A broad framework for reporting on 'ecology' including but limited to Puffin follow thru or other projects tailored toward particular media outlets: what it means to 'focus' on 'local food.'

The question of who’s listening to WCRS involves the question of whether any of us are listening to those who have little if any voice in our communities.

The mainstream media mostly follow prominent, influential people. My job is to focus on those who have little if any voice. When I’m not doing that, my job is to constructively confront the people the mainstream media seem to fawn over and cater to.

5-2-11

Using the term ‘ecology’ in this way might help with rejecting some of the divide-and-conquer false choices we seem to be presented with. The false choice prevalent in mainstream reporting on budget deficits is this: (1) balance the budgets or (2) keep existing social programs.

The real choice is this: (1) use our government to make the very wealthy even more wealthy, concentrating even more power into the hands of a few versus, (2) use our government to take better care of the middle class and the poor, as well as our natural environment, as part of an attempt to save our representative democracy.

—Tom

4-28-11 12:36

It seems a point I ought to keep in mind is that ‘focusing’ on an issue–whether it’s as an activist, reporter, researcher, and so on–doesn’t mean that one loses perspective on how that particular issue fits into a broader context.

Perhaps effective ‘local food’ reporting and activism is continuously aware of how it is part of a wide variety of ‘ecological’ issues.

And it various points in the process of reporting on and otherwise working on ‘local food’, it’s necessary to clearly express how it connects with other ‘ecological’ issues such as housing, medicine, finance, water, transportation, and so on.

Also, choosing a ‘focus’ may be a matter of me having a sense of what particular facet of ‘ecology’ I am most interested delving into the fine details. It seems that intellectual rigor for reporting and activism requires both a high degree of focus on the fine details of an issue, and broader understanding of how the issue in focus relates to many of the other issues that are part of the core challenge, which is creating a better ‘ecology,’ on behalf of our survival and quality of life.

It seems that I’m not only more inclined toward readily and thoroughly grasping the fine details of ‘local food’ issues–compared to other ‘ecological issues’–but that I’m also more inclined toward doing practical, hands-on things that involve community and companionship when it comes to ‘local food’ issues, than I would be if I were to focus on, for example, water issues or housing issues or transportation issues.

Plus, as I’ve said many times already, most of my income over the past several years has come from working in the food industry.

4-28-11 12:32

What’s perhaps to be avoided is a mentality in which I think and act as if food issues don’t exist in the context of many other ecological issues.

Focusing on food activism and reporting is part of my strategy for paying my bills and having a better chance of a positive impact.

What I could do is use the ‘local food’ issue for the Puffin project, and for some FSRN projects. But I can do some writing and reporting via which I focus on other aspects of ‘ecology.’

4-28-11 11:33

For the purposes of my work as a reporter and activist, the term ‘ecology’ includes not only how people interact w/ the natural environment, but also how we humans relate to each other and how we treat other animals.

One way of thinking of striving to improve our ecology is to meet our wants and needs in better ways. Those wants and needs may pertain to food, water, medicine, transportation, education, housing, sense of belonging and acceptance, and so on.

Food isn’t the only area in which I am striving to achieve better ecology, though focusing on food issues seems a part of my strategy for completing the Puffin Grant follow-thru and as a part of making my work as a waiter mesh better with my work as an activist and reporter, along with also improving my chances of making money as a reporter. Further still, my guess is that if I want to increase my odds of not only making money but also having a positive impact, I must focus my reporting and my activism.

Sometimes, I think focusing on a specific part of ecology, such as that pertaining to food, may be a way to outgrow my habit of limiting myself to social circles of people who regard themselves as liberals, progressives, and ‘radicals.’ For some time, it’s seemed that if I focus on food issues, I may be more likely to engage with a wider range of people.

But I’m not sure about whether I need to focus on food issues to engage with a greater diversity of people. It may be the case that being an activist and reporter regarding promoting a better ‘ecology’ is something that transcends the liberal v conservative, the liberal v (left-wing) radical, left-v-right…ways of thinking.

I am still undecided about whether to make a sandwich board sign that reads :
MORE
LOCAL
FOOD
WHY?
HOW?
or whether to make one that reads :
HOW TO
IMPROVE
‘ECOLOGY’
OF OUR
CITY ?

The latter approach is broader and may be something I can tie into a variety of forms of activism such as cycling, local food, advocacy for homeless, and so on. But again, my concern is that it’s too broad.

A broad framework for reporting on ‘ecology’ including but limited to Puffin follow thru or other projects tailored toward particular media outlets: what it means to ‘focus’ on ‘local food.’

The question of who’s listening to WCRS involves the question of whether any of us are listening to those who have little if any voice in our communities.

The mainstream media mostly follow prominent, influential people. My job is to focus on those who have little if any voice. When I’m not doing that, my job is to constructively confront the people the mainstream media seem to fawn over and cater to.

5-2-11

Using the term ‘ecology’ in this way might help with rejecting some of the divide-and-conquer false choices we seem to be presented with. The false choice prevalent in mainstream reporting on budget deficits is this: (1) balance the budgets or (2) keep existing social programs.

The real choice is this: (1) use our government to make the very wealthy even more wealthy, concentrating even more power into the hands of a few versus, (2) use our government to take better care of the middle class and the poor, as well as our natural environment, as part of an attempt to save our representative democracy.

—Tom

4-28-11 12:36

It seems a point I ought to keep in mind is that ‘focusing’ on an issue–whether it’s as an activist, reporter, researcher, and so on–doesn’t mean that one loses perspective on how that particular issue fits into a broader context.

Perhaps effective ‘local food’ reporting and activism is continuously aware of how it is part of a wide variety of ‘ecological’ issues.

And it various points in the process of reporting on and otherwise working on ‘local food’, it’s necessary to clearly express how it connects with other ‘ecological’ issues such as housing, medicine, finance, water, transportation, and so on.

Also, choosing a ‘focus’ may be a matter of me having a sense of what particular facet of ‘ecology’ I am most interested delving into the fine details. It seems that intellectual rigor for reporting and activism requires both a high degree of focus on the fine details of an issue, and broader understanding of how the issue in focus relates to many of the other issues that are part of the core challenge, which is creating a better ‘ecology,’ on behalf of our survival and quality of life.

It seems that I’m not only more inclined toward readily and thoroughly grasping the fine details of ‘local food’ issues–compared to other ‘ecological issues’–but that I’m also more inclined toward doing practical, hands-on things that involve community and companionship when it comes to ‘local food’ issues, than I would be if I were to focus on, for example, water issues or housing issues or transportation issues.

Plus, as I’ve said many times already, most of my income over the past several years has come from working in the food industry.

4-28-11 12:32

What’s perhaps to be avoided is a mentality in which I think and act as if food issues don’t exist in the context of many other ecological issues.

Focusing on food activism and reporting is part of my strategy for paying my bills and having a better chance of a positive impact.

What I could do is use the ‘local food’ issue for the Puffin project, and for some FSRN projects. But I can do some writing and reporting via which I focus on other aspects of ‘ecology.’

4-28-11 11:33

For the purposes of my work as a reporter and activist, the term ‘ecology’ includes not only how people interact w/ the natural environment, but also how we humans relate to each other and how we treat other animals.

One way of thinking of striving to improve our ecology is to meet our wants and needs in better ways. Those wants and needs may pertain to food, water, medicine, transportation, education, housing, sense of belonging and acceptance, and so on.

Food isn’t the only area in which I am striving to achieve better ecology, though focusing on food issues seems a part of my strategy for completing the Puffin Grant follow-thru and as a part of making my work as a waiter mesh better with my work as an activist and reporter, along with also improving my chances of making money as a reporter. Further still, my guess is that if I want to increase my odds of not only making money but also having a positive impact, I must focus my reporting and my activism.

Sometimes, I think focusing on a specific part of ecology, such as that pertaining to food, may be a way to outgrow my habit of limiting myself to social circles of people who regard themselves as liberals, progressives, and ‘radicals.’ For some time, it’s seemed that if I focus on food issues, I may be more likely to engage with a wider range of people.

