Notes From The Field

Embedding radio in the community

I love radio. There, I said it.

Not matter how much I might go giddy at the thought of an iPad or the latest mobile phone app, radio is the medium that is always on in my house and it's something I can take literally anywhere with me. Yep, podcasts, shared social media audio via audioboo and an mp3 player are now part of my audio-radio programming mix too, but listening to the radio still makes up a significant part of how I consume media.

Wherever I travel I'm always on the look out for what role radio plays in people's lives - be it for news, information, entertainment and culture but especially for education, humanitarian development and emergency purposes. And perhaps because I had my first real start in broadcasting as a volunteer at a community radio station (where you might do everything from answer the phone to host a programme) I'm very interested in how radio can play an active and participatory role in a community; adapt to harnessing new technologies; work around obstacles such as remote locations or legal restrictions; and, reach out to people who for whatever reason might be marginalised in society. That said, radio also has to stay relevant in an increasingly net driven, mobile multimedia and social media landscape as well as compete with the TV sat dish and box in the corner of the living room.

Right now I'm in Vietnam with colleagues from the Deutsche Welle Akademie training local radio journalists. We've been working in Hanoi and also in the World Heritage listed Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park to gather materials for environmental radio features. Hopefully they'll be sound rich and oozing radio goodness. We want to tell real stories about real people, not just the voices of administrators and development agencies. I personally hope participants will view radio in a different light after the course - that along with providing information, you can use radio to help your listeners discover and explore. Our training aims to produce the sort of programming that really gets the most out of radio and prompts listeners tell their friends about it. People share quality.

 

I am though typing out this post on my MacBook Pro in a modest air conditioned hotel room. I have wifi internet access (which is a very pleasant surprise), a mobile phone using a local network for 3G/GPRS (excellent to send a quick Tweet or Audioboo and read email) and my trusty short-wave radio which (sadly!) sort of seems redundant here given that I can listen to radio stations via the internet.

Maybe I have to hope for a power cut to feel good that I brought my radio with rechargeable batteries, or walk outside beyond the range of wifi to listen to the radio?

OK, but what has all that got to do with radio and the community?

Well, I suppose because I've been travelling through rural areas and absorbed in radio production and citizen journalism of late, I've been thinking back to ideas from a training course last year in Kano, northern Nigeria. I was working with local journalists from state and commerical radio stations to help produce education and youth programming. Outside of the host station Freedom Radio, I was quite pleased that I could live stream video from my mobile phone via 3G direct to the internet.

 

The wonders of broadcasting live video aside, what really struck me in Kano was the city's dynamic mobile phone market. Not only was every conceivable phone available, but phones were being used in all sorts of practical ways and selling or sharing content (mainly music) by Bluetooth and USB cable was fascinating to watch.

For instance, I hadn't thought about using the ring-tone library in a basic mobile phone as an mp3 music player until I saw it in action in the market. A simple hack you might say.

But the mobile phone market also got me thinking: why can't radio and audio programming such as podcasts be offered in city bazaars and markets, not just music? And moreover, maybe radio stations should think about setting up stalls in markets or having a shopfront or street studio presence? The local newspaper in my home city of Bonn has a shop (not really inviting though) but I'm thinking more along the lines of East Village Radio in New York with a street level studio where people can literally drop in and chat with DJ's and staff.

Of course it's very common to see radio stations located at secured sites in a light-industrial part of a city. There are important practical reasons too. A station might need a lot of land if its radio mast is onsite and station security is vital - more so in some countries over others.

However, this means radio stations can be quite physically removed from their local community. The community radio station I volunteered at in Sydney was in a tall university building but often participated in local outdoor events which was a good way of funding raising and promoting the station. I'd like to see radio stations in developing countries experiment with having a prominent presence or a regular stall in their local market. Podcasts of programming and other multimedia content could be offered free of charge via bluetooth or USB cable - alongside station merchandise for fundraising. Maybe a station could even produce specific audio programmes or multimedia content in formats for mobile phones? Take a look at how Practical Action is using podcasting in Zimbabwe to disseminate information among people in remote locations via Bluetooth.

