three years. The four supporting structures of the project have been already linked before this project, they met during european universities organised by the french Federation of participatory audiovisual in 2001 and 2003 and during the european meeting of participatory audiovisual as part of the european program “Youth in action”, gathering in 2011 sixty participants from 9 countries during three days. During Media Fellow, we met in 7 transnational meetings which allowed us to regularly interchange and to elaborately train in a fellowship/compagnonnage dynamic. In fact, as per our usual practices, the apprenticeship has always been done between peers, by experimenting with new techniques or by generating debate. In order to be prolific, we have learned to know each other in our special fields, linked to our know-how, our involvements and in our different contexts. These regular meetings have let us travel in order to better understand each of our local issues and to meet nearly one hundred eighty partners who are revolving around our participatory audiovisual practices. In total, fourteen people guided by 4 referents benefited from mobilities to participate in the orientation of the project and its implementation. Together, we have set up collegial decision-making processes to cooperate throughout the project and bring it to fruition. The three training actions led the fellowships to meet, to share their competencies and to acquire new ones. The first training took place in Barcelona, the second in Lille at Labo 148 (a member structure of the Federation of participatory audiovisual) and the last in Magdeburg in Germany. Each time, during 5 days, ten to twelve participants have experimented with educational methodologies that fall within the field of participatory audiovisual. During each of these fellowship times, the hosting structures have mobilized teams of 3 to 5 people who have been supporting and participating in these horizontal training periods. Some fellows participated in all of the trainings, which gave a greater foundation to the project ; this was the case for three people from the Federation of participatory audiovisual, two from Teleduca and two from Offener Kanal of Magdeburg. All of these sharing experiences have enriched the practices of partner structures because the project has been a breeding ground for practices and for reflections on our teaching methodologies. As intended, we made 3 documentary films about the project, reporting on each of the three fellowship times. These movies complement each other very well: the one produced in Barcelona represents the various actions for exchanging practices and the participants’ experiences, as well as their own understanding of participatory audiovisual ; the film produced in Lille represents the various structures and the political institutions and their bureaucratic barriers of our participatory audiovisual practices. In Magdeburg we produced a TV-Show that presents the results and the feedback about the fellowship week while in itself being a practical experience. It has been broadcast live on television (on the TNT of the Land) and on Facebook. Their public diffusion during the french Federation’s meeting in may 2020 has been canceled by the health crisis, and in fine, we were unable to establish a schedule. This year 2020, particularly disturbed and disturbing, has also impacted webcasting. The subtitled movies, the website of the project and his dedicated page on the Federation’s website have been finalized at the end of 2020. The communication of the results of the project through broadcasts and press articles will take place during the first semester of 2021. The project also contributed to motivating the production of a collective book about media literacy, which was written by the collective La Friche (structure of the Federation of participatory audiovisual) and the university research laboratory GERIICO. Media Fellow referees are cited in the book for their field expertise on media literacy issues. It is also a way of synthesizing the debates that have taken place throughout Media Fellow, and making them accessible to the general public. The small critical manual of media literacy (Le petit manuel critique d’éducation aux médias) comes out in March 2021 by Les éditions du commun. Media Fellow is coming to an end, but a sequel is already underway through a new Erasmus + project, In media.