But I’m not sure about whether I need to focus on food issues to engage with a greater diversity of people. It may be the case that being an activist and reporter regarding promoting a better ‘ecology’ is something that transcends the liberal v conservative, the liberal v (left-wing) radical, left-v-right…ways of thinking.

I am still undecided about whether to make a sandwich board sign that reads :
MORE
LOCAL
FOOD
WHY?
HOW?
or whether to make one that reads :
HOW TO
IMPROVE
‘ECOLOGY’
OF OUR
CITY ?

The latter approach is broader and may be something I can tie into a variety of forms of activism such as cycling, local food, advocacy for homeless, and so on. But again, my concern is that it’s too broad.

Preserving food

Get a pressure canner with a weighted gauge, not a digital one, because the latter requires calibrating every year.

Get Ball Blue Book on canning.

(Draft) Activism : how much does it matter ?

yeah…a big part of my mentality seems based on trying to rally and join with others to help mitigate, if not prevent catastrophe. Another approach is to work w/ others to cope and adapt to those catastrophes once we think we can’t do much to stop them from happening.

The former and latter are not necessarily mutually exclusive. But it seems a good idea to know when preventing the catastrophe is a lost cause, and therefore, when our energy is better spent on adaptation than prevention. The latter view is emerging among some concerned about peak oil, climate change and the uncertain future of our political freedoms.

Some people have gone some distance in preparing themselves, their families and small intentional communities. Richard Heinberg refers to this as life boat communities.

But me ? I’ve done very little of this. Yeah, I bike wherever I go around town, and grow some food. But I’d starve, freeze to death or die of cholera w/o the amenities of modern life.

What you say about government and activism not being there to help me amid crisis reminds me of what some of my anarchist and self-described ‘radical’ friends tell me.

But I’m undecided on this. When they say government can’t and won’t help, I wonder whether their perspective amounts to brutal realism or just glorified apathy. Sometimes, I suspect the latter when it seems we can still do some good with activism.

It’s good—to say the least—to be prepared for disasters— natural or economic or political. But ideally, doing that would involve (1) a survivalist, life-boat community mentality somehow combined with (2) continuing to engage via our political systems while we still have them.

When it comes to being prepared, the hardcore survivalist crowd can tend to seem focused too much on their small groups. Yet, people putting their energies into activism, such as me, can tend to have our heads in the clouds too much, paying inadequate attention to the practical details that enable us to be alive.

But perhaps I’m not totally oblivious. Regarding activism, it seems its success requires participants to engage our heads, our hearts, and our hands. That is, we have to apply ourselves intellectually, socially, and practically to the issues we’re working on or fighting for.

As I’ve said before, a good example of engaging heads, hearts and hands is growing one’s own food as an attempt at a rational response to concerns about peak oil, corporate power, climate change, and so on.

What I get from your comments Jon is not a basis for refuting the legitimacy of activism. Instead, you’re calling attention to the fact that activism has to connect with people’s daily lives in a hands-on and otherwise practical way. That could be putting food into people’s stomachs; providing housing; creating safer streets and safer drinking water; helping people to feel less lonely and isolated.

Community Media notes, WCRS Columbus

8-27-11

I intend to do vox pops this upcoming week at Broad and High w/ the following 3 signs:
” 1% “Gov “Are
control of the 1% U
40 % of by the 1% Part of
U.S. wealth” for the 1%” The 1% ?”

8-11-11
Use this sign for vox pops, having info at hand so as to better engage w/ people. Get help with stats and other data from Alec J, Bob F, Uncut Ohio, DSCO, and others. Asking people what they think and listen, not argue w/ them or preach. Using questions to challenge beliefs, when that’s appropriate is as far as I can go while doing vox pops.
Signs : Welfare
For
Corporations
?

8-9-11
another vox pop, using 2 boards :

DO U RAISE
AGREE TAXES
W/ ON
WARREN RICHEST
BUFFET ? 2 % ?

8-2-11
I intend to try these signs tomorrow for vox pops near the Ohio State House, near Broad and High Sts. 3 boards:
No Less $ Workers Corporations
Middle Class For schools Lose jobs Got it Made
No Tax cuts CEOs get Sweatshops
Democracy For Billionaires Bonuses Off-shore tax havens

Big
Corporations
Run
Government

Borrowing Bush Tax
From China Cuts: $2.8 trillion
For Tax cuts Wars
For the wealthy $1.2 Trillion

7/19/11 11pm

Some do’s and don’ts for making better use of my time and energy while working for WCRS.
Don’t hand the Zoom over to interviewee. Instead control the Zoom so as to effectively record what I say and what they say.

Also, it seems some people might feel imposed upon by holding the recorder, and people tend to gesticulate with the external mic or with the Zoom by waving it around or point with it or absent-mindedly resting it too far away from their mouth.

The Zoom is more portable than 2 external mics and give good enough sound quality for my purposes.

7/19/11 9pm

Listening to the interview with Megan Schmidt(Civically Engaged original air date 7-22-11) the volume of my voice and her voice is fairly even. But I am using only one mic–the Zoom H-2.

My guess is that I used the mic more efficiently while interviewing Megan because of standing closer to her than I stood when interviewing Aaron Carmac. Being able to be comfortable with people I interview in terms of talking distance would help with portability and save me time from not having to record voice-overs to make up for the low volume of my voice when I ask questions.

7/18/11 1:42 am

Focus for Puffin Compliance on question of how to grow more food in Columbus. Tie this reporting to reporting for FSRN and other national/international outlets by reporting on what cities around the world are doing to grow more food locally.

7/14/11 2:11 pm
Keep audio recorded interviews short 1-5 mins. This should–all else being equal–enable me to textually render the content in a more rigorous and timely way.
Write out an interview outline before going to talk with people and stick to it unless someone seems really interested in talking about something else. More audio clips and shorter ones at that, should also —all else being equal– lead to the 55 minute programs having a more engaging pace, and otherwise make it more interesting to listen to.

Do a better job of getting people’s full names.

7/14/11 12:25 pm

Having tried using the theme based on asking people what’s important to them, as I do the vox pops, my latest stance on this is that I ought to keep the food focus but do the following.

Ask people how much they are interested in working in community gardens, shopping farmers markets, CSAs ,and so on.

(One reason for this is that it seems to me that the work I and fellow community gardeners are doing is not enough to address or food issues.

But I don’t want to come across as proselytizing to people I speak w/, so if they’re not interested in food issues I intend to ask them why they are not interested and I also intend to ask them what’s important to them, if they’re not interested in food issues.

So, this should give me the flexibility w/ which to increase my chances of having a positive impact via my reporting, and my chances of reporting on a less-food-related or a non-food-related issue if the occasion calls for it.

7/11/11 10:41 pm

If I am concerned abt having a strong social justice component to my reporting, one idea would be to interview people who are outside of the usual white, middle class category that makes up much of the com gardening scene in central Ohio.

I had wanted to do vox pops based on the question: ‘what do u care abt ? But I may still be able to interview a wide variety of people on streets and other places if I include the question of why he or she is not growing, and why they’re not interested.

This should serve the same purpose as asking them about what they care about. Actually, that question can be part of my back up plan for someone who doesn’t want to talk about local food.

If someone insists on talking abt something else, I can agree to that or politely decline, telling them I am focusing on food issues so as to have more of a chance of having a positive impact in the community.