If people can charge their mobile phone at a market stall, why can't they go to a stall to download via Bluetooth a free programme, podcast or multimedia content?

There could also be loads of possibilities for sort of lo-fi social media networking, news and current affairs programming, citizen journalism and fund raising.

People from the radio station who run the stall could be 'social media community producers'. Perhaps they could be students or cadet-trainee journalists? Helping to run the stall could be a useful way of actually getting more journalists talking to people in their community - discussing issues, problems.... discovering potential story ideas and importantly, listening to the community and building a network of contacts.

Journalists or 'social media community producers' could even record interviews at the stall with a mobile phone. If there's a good internet connection or mobile internet network then this content could be sent back to the station quickly. Good quality live two-way interviews are also possible with the right mobile phone broadcasting kit. Of course a station might already have an outdoor broadcasting capacity and could produce a regular show where they broadcast live from the market.

I have seen community radio stations working out of central market places before - even quite low tech versions. In Moldulkiri, Cambodia, the local community "radio" station broadcasts from the village market. But rather than broadcasting over the airwaves to radios, the station broadcasts via wires to several loudspeakers. There are a few drawbacks such as no volume control. Forget about pumping up the volume - it's loud everywhere. The thing is it works and everyone knows where the announcer and "station" is.

Maybe you've seen an innovative way that a radio station has "embedded" itself into a community and is proving to be more than just a studio, newsroom and broadcasting mast?

Should community radio stations look towards say Alfred Sirleaf's Daily Talk chalkboard newspaper in Monrovia for inspiration - a community hub for news in a central location?

Have a look at PBS MediaShift this week, there's a great post on interactive citizen media projects experimenting with radio and mobile phones. Comunica also has blog devoted to Radio 2.0 for Development. And, following up on what I mentioned about media in India in my last post, the community radio sector there is experimenting with broadcasting using mobile phone technology.

(First published on the EJC TH!NK3 Developing World Blog)

The price of seeking a job and a better life

I'm in between assignments and have been reviewing video and photographs from a recent reporting trip to Iraqi Kurdistan. With fellow producers Karlos Zurutuza and Borja Portuondo, we're working on a documentary and multimedia reportage about a group of Bangladeshis who have found themselves cleaning the streets of Dohuk in northern Iraq.

At one's cheery best, you could describe their situation as having the chance to have a full time job, three meals a day, a dormitory room with A/C and a colour TV to watch cricket. But their blunt reality is labour exploitation. Cheap labour exported from the developing world. Victims of a form of human trafficking and indentured servitude.

Most were duped into applying for jobs in Dubai. All of the workers we spoke to paid a local employment agency in Bangladesh for an overseas job contract, a work visa and a one way airfare - some paid as much as USD$4000. Workers told us of job offers for some sort of manual work, for example in a factory. Their promised salary would be around $USD500 per month. They would work six days a week, Friday afternoons would be free for prayers and they would also be entitled to have religious holidays.

Mohan* was close to tears as he showed me photographs of his son and wife back in Bangladesh. We sat in his cramped dormitory room that he shares with five other workers. While I tried to concentrate on what Mohan was saying and keep him in focus, I could literally feel the reverberations of anger pent up inside him.

"They lied," said Mohan. "Everything they said is lies. After coming here I found it was all false, all promises were false."

For days we had wondered about these "men in orange" who swept the streets of Dohuk. Working in pairs with brooms and a small rubbish cart, they were already on the streets when we were having our early morning chay and worked late into the evening. The same streets, everyday. We thought to ourselves: Who are these guys and how did they get here? Isn't unemployment a huge problem in Iraqi Kurdistan? We're not in Baghdad's Green Zone or on a military base, so why are foreign workers cleaning the streets in northern Iraq?

