Victoria Bouloubasis
\nTamara Jeffries
\nMelvin \u201cBuddy\u201d Baker<\/p>\n
Our small group explored these questions through a dialogue that focused on our own experience with specific stigmatized populations: the homeless, mental health patients and undocumented immigrants in the United States.<\/p>\n
How is community created among those people? Is information disseminated well enough within the community?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are two levels of communication:<\/p>\n The dialogue continued. Tamara and Victoria highlighted that people living \u201cin the shadows\u201d must be tapped into a network of people dealing with the same issues<\/strong> in order to create a trusted community that can, in turn, become empowered. Tamara said, \u201cWhen you have people who feel marginalized, and you don\u2019t know there are other people who are dealing with the same thing \u2013 when people come out of the closet, then you have the opportunity for them to feel safer to engage with an ally population. More voices make a bigger impact. The issue is knowing each other.<\/strong> How to get people to understand that they\u2019re not the only one. My perspective as a journalist, as an ally, I\u2019m the one who says: you\u2019re not by yourself. Here are our issues, let us disseminate our issues and make a complete circle.\u201d<\/p>\n What are ways journalists can aid these groups is to amplify their message.<\/strong><\/p>\n Victoria asked, \u201cWhat is the access to media for these groups<\/strong>?\u201d Online multimedia, for example Youtube videos, is a way to express something through the means that community has. It boils down to making sure that there are avenues of communication and having access, while having a sense of what kind of tools of communication are available to that community. You have to be more elemental \u2013 like posting at a bulletin board at a homeless shelter.<\/p>\n Buddy, who volunteers with homeless in helping them put together a resume, mentioned that it\u2019s important to help these groups realize their own assets and skills. \u201cLots of times they realize they\u2019ve done more things than they\u2019ve thought about, they have more skills than they\u2019ve thought about.\u201d<\/p>\n How does a journalist cover \u201cthe invisible\u201d with respect to that community?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cTo me the basic responsibility of covering the invisible comes down to the reporter. Regardless of community outreach, if the reporter thinks it\u2019s an important issue \u2013 go out every day and make yourself known, and they will call you.\u201d Buddy<\/p>\n \u201cThere has to be trust created.\u201d Tamara<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes they might distrust you because of prior experience with a reporter.\u201d Buddy<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is to make sure that people have a sense that this is a big issue. If you\u2019re willing to tell your story, you can help people understand that there are ways to help, ways to heal. Because access is cheap or free, there\u2019s nothing to stop the people in the community from communicating from their own situation. So it\u2019s not either or, it\u2019s both. What we see is people who are communicating within the community can create bigger stories. \u201c Tamara<\/p>\n We conclude that we\u2019ve have the means to come together, as journalists, allies and \u201cthe invisible,\u201d and activate. New media not only informs, but activate us to do something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Victoria Bouloubasis Tamara Jeffries Melvin \u201cBuddy\u201d Baker Our small group explored these questions through a dialogue that focused on our own experience with specific stigmatized populations: the homeless, mental health patients and undocumented immigrants in the United States. How is … Continue reading \n