My guess is that I have been thinking of the what-do-u-care-abt? approach because of thinking the food focus would end up being the same ole cheerleading–well, come to think of it here r some of the parts of the food reporting I intend to do: (1) address the problems
besetting com gardens; (2) take a critical–but not cynical–look at public policy regarding food issues; (3) as for interviews I do, it seems a good approach is to interview the people involved w/ growing food who typically aren’t interviewed such as homeless people , people w/ criminal records;

7/11/11 10:20 pm

actually, I’m not sure about exactly how to frame things thematically. What I am sure of though is :

(1) I got to get out there and talk with people

(2) the interviews have to involve material WCRS can present to policy makers, business people and activist groups for possible follow up

(3) there has got to be a diversity of perspectives. I don’t want the interviewees to all be white, middle class or white upper middle class people. Talking w/ people in historically under-served communities and listening to what they have to say about community gardens is essential.

7/11/11 10 pm

Even though I spent $40 of the Puffin Grant money on a sign that reads “Growing Food ?” it seems a the best idea is to present a more problem solving/goal oriented question: “how do we grow more food in Columbus ?”

The responses to this question fit the Puffin grant criteria in the sense of presenting that to city officials and getting some kind of follow up. And it qualifies as the civic journalism we mentioned in the grant application.

It seems to me right now, that the question of how to grow more food in Columbus works better than the simple question of whether someone is growing food, in terms of vox pops and in terms of interviewing policy makers, activists, people with businesses, and so on.

7/5/11 12:33 am What do you care about ?

—person’s name, photograph to go w/ interview
7/4/11 11:32 pm

I keep flip flopping about the themes for WCRS vox pops. One thing is certain: I have to get out in the public to engage w/ folk.

One idea is that if I stick to the general theme of food issues, I perhaps should now connect the action component of community gardening w/ the action component of using various ways to engage w/ politicians and
business leaders regarding food policy.

And w/ this approach, I would use signs such as “who controls your food?”

I’m not sure about this. Before starting this most recent journaling session I thought I had a good idea. But it still seems to me as I write this sentence that I ought to use the approach of asking people what they care about—at least as a way to start the conversation.

Maybe another action component could be working w/ grocery chains that have stores in the area, so as to get more local produce. And if that’s not feasible, WCRS/Free Press could also report on why that’s not feasible.

As I think about this, my guess is that what I’m more likely to actually get done is doing vox pops several times per week, based on the what-do-u-care-about theme. It somehow seems to be the most direct and ready for me to jump into : go to a location, set up my signs and my recorder, and then engage w/ people.

I expect from that point to render some of the content textually and post it as well as a link to an ongoing Columbus Underground thread, and also write Columbus Free Press articles based on the what-do-u-care-about theme.

But can this what-do-u-care-about approach involve an action component ? And how do I continue my community gardening work whle taking this more general approach ? Perhaps the what-do-u-care-about approach is not necessarily more general, but instead, what it likely will result in is more people being willing to engage with me. That alone may help me to make myself more useful to the causes I care about.

But what are the causes I care about ? I’d refer to it as wanting to have better ecology, as I have defined that term.

7/4/11 3:12 pm

Multiple approaches to doing WCRS community engagement run through my mind. I’m ok w/ that; what matters is that I do the vox pops and other forms of WCRS public engagement every day or nearly every day.

Sometimes I may take the approach of holding a sign that reads:
Less $
For Schools
Plenty for
billionaire
tax breaks

and sometimes I will take the approach of “What do you care about?”

7/3/11 11:09 pm

I keep changing my mind about this, but I think I’m going to at least try the approach of asking people what they care about as the basis of WCRS vox pops.

If I ask people to keep there responses w/in 1 min., I may be able to have about 50 or so different voices within a 58 minute Civically Engaged shoq.

This approach to the vox pops may enable WCRS to report on a variety of issues, from a variety of perspectives, linking our audio, print, and visual content to a variety of other media outlets. Time will tell how this actually ends up, but I suspect this approach may be more amenable to ‘content dense’ audio, for lack of a better way of saying it.

I suspect this intuitively; I’m not sure why asking people “What do you care about?” may work out a lot better than asking people ” Are you growing food? Do you have a garden ? ” So far, after having done about 3 hours of vox pops based on the growing food theme, there seems to be something missing in our interviews. Maybe the reason why is that people may tend to communicate more compellingly if they:
(1) are communicating about what they care about; and (2) are convinced that I’m sincerely interested in what they have to communicate.

The approach of asking people what they care about is something that I can do w/ practically anyone, anywhere, anytime, whether I have an audio recorder or am using only pen and paper.

This theme may be refreshing to some or many people in the sense that I’m not trying to sell them or convince them about anything but, instead, am making myself receptive to what they have to communicate.

Maybe this approach will lead more readily to WCRS helping people–including ourselves —further form social ties of mutual aid and form better relationships w/ our political and business leaders.

I intend to reconcile the following : on the one hand, I’ve thought I’d better focus on an issue so as to go into greater depth and so as to tie my gardening work with my WCRS work; on the other hand, I now think the what-do-u-care-about theme is better in that a community media outlet ought to focus on building relationships among people in our communities, and let limit ourselves to one or 2 issues.

The are-u-growing-food approach seems in some ways to involve WCRS sort of being an extension of PR for Local Matters and other groups working on food issues. I’m for the work of Local Matters. But that’s not the point. And this reminds me of the value of journalism and maybe also it brings to light the difference between working as a reporter and working as an activist.

Journalism can have negative connotations as being unfeeling and aloof with its pretension of not taking sides. But I see my role as helping to bring people –including myself—together based on mutual aid and other aspects of community, finding common ground with one another despite many of the things that potentially divide us.

And I don’t think of journalism as amorally avoiding taking a stand. I guess one idea involved with journalism is that reporters can help create a communication process that’s more conducive to communities and entire societies coming to terms with various controversies and goals.

The nearly unconditional listening I intend to do as a reporter is a way to better engage people and to perhaps even to set a tone that influences how WCRS listeners engage w/ other people. I’m not selling out or losing my integrity by sincerely listening to people I might disagree w/, because folk will tend to be willing to listen to me about food issue or other issues commensurate w/ how much they think I’m sincerely listening to what they’re communicating to me.

Standing in public w/ a large sign, my appearance my at first glance bring to mind for onlookers a person doing a protest. Yet upon reading my sign–“WHAT DO U CARE ABOUT?—as they take a second glance, it may register in their minds that what I’m doing is something a bit, if not significantly different: a public demonstration of a willingness to listen.

7/3/11 9:26 pm

I like the idea of public listening, taking a genuine interest in what another person cares about. I think there is something I like about this not only in terms of WCRS and other reporting, but also in terms of how I relate to people in general.

So far, I’ve done vox pop at Comfest for about an hour and vox pops for about an hour at last night’s gallery hop.

I like the idea of public listening, taking a genuine interest in what another person cares about. I think there is something I like this not only in terms of WCRS and other reporting but also in terms of how I relate to people in general.

One idea is that perhaps even the process of me trying to figure out what the consequences of my reporting will be is , in and of itself, a sort of bad thing. Perhaps—-I’m surprised to say this—the most important part of my motivation as a reporter ought to be a sort of intrinsic interest in engaging with people.

Well, actually I am not sure about this. Perhaps it’s not either/or. I ought to have an intrinsic joy from the very fact of engaging with people regarding whatever’s most dear to their hearts, yet also explore strategies for putting to good use our communication process.

Also, even though I have only done about 2 hours of vox pops so far, it seems to me that the very act of being in a public place and listening to what someone is telling me has some sort of value in that using microphones or writing down what someone is telling me, along with looking at them and having the facial expression of listening intently–well all this perhaps has some sort of value not only for me the reporter and for th

e person being interviewed, but also for onlookers.

As I write this sentence I’m questioning some of the ideas which have been for the past year or so the basis of my intentions as a reporter: the idea that I ought to focus on an issue; the idea that I ought to connect the reporting with an action component.

6/15/11 11:03pm

Reporting on community gardening/urban farming. To what extent are community gardeners in Columbus faced with losing our plots of land being rented from the city ? This is relevant because it takes time to build up the soil.

Another observation is that there are so few people working on a regular basis in Columbus’ community gardens.