No sooner had we walked over to talk with them and find out, we were surrounded. In the space of a couple of minutes, little pieces of a big problem started to filter through.

Things started to go wrong once they had said goodbye to their families and were on their way. Yes, they had a ticket to Dubai, but that was not their final destination. Agents in Dubai then revealed they would now be going to Iraqi Kurdistan - supposedly same jobs, same salary, same contract terms and entitlements. But while in transit in Dubai, the workers were instructed to sign a new contract - a contract that some say they didn't understand or the terms were not explained properly to them. Many of the workers were also illiterate and signed contracts with a thumb print. Others refused to sign a new contract but we're trapped because they had no money to independently turn around and go home. And there was still the carrot of earning good money dangling in front of them, even though it was in Iraq. Little did they know that their dream of a good paying job was already swept away.

"The [street cleaning] job that we are doing here is totally repulsive and if we'd known that we were supposed to do this repulsive job we'd never have come here," said Mohan.

"They said after meeting with your monthly expenses here you can easily send 20,000 Taka (c.USD$270) to Bangladesh but in reality this is not at all happening."

Mohan said he only earns USD$240 a month. Less than half of what he was promised. He has to work 7 days a week. Friday afternoons are free for prayer, but he does not receive any time off for holidays. If he's careful with expenses such as telephone cards, Mohan is able to send around US$160 back home - but it's not enough to adequately support his family and repay the USD$4000 he borrowed to pay the job agency in Bangladesh. Do the sums and you can see why Mohan and his work mates are very frustrated not only with the work they are forced to do but also the pay.

After two years of work, Mohan thought that his contract was finished and wanted to move on from Dohuk. He's heard about better opportunities for workers in nearby Erbil. But there was another catch. He's trapped. He can't even leave the city limits of Dohuk. His employer claims that the contract is in fact for three years and also keeps his passport, his only indentity document, under lock and key.

Here's what my colleague Karlos Zurutuza wrote in The Diplomat about our encounter with the boss:

"Sitting in his office in the building adjacent to the dining room of the worker camp, Faris Artosh, the owner of Artosh Company, sees himself as a true ‘Kurdish patriot.’...

Artosh is dismissive of the notion that his workers are being mistreated. Regarding the complaints of the sweepers over pay and conditions, he’s quick to blame the contracting companies in Bangladesh for any irregularities. He produces a photocopy of a contract as ‘proof’ of transparency. ‘My workers enjoy free accommodation and boarding. Every six months an inspector comes from Bangladesh and he always says that my workers are better off here than back home’, he says, adding that every bedroom in the workers´ dormitory has an air-conditioner.

Artosh admits that he keeps his employees’ passports. ‘If I didn’t, many of them would try to cross the Turkish border and flee to Europe afterwards’, he explains. But, although he insists that his staff have work visas, he is unable to prove this, stating that the safe where the passports are kept can only be opened by his accountant."

"Everybody cry. Everybody cry. Everybody want their passport," said Mohan

"I strongly believe, given the chance, if I go back to Bangladesh and do some small petty job, like a small business, or if I take a job of a rickshaw puller I'll be able to earn 7-8000 Taka (c.USD$120) a month. And, I'll be able to live with my parents, wife and child, and I'll be able to live in peace. Here I'm working without anybody, my parents, my siblings... and to me it is like a prison of a different kind. I don't like at all to live in a foreign land."

As a 2009 US State Department human rights report on Iraq states:

"There is little information about trafficking in persons in the Kurdistan region. Third country nationals reportedly have been trafficked into the region to work as manual laborers, including garbage collectors, and women have been reportedly trafficked to work as prostitutes."

Though we saw a small group of young Kurds working as crews on garbage trucks, these teenagers were doing the only job they could find having been forced to leave cities such as Mosul because of ongoing violence.

