As the world continues to grapple with the new reality of remote meetings and learning, closed or limited businesses and gatherings, and acclimate to social distancing, it’s increasingly important that we find ways to connect to one another and to our communities.
March was startling for all of us. We were all suddenly at home — some working, some teaching (many doing both) and watching as the world seemingly came to a halt. But when we all realized that the world had not actually stopped, we had to figure out how to engage from home.
That’s when community media centers got creative. We met the challenges and complex communication issues with innovation and creative solutions. As a result, we were able to ensure that citizens were able to “rejoin” the world again, celebrate the milestones, keep learning, and stay connected.
Disruption has long been the catalyst for innovation. Community Media centers — also known as PEG channels (Public, Educational, Government) have been providing local programming, video services and learning opportunities for decades. Our role in the community, though significant, has been largely seen as unnecessary in the wake of technological advance and the ease of worldwide communication.
In recent months, that notion has been proven wrong as need for true local communications systems has never been more apparent. There has been a resurgence in the need for community media centers in our communities, and we have responded in turn.
We prioritized connecting citizens and ensured that we were helping to bring information to them in new ways. We provided the necessary infrastructure to stream school and town meetings online and on our stations.
At a time when everyone was scrambling for information and updates about shutdowns, numbers, rules and guidance — we delivered. Information about individual communities amidst the coronavirus has been incredibly important.
Media centers on the North Shore and beyond collaborated, learned from one another and began providing local news updates regularly. It’s not a stretch to say that resident access to local municipal meetings may well have stopped entirely had it not been for the efforts of these organizations — more than 80 percent of whom in Massachusetts are non-profit.
In Lynn, we worked with the city council to provide daily updates, including expert guidance on a range of issues from medicine to legal support. These updates are broadcast on our station, posted and streamed on Facebook in English, Spanish, and Khmer. Malden hosts a regular news program, “The Mayor’s COVID-19 Updates” featuring health and safety professionals sharing information on health, policing, and community awareness regarding the pandemic and taking questions from viewers.
The citywide project, #MaldenTogether, invited residents to submit and archive their pictures, writings, and social media content throughout the pandemic.
Citizens at home also needed levity and entertainment and opportunities to celebrate events and milestones. Lynn took its weekly sports show and turned it into a highlight reel each week — looking back at big games and big plays while spotlighting our local athletes. In Peabody, we enhanced our youth program to make it more of a virtual experience with a remote game show for kids. Salem Access TV (SATV) worked in collaboration with Salem Public Schools to air school events (often livestreamed) including graduation ceremonies and car parades, helping students and their families celebrate their achievements and milestones.
Danvers residents were able to keep important community traditions alive, including our Memorial Day event that has taken place every year since the 1860s — hundreds of residents tuned in. And when it was time to raise the Pride Flag, town officials and businesses participated as we aired it online.
These community events are often imperative to citizens. Thanks to the efforts of your local community media station, your kids will still have video of their high school graduation to view years from now and the cities and towns of Massachusetts will have valuable archival record of this truly historic era.
When community media started many decades ago, the driving force was to provide the public with options for expressing themselves. While that spirit still lives in each of the over 200 community media centers in Massachusetts, our evolution has made us more important than ever.
We are community centers, institutions of learning, communication centers, arts proponents, free speech guardians and essential organizational partners. We are community media.
David Gauthier is president of MassAccess. Seth Albaum is executive director, Lynn Community Television. Ron Cox is executive director of Malden’s Media Center. Greg Dolan is executive director of Danvers Community Access Television and Patrick Kennedy is executive director of Salem Access Television.