5/10/11 1:58

According to Maria Rodale (Organic Manifesto) the core issue is organic farming, not local food per se, and that, in some cases, chemically based local food can be more energy intensive and polluting (in terms of climate disruption and otherwise) than chemically grown food from afar.

One way of thinking of this is that the DIY aspects to people getting involved in growing, preparing, buying, and selling, and bartering local food is good, in terms of people taking more control over our own lives.

But, I’ve yet to fully reconcile that process with aspiring toward a type of farming that is more ecologically sound. Organic farming/gardening just might be that core principle I’ve been wondering about regarding the topic of ‘local food.’

5/3/11 1:34 pm

The following ideas may be a repeat of what’s already in this entry, but here’s a copy and paste of it from an email I sent myself a couple of weeks ago, just in case it might be useful.

It may be a good idea to interview people based on what they/we are doing (or not doing) in terms of growing, preparing, buying and selling local food as one of many ways to address our survival and quality of life.

Part of the interview could include the question of what they/we think city gov, state govs, and fed gov ought to do to help us grow and prepare, distribute and market local food.

This focus on food might be a good idea in the sense of me being more likely to make myself useful in the community and beyond if I have a command of the details of an issue, as opposed to spreading myself too thin.

Also, my guess is that I will need to apply my intellect to creating my/our garden if I want to significantly increase my harvest along w/ effectively canning some of what I grow.

That pursuit would complement creating written and audio media that involves bringing people together for growing and preparing food. Further still, I might be more likely to get at least some paid work in print or radio if I
focus on food security/food justice/ food sovereignty issues.

Further still, this focus on food might help me to reconcile my waiter experience with my activist/journalist experience in the sense of helping me to find more meaning in my current waiter job and/or in the sense of getting a new or additional waiter job, perhaps one that is more in tune w/ my values.

5/3/11 1:21 pm

Try this: focus the reporting on backyard gardening, community gardening, and urban farming, and as for to/from factor, it can involve communication among gardeners as to promote collaboration and pooling of resources; and communication/relationships between gardeners and people in city and other local (state? Fed ?) govs, as well as businesses, regarding further developing the ‘movement’. As that gains power, it’s likely to clash w/ the interests of corporate control over food.

This seems consistent w/ the sign which raises the question of why and how to get more local food.

And the following questions might be applicable. Time will tell.

How much are you interested in growing food ? How much are you interested in buying food from small-scale farmers ? Are you interested in working with other people to grow food, preserve food thru canning, dehrydrating, fermenting ?

(And for those not interested) When you buy food at supermarkets instead of through CSA’s, farmer’s markets, and stores selling local food, why do you do so, (though of course it’s not either/or)

In terms of who this communication is from and whom it’s to, there are multiple possibilities. An ongoing idea is that I ought to focus my intellectual work on writing as a way to reach out to people –but this can complement work for FSRN and WCRS.

5/3/11 1:09
An additional detail : ask people to express their opinion regarding the question of whether the term “local food’ really gets to the heart of the issues ? Is a better way of saying it ‘improving our food ecology’ ?

Ask people about what they would like to communicate to local government, state gov regarding a ‘better food ecology.’. And then present that to local and state and even fed gov for a possible response–involve also what people would like to communicate to people running local and regional media outlets so WCRS can present that info to them for possible ‘response.’

5/3/11 12;42

A note on radio reporting methods : Instead of sequencing person A then person B and so on, sequence the audio according to the question being answered, and otherwise arrange the content thematically. And find other ways to engage listeners. This is applicable to print media also.

5/2/11 11:22pm
Possibly- I’m not sure about this yet–the reporting we generate will be more useful if we focus on the question of how to have more local food, given that the reasons why have reported on and written about and otherwise expressed.

5/2/11 10:51 pm

I see the need to focus in terms of how I go about interviewing people, as I listen to audio from an interview of Derrick Lori who runs the Helping Hands Community Garden.

In hindsight, I would have preferred to have asked him : (1) why we should grow and prepare more food for local consumption; (2) how to go about doing that; and (3) how the Helping Hands garden is a part of that process.

Without such focus, I make things a lot more difficult for myself in terms of sifting through the audio recordings and rendering some of the content textually.

That should be my basic outline: More local food ? Why ? How ? From that point the people I interview and otherwise work with can immerse ourselves in the finer points.

For example, there are many aspects of the question of why people may want to grow and prepare more local food, and many aspects of how to do it, whether it’s working with businesses, governments, not-for-profits, and so on.

5/2/11 2:24 pm

I’ve thought of having one half of the sandwich board read ” WCRS Columbus 98,3/102.2″ but that still seems like self-promotion. What do you think ?

We might make a better impression if the signs focus on listening to what people might communicate. Then, when they’ve talked, we can hand them the WCRS FM/CIM business card.

An additional public listening topic could involve a sign that reads : “Surviving/Thriving With Less Money ?”. As I’ve said many times already, the idea is to help build working relationships based on addressing our survival and quality of life.

4/29/11 12:44 pm

Perhaps I could do more good if I engage with people where they are in their communities, instead of sitting at meetings where mostly economically comfortable people talk amongst ourselves and perhaps maybe, here and there, talk about–instead of talking with–people in the “communities of need”

I respect the work of local food advocates, but as for me, I prefer to actually engage face-to-face, as a ‘co-worker,’ with people doing urban farming or community gardening ; and (2) actually engage face-to-face with people in the “communities in need.”

Instead of criticizing various local food advocates for th

eir respective approaches, I intend to ask them for advice regarding my plans to engage with people on their terms in their communities and in other public places.

4/26/11 8:01 pm I intend to wear one sign on the front and one one the back, both reading :

MORE
LOCAL
FOOD
WHY ?
HOW ?

Saying WCRS or Columbus Free Press isn’t necessary.

4/26/11 12:18 I keep going back and forth on this. Perhaps it’s a lurching way of going forward. Here’s my most recent plan.

Work with local food advocates so as to interview people at local food forums and other events on the question of how to grow/prepare/buy/sell more local food, while also interviewing people in public places, using a sign that reads: “Growing/preparing/selling/buying more local food: how? why? why not ?”

I can make a 2 ft x 3 ft foam board sign at Utrecht in the Short North for $10-$15. But I may need to get spare intertubes for the bike trailer so as to use it to transport the sign, since it won’t fold up for placement in one of my pannier bags.

My guess is that I can include animal rights in this reporting project, along with issues such as Peak Oil, climate change, monopoly control in the food industry, food deserts, and so on.

There is likely not a perfect approach. But as I write this sentence, this one seems the best I’ve come up with so far, in terms of reconciling my work as a waiter and my attempts at growing food with my work as a reporter and activist.

Also, as I’ve said before, it’s not that I don’t care about other issues. But rather, it’s the case that I’m concerned that if I spread myself too thin, I will end up not helping out much with any issue.

Also, I may be more likely to make at least some money as a reporter and activist if become more adept at providing context, continuity, and detail in my work, in addition to more creatively working at my current server job, and more effectively acquiring a waiter job to replace the one I currently have–a waiter job that’s more in tune with my values, such as a job at one or more of the bars and restaurants that are part of the Betty’s Family of Restaurants.

4/26/11 12:04 am In terms of gathering audio while wearing a sign that reads ” What’s important to you ? WCRS wants to know,” who the communication may end as being most appropriately to likely will depend on what particular interviewees say and how they say it.

I or we might decide to send a comment to a city official, while I or we might decide to send some other comment to a local business or not-for-profit or church and so on.

4/25/11 9:41 pm Here’s yet another idea. Have a sign that reads : WCRS Community Radio: What do you think ? What will you do ? ” Or perhaps this would be better or as good: “WCRS Community Radio/What matters to you ? What will you do about it ? ”

In terms of inviting input from people in public places using the limited space of a poster board sign, I might be better off to have the sign read : “Tell WCRS community radio what’s important to you.” Or maybe this is better : “What’s important to you ? WCRS wants to know.”

One approach to doing this would be to basically give the interviewee total freedom (as much as keeping with FCC guidelines allows).