It's a dirty job, and probably one that won't be profiled on the Discovery Channel unless they have an Iraq special.

Asking around town, cleaning streets for $240 a month is not a job that Kurds seem to want. To give you a comparison, you could earn more being a local security guard or traffic cop.

Despite feeling that Iraqi Kurdistan is a wealthy region, street cleaning and garbage collecting is a job that many Bangaldeshis are not proud of either. Spare a thought for workers such as Mohan who have not told their wives, or family or friends what they are actually doing in Iraq.

"I never explained the reality to my family what I'm doing here. I told them that I work in a market and I make cartons but in reality I clean the streets and garbage, dirty jobs," said Mohan. "I didn't tell anyone. None of my friends or family know what I do. I told them that I do a clean and good job in a shop ."

Perhaps on a related point about migration and work, have a read of Th!nk3-er Ladislav Kudlacek's post on the social status of immigrants.

Remittances are of course of huge importance to Bangladesh's economy - World Bank analysts predict Bangladesh's overseas workforce will send home more than $USD10 billion in 2010. Remittances to Bangladesh have increased at an average annual rate of 19 percent between 1979-2008.

There's no question that this income makes a much needed difference in the lives of the recipients for food, clothing, health care and education. It's poverty reduction in action. However, when I met people such as Mohan, I do stop to think carefully about the arguments put forth by economists for Bangladesh to keep up its high rate of exporting labour.

I think it comes down to being traumatised and what happens to a person who has to endure years of working under such conditions.  Sure, not everyone has such a negative experience, but I wonder what sort of man Mohan will be when he finally goes back home? Will he still be ashamed of his time in Iraq? Will he be able to move on to a happier life?

*Not his real name.

(First published on the EJC TH!NK3 Developing World blog)

Five favourite gadgets for the kit bag

(First published on the Frontline Club blog)

I've got quite a bit of travel coming up over the next few months and these five gadgets have become must haves in my kit bag. Do let me know if you've got any essential travel gadgets that you don't leave home without.

1. Novatel Mifi 2352 portable wireless hotspot

Stick in a SIM card to access a 3G network and start surfing the net via wifi. This little wonder lets you connect up to 5 devices by wifi. I gave the Mifi 2352 a good workout earlier this year in Iraqi Kurdistan using the Mobitel 3G network. It won a lot of praise my co-producers wanting to get online quickly. It turned literally anywhere we were into an instant internet cafe.


2. PowerMonkey eXplorer Solar Charger

Recharge on the run. Christian Payne aka @documentally has a good review of the PowerMonkey on his BushTech blog. It's a practical device for recharging small devices. I often carry the battery pack to give my iPhone or Nokia a boost. The array of included adaptors makes this gadget quite versatile. Anyone using a Kodak pocket video camera such as a Zi8 might be interested to know that the battery pack will charge the camera battery (slowly) or work as an external power source. I have yet to test how long you can film using the PM on a full charge. As for the solar panels, I'm going to Mali shortly for a filming assignment so I'm keen to use the solar panels to help keep some small gadgets charged up.

3. Solar powered + wind up radio-torch + mobile phone charger

I love radio. I usually take quite a bulky Sony short-wave radio on my travels. But if I want to travel lighter and I know the BBC World Service is available locally on AM or FM then I usually opt for a small Walkman transistor set. But a couple of months ago a small all-in-one radio caught my attention. For 12 euro I thought it was worth giving a go and either it would do what it says on the tin or I'd give it away. No regrets. It's quite rugged and is staying in the kit bag for the time being - perhaps a one-year after test would be useful to see how it holds up. The AM/FM radio works fine with loudspeaker or headphones. The LED torch is reasonably bright and fine for flapping around during power cuts (though I still carry a mini Maglite). The solar panel charges both the radio and torch. And as for the most interesting part of the unit - the wind-up crank handle - well I'm happy to report that it's not a gimmick. After a couple of quick revolutions it begins charging not only the torch and radio, but via a short cable, just about anything accepting a 5 volt DC charge. Think mobile phone, iPhone and even a Mifi. Ok, it's going to be an emergency situation that you need to charge your phone by a crank handle, but you never know... The one I bought in Germany was under the brand Moorhead. But I've noticed the same/similar model is sold under other brands elsewhere. It comes with several small adaptors for charging. I have a little bag for these adaptors (they're all mixed up with the similar PowerMonkey adaptors) but I wish there was a little cubby hole in the unit to store the cable and the adaptor I would use the most. The unit can also be charged up by a USB port connected to a computer or another battery source.