Right now, I have likes and dislikes about this approach. What I like about it is that it doesn’t involve me trying to sell someone a product or an idea, and it doesn’t even involve me trying to persuade her or him to take any action other than expressing to me (and our listeners and readers) what is important to them. Actually, the person might even lie or be playful about it for all I know.

Further, I like how this approach seems to involve taking an intrinsic interest in people, instead of valuing my interaction with her or him as it relates to an agenda I’m trying to promote. Perhaps there is something alienating about seeking to engage with someone as it pertains to an agenda (however well-intentioned that agenda may seem to me and to others working with me on that agenda.)

I like this idea in the sense that it might turn out to be an interesting and useful twist on the concept of a protest or demonstration in that I’m making a statement in a public place, but the statement is an invitation for just about anyone there to tell me (and our listeners and readers) about what matters to them.

Protests and demonstrations typically involve, to my knowledge, people trying to get other people’s attention about something they themselves care about. I’m not discrediting that approach. But this concept of taking an interest in what others care about might result in something helpful, for lack of a better way of saying it.

But what concerns me about this approach is that it seems to go against the idea that I ought to focus on a specific cause, with a clear sense of who the message is to and who it’s from, and a way for what we talk about to connect with taking action such as working in a community garden or cycling instead of driving.

But maybe, at some point in the interaction with at least some of the people I engage with, the person or persons will urge me to talk about what I care about. At that point, I can do so.

Perhaps some of this audio and written material will result in communication between some of the people interviewed and other members of our communities who were not present during the in-person interview. It would seem this is one of the functions of using audio and textual reporting–helping people–including myself–to have some sort of communication with people beyond the immediate situation, in terms of time and place.

4/25/11 9:17 pm
Here are some ideas taken from other Journal entries on this blog that could be useful to bear in mind.

Some aspects of what I might accomplish as a reporter:
(1) creating the ‘social space’ in which someone can engage with another person–me the interviewer or someone else–about issues in their communities. On more than one occasion people have seemed to enjoy being interviewed, apparently because of having someone listen to them talk about something they care about.

(2)

One possibility is to start by

4/25/11 7:30 pm:

It may help to have a large sign that reads : “Talk to WCRS Columbus about growing your own food.”

4/25/11 4:46pm Maybe I ought to try both approaches. Do vox pops, forums, and other interviews and writing based on the question of how we can improve the ecology of our city, and on the question of how we can increase the number of people in greater Columbus involved with growing, preparing, and selling local food.

For a columbus underground thread : Growing, preparing, selling & buying more local food: how, why or why not ?
4/25/11 1pm

Actually, I think the Eco Summit theme is too vague, and such vagueness –given my limited time and other resources–makes it more likely that what I do becomes an exercise in communicating general ideas about ‘sustainability’ that leads to little, if any, action.

If I/we at WCRS focus on the issue of how to grow the community gardening movement in greater Columbus, it would still involve the to and from component, and do so more meaningfully than if I/we at WCRS were to focus on the question of how we can improve the ecology of Columbus.

The flow of communication that WCRS could be involved in helping along could be between city officials and community groups involved with gardening projects; community gardening groups and prospective people who might want to join in with the efforts; and so on.

But I should start with asking people such as Michael Jones, Noreen Warnock, Hank Koehler, and many others about their working relationships with city officials.

Also, what about –though it seems like a long shot—l

ocal groceries and local restaurants having working relationships with community gardens in Columbus ?

Some of this is just going to have to develop as I/we go along with the process of (1) actually working in these gardens and (2) talking with a wide variety of people about this.

But, perhaps what I at least have right now is the realization that I got to focus on ‘eco-gastronomy’ in general and community gardens in specific if I want to increase my/our chances of actually having a constructive impact in our communities and beyond.

Also, this is what I like about reporting on, to use a term from Slow Food International, ‘eco-gastronomy.’
(1) it connects my food service experience with activism and journalism
(2) it involves an increase chance for getting paid work as a reporter, for FSRN and perhaps some print outlets;
(3) it connects my reporting with the process of learning the nuance involved with improving at growing my own food

So, as far as the Puffin Foundation follow thru is concerned, focusing specifically on community gardening, and not so much the more general topic of ‘sustainable farming’–at least not in the short-term– may be wise.

4-21-11

Did you know an international Eco Summit is scheduled to be held here in Columbus in the fall of 2012 ? What would you like to say to city officials or other people who live in Columbus about how we can improve the ‘ecology’ of our city ?

For this project the word ‘ecology’ includes not only how we treat the natural environment but also how people treat each other, and how people treat animals.

In terms of finding ‘better’ ways to meet our needs for food, water, transportation, housing, medicine, and so on, which of those things do you think would involve you the most, in terms of working w/ people in your community toward solutions ?

What would you like to say to state or federal officials about how we can improve the ecology of our state and/or our country ?

Basing the Puffin ‘civic journalism’ project on the theme of the lead up to eco summit involves strong to/from component and is most likely of all plans so far, to involve a variety of gov officials and business folk and media folk and people in general.

Puffin Foundation grant follow thru/ Vox pops

8-27-11

I intend to do vox pops this upcoming week at Broad and High w/ the following 3 signs:
” 1% “Gov “Are
control of the 1% U
40 % of by the 1% Part of
U.S. wealth” for the 1%” The 1% ?”

8-11-11
Use this sign for vox pops, having info at hand so as to better engage w/ people. Get help with stats and other data from Alec J, Bob F, Uncut Ohio, DSCO, and others. Asking people what they think and listen, not argue w/ them or preach. Using questions to challenge beliefs, when that’s appropriate is as far as I can go while doing vox pops.
Signs : Welfare
For
Corporations
?

8-9-11
another vox pop, using 2 boards :

DO U RAISE
AGREE TAXES
W/ ON
WARREN RICHEST
BUFFET ? 2 % ?

8-2-11
I intend to try these signs tomorrow for vox pops near the Ohio State House, near Broad and High Sts. 3 boards:
No Less $ Workers Corporations
Middle Class For schools Lose jobs Got it Made
No Tax cuts CEOs get Sweatshops
Democracy For Billionaires Bonuses Off-shore tax havens

Big
Corporations
Run
Government

Borrowing Bush Tax
From China Cuts: $2.8 trillion
For Tax cuts Wars
For the wealthy $1.2 Trillion

7/19/11 11pm

Some do’s and don’ts for making better use of my time and energy while working for WCRS.
Don’t hand the Zoom over to interviewee. Instead control the Zoom so as to effectively record what I say and what they say.

Also, it seems some people might feel imposed upon by holding the recorder, and people tend to gesticulate with the external mic or with the Zoom by waving it around or point with it or absent-mindedly resting it too far away from their mouth.

The Zoom is more portable than 2 external mics and give good enough sound quality for my purposes.

7/19/11 9pm

Listening to the interview with Megan Schmidt(Civically Engaged original air date 7-22-11) the volume of my voice and her voice is fairly even. But I am using only one mic–the Zoom H-2.

My guess is that I used the mic more efficiently while interviewing Megan because of standing closer to her than I stood when interviewing Aaron Carmac. Being able to be comfortable with people I interview in terms of talking distance would help with portability and save me time from not having to record voice-overs to make up for the low volume of my voice when I ask questions.

7/18/11 1:42 am

Focus for Puffin Compliance on question of how to grow more food in Columbus. Tie this reporting to reporting for FSRN and other national/international outlets by reporting on what cities around the world are doing to grow more food locally.

7/14/11 2:11 pm
Keep audio recorded interviews short 1-5 mins. This should–all else being equal–enable me to textually render the content in a more rigorous and timely way.
Write out an interview outline before going to talk with people and stick to it unless someone seems really interested in talking about something else. More audio clips and shorter ones at that, should also —all else being equal– lead to the 55 minute programs having a more engaging pace, and otherwise make it more interesting to listen to.

Do a better job of getting people’s full names.