4. Polaroid Pogo photo printer

The crowd pleaser. In combination with a mobile phone or digital camera via USB, the Polaroid Pogo is a pocket-sized photo printer. It really makes a difference if you're working in a visual medium to be able to offer someone a photo on the spot - about the size of a business card. Result? Smiles all round. I used to cart around a small Canon printer that plugged into a car ciggie-lighter, but the Pogo is much more portable, powered by a rechargeable battery and there's no mucking around with ink. However, keep in mind you can't directly print with the iPhone - Apple has crippled the iPhone's bluetooth for sending photo files. Nokia, no problem. It's a pity really as it would be brilliant to use some iPhone photo editing apps such as PS Mobile in tandem with the Pogo.


5. Stainless steel coffee plunger

OK, perhaps the title of this post should of read four gadgets and one life saving utensil... but good coffee is technical. When an espresso machine is not within coo-ee, I'm certainly up for any local brew whether it's a Turkish coffee, a glass of mint tea or chay with the teaspoon standing upright in a small mountain of sugar. But, I get irritable if I have to stare at a tin of instant coffee and consider the words freeze-dried. So if coffee is likely to be a problem on a trip I bring my own coffee and a portable plunger. Probably the best 10 euro I've spent on travel kit. The one pictured below is from Jack Wolfskin and it does the job for two cups. I'd like to find a slightly larger one for three cups - a "crew" model, then everyone is happy

Coffee breaks at the Press Institute of Mongolia improved dramatically!

Going mojo at #Media140 and #IJF10

Thanks to Eyjafjallajökull I've taken an unexpected 1257 km driving tour across southern Germany, through tunnels of the Swiss Alps and into northern Italy to attend the International Journalism Festival in Perugia.

Unfortunately quite a few international speakers and journalists have been unable to attend but it's far from an all Italian affair.

Ande Gregson has been furiously re-working the Media140 programme of the Festival after roaring into Perugia on his Yamaha R1 earlier in the week. Lisa Zilberpriver also managed to navigated her way here from Sydney and is covering sessions for the blog.

And for the Media140 speakers stuck in the UK I have my fingers crossed that all goes well for streaming their video presentations to Perugia. Judging from the tweets and Audioboos it sounds like producing their live video show in a bunker is going to be an interesting experience.

I was due to talk about recording and streaming video with a mobile phone, but with a slightly longer spot to fill, I may cast it a little wider and discuss mobile journalism and how you can use a mobile phone as a reporting tool.

So, using the example of a recent trip to Turkey and northern Iraq, here's a brief overview of how I'm making use of a mobile phone when I'm on the road.

It was not a news driven trip. The goal was to shoot a documentary and produce a couple of good feature stories. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, the mobile phone has become a tool that is well and truly integrated into my workflow. How I used it on this trip might offer you a few more practical ideas of using a mobile phone when reporting other than the usual phone, text message, web/email and photos.

The basic mojo kit + accessories

- iPhone 3GS (unlocked)
- Nokia N82
- Sennheiser ME 64 microphone
- earphones
- Novatel Mifi 2352 wireless hotspot
- Polaroid Pogo portable photo printer

Digital notebook
I'm using the iPhone more and more as a sort of digital notebook, often taking photos as a sort of quick digital scanner or to quickly document a scene that I can use to describe in better detail later.