7/14/11 12:25 pm

Having tried using the theme based on asking people what’s important to them, as I do the vox pops, my latest stance on this is that I ought to keep the food focus but do the following.

Ask people how much they are interested in working in community gardens, shopping farmers markets, CSAs ,and so on.

(One reason for this is that it seems to me that the work I and fellow community gardeners are doing is not enough to address or food issues.

But I don’t want to come across as proselytizing to people I speak w/, so if they’re not interested in food issues I intend to ask them why they are not interested and I also intend to ask them what’s important to them, if they’re not interested in food issues.

So, this should give me the flexibility w/ which to increase my chances of having a positive impact via my reporting, and my chances of reporting on a less-food-related or a non-food-related issue if the occasion calls for it.

7/11/11 10:41 pm

If I am concerned abt having a strong social justice component to my reporting, one idea would be to interview people who are outside of the usual white, middle class category that makes up much of the com gardening scene in central Ohio.

I had wanted to do vox pops based on the question: ‘what do u care abt ? But I may still be able to interview a wide variety of people on streets and other places if I include the question of why he or she is not growing, and why they’re not interested.

This should serve the same purpose as asking them about what they care about. Actually, that question can be part of my back up plan for someone who doesn’t want to talk about local food.

If someone insists on talking abt something else, I can agree to that or politely decline, telling them I am focusing on food issues so as to have more of a chance of having a positive impact in the community.

My guess is that I have been thinking of the what-do-u-care-abt? approach because of thinking the food focus would end up being the same ole cheerleading–well, come to think of it here r some of the parts of the food reporting I intend to do: (1) address the problems
besetting com gardens; (2) take a critical–but not cynical–look at public policy regarding food issues; (3) as for interviews I do, it seems a good approach is to interview the people involved w/ growing food who typically aren’t interviewed such as homeless people , people w/ criminal records;

7/11/11 10:20 pm

actually, I’m not sure about exactly how to frame things thematically. What I am sure of though is :

(1) I got to get out there and talk with people

(2) the interviews have to involve material WCRS can present to policy makers, business people and activist groups for possible follow up

(3) there has got to be a diversity of perspectives. I don’t want the interviewees to all be white, middle class or white upper middle class people. Talking w/ people in historically under-served communities and listening to what they have to say about community gardens is essential.

7/11/11 10 pm

Even though I spent $40 of the Puffin Grant money on a sign that reads “Growing Food ?” it seems a the best idea is to present a more problem solving/goal oriented question: “how do we grow more food in Columbus ?”

The responses to this question fit the Puffin grant criteria in the sense of presenting that to city officials and getting some kind of follow up. And it qualifies as the civic journalism we mentioned in the grant application.

It seems to me right now, that the question of how to grow more food in Columbus works better than the simple question of whether someone is growing food, in terms of vox pops and in terms of interviewing policy makers, activists, people with businesses, and so on.

7/5/11 12:33 am What do you care about ?

—person’s name, photograph to go w/ interview
7/4/11 11:32 pm

I keep flip flopping about the themes for WCRS vox pops. One thing is certain: I have to get out in the public to engage w/ folk.

One idea is that if I stick to the general theme of food issues, I perhaps should now connect the action component of community gardening w/ the action component of using various ways to engage w/ politicians and business leaders regarding food policy.

And w/ this approach, I would use signs such as “who controls your food?”

I’m not sure about this. Before starting this most recent journaling session I thought I had a good idea. But it still seems to me as I write this sentence that I ought to use the approach of asking people what they care about—at least as a way to start the conversation.

Maybe another action component could be working w/ grocery chains that have stores in the area, so as to get more local produce. And if that’s not feasible, WCRS/Free Press could also report on why that’s not feasible.

As I think about this, my guess is that what I’m more likely to actually get done is doing vox pops several times per week, based on the what-do-u-care-about theme. It somehow seems to be the most direct and ready for me to jump into : go to a location, set up my signs and my recorder, and then engage w/ people.

I expect from that point to render some of the content textually and post it as well as a link to an ongoing Columbus Underground thread, and also write Columbus Free Press articles based on the what-do-u-care-about theme.

But can this what-do-u-care-about approach involve an action component ? And how do I continue my community gardening work whle taking this more general approach ? Perhaps the what-do-u-care-about approach is not necessarily more general, but instead, what it likely will result in is more people being willing to engage with me. That alone may help me to make myself more useful to the causes I care about.

But what are the causes I care about ? I’d refer to it as wanting to have better ecology, as I have defined that term.

7/4/11 3:12 pm

Multiple approaches to doing WCRS community engagement run through my mind. I’m ok w/ that; what matters is that I do the vox pops and other forms of WCRS public engagement every day or nearly every day.

Sometimes I may take the approach of holding a sign that reads:
Less $
For Schools
Plenty for
billionaire
tax breaks

and sometimes I will take the approach of “What do you care about?”

7/3/11 11:09 pm

I keep changing my mind about this, but I think I’m going to at least try the approach of asking people what they care about as the basis of WCRS vox pops.

If I ask people to keep there responses w/in 1 min., I may be able to have about 50 or so different voices within a 58 minute Civically Engaged shoq.

This approach to the vox pops may enable WCRS to report on a variety of issues, from a variety of perspectives, linking our audio, print, and visual content to a variety of other media outlets. Time will tell how this actually ends up, but I suspect this approach may be more amenable to ‘content dense’ audio, for lack of a better way of saying it.

I suspect this intuitively; I’m not sure why asking people “What do you care about?” may work out a lot better than asking people ” Are you growing food? Do you have a garden ? ” So far, after having done about 3 hours of vox pops based on the growing food theme, there seems to be something missing in our interviews. Maybe the reason why is that people may tend to communicate more compellingly if they:
(1) are communicating about what they care about; and (2) are convinced that I’m sincerely interested in what they have to communicate.

The approach of asking people what they care about is something that I can do w/ practically anyone, anywhere, anytime, whether I have an audio recorder or am using only pen and paper.

This theme may be refreshing to some or many people in the sense that I’m not trying to sell them or convince them about anything but, instead, am making myself receptive to what they have to communicate.

Maybe this approach will lead more readily to WCRS helping people–including ourselves —further form social ties of mutual aid and form better relationships w/ our political and business leaders.

I intend to reconcile the following : on the one hand, I’ve thought I’d better focus on an issue so as to go into greater depth and so as to tie my gardening work with my WCRS work; on the other hand, I now think the what-do-u-care-about theme is better in that a community media outlet ought to focus on building relationships among people in our communities, and let limit ourselves to one or 2 issues.

The are-u-growing-food approach seems in some ways to involve WCRS sort of being an extension of PR for Local Matters and other groups working on food issues. I’m for the work of Local Matters. But that’s not the point. And this reminds me of the value of journalism and maybe also it brings to light the difference between working as a reporter and working as an activist.

Journalism can have negative connotations as being unfeeling and aloof with its pretension of not taking sides. But I see my role as helping to bring people –including myself—together based on mutual aid and other aspects of community, finding common ground with one another despite many of the things that potentially divide us.

And I don’t think of journalism as amorally avoiding taking a stand. I guess one idea involved with journalism is that reporters can help create a communication process that’s more conducive to communities and entire societies coming to terms with various controversies and goals.

The nearly unconditional listening I intend to do as a reporter is a way to better engage people and to perhaps even to set a tone that influences how WCRS listeners engage w/ other people. I’m not selling out or losing my integrity by sincerely listening to people I might disagree w/, because folk will tend to be willing to listen to me about food issue or other issues commensurate w/ how much they think I’m sincerely listening to what they’re communicating to me.

Standing in public w/ a large sign, my appearance my at first glance bring to mind for onlookers a person doing a protest. Yet upon reading my sign–“WHAT DO U CARE ABOUT?—as they take a second glance, it may register in their minds that what I’m doing is something a bit, if not significantly different: a public demonstration of a willingness to listen.