Audio recorder
I used two audio apps depending on what I wanted to to do. Audioboo is great for a short interview or to record your impressions and share that via social media. I also used the FiRe field recorder app with an external microphone to record audio materials for a short radio feature. 

Photo printer

In combination with a mobile phone (or compact camera via USB) the Polaroid Pogo is an inexpensive pocket-sized crowd pleaser. It really makes a difference if you're working in a visual medium to be able to offer someone a photo on the spot. I can take photos with the Nokia, send the data file by bluetooth and in about a minute out pops a small business card size photo. Result? Smiles. But c'mon Apple, why cripple the bluetooth on the iPhone? It would be brilliant to use some iPhone photo editing apps such as PS Mobile in tandem with the Pogo.

Bluetooth file sharer

By chance I met the deminer Faris Zubair Ali in Dohuk and was spellbound by the story he told me of a night time demining rescue mission. Faris actually had with him mobile video footage shot during the rescue and shared it with me immediately by bluetooth. Journalists need a phone with bluetooth, and you need to know how to use it.

Micro-blogging and social media

Heard of that thing called Twitter? Yeah? Along along with tweeting the trip, Twitter was also useful to monitor Kurdish issues with #hashtag keywords. I mainly used Tweetdeck on the iPhone and Dabr on the Nokia.

Audio playback for interview translations

Often you need to go back over translations to clean them up and that takes time. I exported audio from video files and uploaded them to the Nokia and/or iPhone. This was useful to playback and work on translations, virtually anywhere, when the laptop and/or tapes were back in the hotel.

Video camera and video streaming

On this trip I used the iPhone a lot to record my impressions - again as a sort of digital notebook with a view to video-blogging or maybe using this content to complement HD video and photographs for a web-documentary. I also uploaded video to the net to share. For instance during in a lighter moment while filming our doco in Dohuk, I uploaded a quick 12seconds video of playing cricket with Bangladeshi street cleaners. Short and easy to upload on network.

Playing cricket in Northern Iraq on 12seconds.tv

In previous posts I've mentioned using Qik and Bambuser for live streaming video. There several apps available. Of late I've also been using USTREAM. All of these apps are regularly upgraded with new or improved features and I move between them depending on which phone I'm using.

Skype

Using a combination of the Fring application on either phone, and logging on via the 3G network made Skype quite straightforward to use.

Wifi hotspot
JoikuSpot app lets you turn your phone into a wifi hotspot. Whenever the Mifi batteries were flat, JoikuSpot was a useful to bridge the gaps between charges.

Mifi - the other gadget

This was really my first trip using the Mifi and it worked well. Despite the erratic speeds on the 3G network it turned wherever I was into an instant internet cafe and saved us plenty of time.

So, what was the bottom line of being connected in Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey? Around USD$100, and that included regularly having 3 devices connected to the Mifi and surfing the net and over the 3G network.

Update:

Here's the short video on live streaming video I presented at media140:

Streaming video from a mobile phone from fieldreports on Vimeo.

Short video clip to help explain the basics of live streaming video - presented at Media140 Perugia, April 2010.

Music: Sputnik Booster, 'Type your Text'

Media140 goes to Perugia

Driving down to Perugia this week for Media140 at the International Journalism Festival was a great excuse to check out some mapping applications and tools. On the way I opted for using the EveryTrail Pro app on my iPhone. I set the GPS tracking to every 1000 metres, and rather than draining the battery by tracing the whole trip, I just flicked it on several times along the way to plot a very rough course. There is a free version, but you need the Pro app to add photos and video. Sometimes there was a problem obtaining an accurate GPS trace but on the whole it makes for a lot of fun. The next long road trip will either need data sponsorship or another GPS device to plot the whole course.

Bonn to Perugia #italianjob

Map your trip with EveryTrail