7/3/11 9:26 pm

I like the idea of public listening, taking a genuine interest in what another person cares about. I think there is something I like about this not only in terms of WCRS and other reporting, but also in terms of how I relate to people in general.

So far, I’ve done vox pop at Comfest for about an hour and vox pops for about an hour at last night’s gallery hop.

I like the idea of public listening, taking a genuine interest in what another person cares about. I think there is something I like this not only in terms of WCRS and other reporting but also in terms of how I relate to people in general.

One idea is that perhaps even the process of me trying to figure out what the consequences of my reporting will be is , in and of itself, a sort of bad thing. Perhaps—-I’m surprised to say this—the most important part of my motivation as a reporter ought to be a sort of intrinsic interest in engaging with people.

Well, actually I am not sure about this. Perhaps it’s not either/or. I ought to have an intrinsic joy from the very fact of engaging with people regarding whatever’s most dear to their hearts, yet also explore strategies for putting to good use our communication process.

Also, even though I have only done about 2 hours of vox pops so far, it seems to me that the very act of being in a public place and listening to what someone is telling me has some sort of value in that using microphones or writing down what someone is telling me, along with looking at them and having the facial expression of listening intently–well all this perhaps has some sort of value not only for me the reporter and for the person being interviewed, but also for onlookers.

As I write this sentence I’m questioning some of the ideas which have been for the past year or so the basis of my intentions as a reporter: the idea that I ought to focus on an issue; the idea that I ought to connect the reporting with an action component.

6/15/11 11:03pm

Reporting on community gardening/urban farming. To what extent are community gardeners in Columbus faced with losing our plots of land being rented from the city ? This is relevant because it takes time to build up the soil.

Another observation is that there are so few people working on a regular basis in Columbus’ community gardens.

5/10/11 1:58

According to Maria Rodale (Organic Manifesto) the core issue is organic farming, not local food per se, and that, in some cases, chemically based local food can be more energy intensive and polluting (in terms of climate disruption and otherwise) than chemically grown food from afar.

One way of thinking of this is that the DIY aspects to people getting involved in growing, preparing, buying, and selling, and bartering local food is good, in terms of people taking more control over our own lives.

But, I’ve yet to fully reconcile that process with aspiring toward a type of farming that is more ecologically sound. Organic farming/gardening just might be that core principle I’ve been wondering about regarding the topic of ‘local food.’

5/3/11 1:34 pm

The following ideas may be a repeat of what’s already in this entry, but here’s a copy and paste of it from an email I sent myself a couple of weeks ago, just in case it might be useful.

It may be a good idea to interview people based on what they/we are doing (or not doing) in terms of growing, preparing, buying and selling local food as one of many ways to address our survival and quality of life.

Part of the interview could include the question of what they/we think city gov, state govs, and fed gov ought to do to help us grow and prepare, distribute and market local food.

This focus on food might be a good idea in the sense of me being more likely to make myself useful in the community and beyond if I have a command of the details of an issue, as opposed to spreading myself too thin.

Also, my guess is that I will need to apply my intellect to creating my/our garden if I want to significantly increase my harvest along w/ effectively canning some of what I grow.

That pursuit would complement creating written and audio media that involves bringing people together for growing and preparing food. Further still, I might be more likely to get at least some paid work in print or radio if I
focus on food security/food justice/ food sovereignty issues.

Further still, this focus on food might help me to reconcile my waiter experience with my activist/journalist experience in the sense of helping me to find more meaning in my current waiter job and/or in the sense of getting a new or additional waiter job, perhaps one that is more in tune w/ my values.

5/3/11 1:21 pm

Try this: focus the reporting on backyard gardening, community gardening, and urban farming, and as for to/from factor, it can involve communication among gardeners as to promote collaboration and pooling of resources; and communication/relationships between gardeners and people in city and other local (state? Fed ?) govs, as well as businesses, regarding further developing the ‘movement’. As that gains power, it’s likely to clash w/ the interests of corporate control over food.

This seems consistent w/ the sign which raises the question of why and how to get more local food.

And the following questions might be applicable. Time will tell.

How much are you interested in growing food ? How much are you interested in buying food from small-scale farmers ? Are you interested in working with other people to grow food, preserve food thru canning, dehrydrating, fermenting ?

(And for those not interested) When you buy food at supermarkets instead of through CSA’s, farmer’s markets, and stores selling local food, why do you do so, (though of course it’s not either/or)

In terms of who this communication is from and whom it’s to, there are multiple possibilities. An ongoing idea is that I ought to focus my intellectual work on writing as a way to reach out to people –but this can complement work for FSRN and WCRS.

5/3/11 1:09
An additional detail : ask people to express their opinion regarding the question of whether the term “local food’ really gets to the heart of the issues ? Is a better way of saying it ‘improving our food ecology’ ?

Ask people about what they would like to communicate to local government, state gov regarding a ‘better food ecology.’. And then present that to local and state and even fed gov for a possible response–involve also what people would like to communicate to people running local and regional media outlets so WCRS can present that info to them for possible ‘response.’

5/3/11 12;42

A note on radio reporting methods : Instead of sequencing person A then person B and so on, sequence the audio according to the question being answered, and otherwise arrange the content thematically. And find other ways to engage listeners. This is applicable to print media also.

5/2/11 11:22pm
Possibly- I’m not sure about this yet–the reporting we generate will be more useful if we focus on the question of how to have more local food, given that the reasons why have reported on and written about and otherwise expressed.

5/2/11 10:51 pm

I see the need to focus in terms of how I go about interviewing people, as I listen to audio from an interview of Derrick Lori who runs the Helping Hands Community Garden.

In hindsight, I would have preferred to have asked him : (1) why we should grow and prepare more food for local consumption; (2) how to go about doing that; and (3) how the Helping Hands garden is a part of that process.

Without such focus, I make things a lot more difficult for myself in terms of sifting through the audio recordings and rendering some of the content textually.

That should be my basic outline: More local food ? Why ? How ? From that point the people I interview and otherwise work with can immerse ourselves in the finer points.

For example, there are many aspects of the question of why people may want to grow and prepare more local food, and many aspects of how to do it, whether it’s working with businesses, governments, not-for-profits, and so on.

5/2/11 2:24 pm

I’ve thought of having one half of the sandwich board read ” WCRS Columbus 98,3/102.2″ but that still seems like self-promotion. What do you think ?

We might make a better impression if the signs focus on listening to what people might communicate. Then, when they’ve talked, we can hand them the WCRS FM/CIM business card.

An additional public listening topic could involve a sign that reads : “Surviving/Thriving With Less Money ?”. As I’ve said many times already, the idea is to help build working relationships based on addressing our survival and quality of life.

4/29/11 12:44 pm

Perhaps I could do more good if I engage with people where they are in their communities, instead of sitting at meetings where mostly economically comfortable people talk amongst ourselves and perhaps maybe, here and there, talk about–instead of talking with–people in the “communities of need”

I respect the work of local food advocates, but as for me, I prefer to actually engage face-to-face, as a ‘co-worker,’ with people doing urban farming or community gardening ; and (2) actually engage face-to-face with people in the “communities in need.”

Instead of criticizing various local food advocates for their respective approaches, I intend to ask them for advice regarding my plans to engage with people on their terms in their communities and in other public places.

4/26/11 8:01 pm I intend to wear one sign on the front and one one the back, both reading :

MORE
LOCAL
FOOD
WHY ?
HOW ?

Saying WCRS or Columbus Free Press isn’t necessary.

4/26/11 12:18 I keep going back and forth on this. Perhaps it’s a lurching way of going forward. Here’s my most recent plan.

Work with local food advocates so as to interview people at local food forums and other events on the question of how to grow/prepare/buy/sell more local food, while also interviewing people in public places, using a sign that reads: “Growing/preparing/selling/buying more local food: how? why? why not ?”

I can make a 2 ft x 3 ft foam board sign at Utrecht in the Short North for $10-$15. But I may need to get spare intertubes for the bike trailer so as to use it to transport the sign, since it won’t fold up for placement in one of my pannier bags.

My guess is that I can include animal rights in this reporting project, along with issues such as Peak Oil, climate change, monopoly control in the food industry, food deserts, and so on.

There is likely not a perfect approach. But as I write this sentence, this one seems the best I’ve come up with so far, in terms of reconciling my work as a waiter and my attempts at growing food with my work as a reporter and activist.

Also, as I’ve said before, it’s not that I don’t care about other issues. But rather, it’s the case that I’m concerned that if I spread myself too thin, I will end up not helping out much with any issue.

Also, I may be more likely to make at least some money as a reporter and activist if become more adept at providing context, continuity, and detail in my work, in addition to more creatively working at my current server job, and more effectively acquiring a waiter job to replace the one I currently have–a waiter job that’s more in tune with my values, such as a job at one or more of the bars and restaurants that are part of the Betty’s Family of Restaurants.

4/26/11 12:04 am In terms of gathering audio while wearing a sign that reads ” What’s important to you ? WCRS wants to know,” who the communication may end as being most appropriately to likely will depend on what particular interviewees say and how they say it.

I or we might decide to send a comment to a city official, while I or we might decide to send some other comment to a local business or not-for-profit or church and so on.

4/25/11 9:41 pm Here’s yet another idea. Have a sign that reads : WCRS Community Radio: What do you think ? What will you do ? ” Or perhaps this would be better or as good: “WCRS Community Radio/What matters to you ? What will you do about it ? ”

In terms of inviting input from people in public places using the limited space of a poster board sign, I might be better off to have the sign read : “Tell WCRS community radio what’s important to you.” Or maybe this is better : “What’s important to you ? WCRS wants to know.”

One approach to doing this would be to basically give the interviewee total freedom (as much as keeping with FCC guidelines allows).

Right now, I have likes and dislikes about this approach. What I like about it is that it doesn’t involve me trying to sell someone a product or an idea, and it doesn’t even involve me trying to persuade her or him to take any action other than expressing to me (and our listeners and readers) what is important to them. Actually, the person might even lie or be playful about it for all I know.

Further, I like how this approach seems to involve taking an intrinsic interest in people, instead of valuing my interaction with her or him as it relates to an agenda I’m trying to promote. Perhaps there is something alienating about seeking to engage with someone as it pertains to an agenda (however well-intentioned that agenda may seem to me and to others working with me on that agenda.)

I like this idea in the sense that it might turn out to be an interesting and useful twist on the concept of a protest or demonstration in that I’m making a statement in a public place, but the statement is an invitation for just about anyone there to tell me (and our listeners and readers) about what matters to them.

Protests and demonstrations typically involve, to my knowledge, people trying to get other people’s attention about something they themselves care about. I’m not discrediting that approach. But this concept of taking an interest in what others care about might result in something helpful, for lack of a better way of saying it.

But what concerns me about this approach is that it seems to go against the idea that I ought to focus on a specific cause, with a clear sense of who the message is to and who it’s from, and a way for what we talk about to connect with taking action such as working in a community garden or cycling instead of driving.

But maybe, at some point in the interaction with at least some of the people I engage with, the person or persons will urge me to talk about what I care about. At that point, I can do so.

Perhaps some of this audio and written material will result in communication between some of the people interviewed and other members of our communities who were not present during the in-person interview. It would seem this is one of the functions of using audio and textual reporting–helping people–including myself–to have some sort of communication with people beyond the immediate situation, in terms of time and place.

4/25/11 9:17 pm
Here are some ideas taken from other Journal entries on this blog that could be useful to bear in mind.

Some aspects of what I might accomplish as a reporter:
(1) creating the ‘social space’ in which someone can engage with another person–me the interviewer or someone else–about issues in their communities. On more than one occasion people have seemed to enjoy being interviewed, apparently because of having someone listen to them talk about something they care about.

(2)

One possibility is to start by

4/25/11 7:30 pm:

It may help to have a large sign that reads : “Talk to WCRS Columbus about growing your own food.”

4/25/11 4:46pm Maybe I ought to try both approaches. Do vox pops, forums, and other interviews and writing based on the question of how we can improve the ecology of our city, and on the question of how we can increase the number of people in greater Columbus involved with growing, preparing, and selling local food.

For a columbus underground thread : Growing, preparing, selling & buying more local food: how, why or why not ?
4/25/11 1pm

Actually, I think the Eco Summit theme is too vague, and such vagueness –given my limited time and other resources–makes it more likely that what I do becomes an exercise in communicating general ideas about ‘sustainability’ that leads to little, if any, action.

If I/we at WCRS focus on the issue of how to grow the community gardening movement in greater Columbus, it would still involve the to and from component, and do so more meaningfully than if I/we at WCRS were to focus on the question of how we can improve the ecology of Columbus.

The flow of communication that WCRS could be involved in helping along could be between city officials and community groups involved with gardening projects; community gardening groups and prospective people who might want to join in with the efforts; and so on.

But I should start with asking people such as Michael Jones, Noreen Warnock, Hank Koehler, and many others about their working relationships with city officials.

Also, what about –though it seems like a long shot—local groceries and local restaurants having working relationships with community gardens in Columbus ?

Some of this is just going to have to develop as I/we go along with the process of (1) actually working in these gardens and (2) talking with a wide variety of people about this.

But, perhaps what I at least have right now is the realization that I got to focus on ‘eco-gastronomy’ in general and community gardens in specific if I want to increase my/our chances of actually having a constructive impact in our communities and beyond.

Also, this is what I like about reporting on, to use a term from Slow Food International, ‘eco-gastronomy.’
(1) it connects my food service experience with activism and journalism
(2) it involves an increase chance for getting paid work as a reporter, for FSRN and perhaps some print outlets;
(3) it connects my reporting with the process of learning the nuance involved with improving at growing my own food

So, as far as the Puffin Foundation follow thru is concerned, focusing specifically on community gardening, and not so much the more general topic of ‘sustainable farming’–at least not in the short-term– may be wise.

4-21-11

Did you know an international Eco Summit is scheduled to be held here in Columbus in the fall of 2012 ? What would you like to say to city officials or other people who live in Columbus about how we can improve the ‘ecology’ of our city ?

For this project the word ‘ecology’ includes not only how we treat the natural environment but also how people treat each other, and how people treat animals.

In terms of finding ‘better’ ways to meet our needs for food, water, transportation, housing, medicine, and so on, which of those things do you think would involve you the most, in terms of working w/ people in your community toward solutions ?

What would you like to say to state or federal officials about how we can improve the ecology of our state and/or our country ?

Basing the Puffin ‘civic journalism’ project on the theme of the lead up to eco summit involves strong to/from component and is most likely of all plans so far, to involve a variety of gov officials and business folk and media folk and people in general.

Using rain barrels

Make sure overflow, such as from a heavy rain, is diverted to another part of the yard such as the garden, so that the rain doesn’t accumulate along the foundation of the house.

Notes on survival and quality of life reporting project

Check with municipal governments near Columbus and beyond, in terms of whether they’ve done outreach for assessing, getting ideas regarding, quality of life in our communities.

In at least some cases, collaboration with people working with local, state, and federal agencies is in tune with me having integrity.

Likely, my interview approach will be much more qualitative than quantitative. But I ought to be open-minded about that.

——————————

What is important for your quality of life, or in other words, what makes life satisfying, or what makes life worth living for you ?

Another term would be ‘livability.’ Where you do live ? What’s your opinion of the livability of where you live ?

How about things you can do with your neighbors, friends, family, coworkers to improve the livability of where you live ?

In terms of here—Columbus Ohio, and now–April 2011– what makes life worth living in terms of how you meet specific needs such as getting food, transportation, medical care, housing, and so on ?

Would relevant music make our protests more effective ?

I wondered about this as I listened to someone play John Lennon’s Power To The People