Antonio Pedro Ruiz is one of those people whose energy and vision makes them part of the critical infrastructure for the city’s cultural landscape. He’s served on the board of the Arts Council, led the effort to create a new Cultural Master Plan, played a critical role on the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Arts Funding, cofounded the Creativity Network, and his tireless advocacy for the creative community earned him the Distinguished Arts Patron and Volunteer award.
For the last year and a half, Antonio has been focused on VoiceWaves. I asked him to explain what VoiceWaves is, what it does, and why he became involved.
“VoiceWaves is part of a state initiative managed by New America Media in San Francisco,” Antonio said, “and funded by the California Endowment and the Knight Foundation. There are a number of sites around the state, including Richmond, Fresno, South Kern, Coachella and Long Beach.
“The mission is to train youth to be journalists, and to report on health issues. We define health very broadly, to include not only asthma and diabetes and obesity but also violence and education and the economic health of a community.
“My role has been community engagement,” Antonio explained. “I’ve been working with California Endowment partners and grantees to promote VoiceWaves, but also working toward generating content from them and about them.
“I really became involved as part of my long interest in community issues which, as you know, include the arts and community networking. This was a great opportunity to bring together many of those issues under my first love, journalism. Journalism today includes not just the written word but also multimedia and social media, especially with this generation of young people.”
I asked Antonio if the participants are finding a healthy balance between new and traditional methods of reporting.
“Yes,” he agreed. “I think some have been challenged by the need to think in written word vesus just picking up a camera or an audio recorder first. The lesson we are all learning is how to balance both the traditional methods of storytelling with the new ones. I fervently believe you need both.
“If you look at many of the stories they’ve done, there have been some raw personal accounts that really capture their feelings. The next step is to turn that into clear, focused reporting that contextualizes the issues facing the communities of West and Central Long Beach and, hopefully, educates and inspires both community members and policy makers.
“In the end, this is more than just telling a good story. It’s about shining a light on the communities and the daily challenges that are not reported on by [other] media.
One of the leaders of the local VoiceWaves program is Prumsodun Ok. His career as a professional dancer and choreographer has been pulling him away from the program.
“We’ve done some reporting but we need to do more,” Antonio said. “We’re exapnding our effort to identify more content creators. That is our mandate for the rest of 2012-2013. It begins with identifying a new Project Content Coordinator who will replace the outgoing Prum Ok. He’s leaving to pursue some other creative ventures and we wish him luck. He’s helped build an important foundation, including coming up with the name ‘VoiceWaves,’ and identifying some important stories.”
I asked him what he’s looking for in a replacement.
“I think we all agree that we need to have someone with strong journalism experience, multimedia skills, knowledge of local community issues and an ability to work with a diverse group of youth and a diverse community. We will be posting something online soon but in the meantime, people interested in the job can send me an email and I will send them both the posting and a link to an application. They can reach me at [email protected]. Our website is voicewaves.org and you can find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/voicewaves.”
Another project close to Antonio’s heart is the effort to preserve and restore public access television to the Long Beach community. I asked him for an update.
“The Long Beach Community Action Partnership is the nonprofit organization charged with the responsibility of overseeing the new Public Access Digital Network or PADNET. The challenge now is just the whole build of the system including the connection to Charter and Verizon and setting up the structure for Public Access Producers. There’s an Advisory Committee and a Producers Group that meet regularly.
“We hope to start programming within the next 3 months, if not sooner, but this has taken a little longer than we all imagined. The good news is that there is action and we’re moving.
“Once up, this will be so important to filling so many news and information gaps, both on Cable and online. I hope that journalists such as you and others including VoiceWaves will see this as an opportunity to expand the distribution of news and information in Long Beach.
“If someone wants to get involved as a content creator for VoiceWaves, they can also reach out to me. If they want to become a Public Access Producer, they should go online to Long Beach Community Action Partnership’s website. There’s a tab for PADNET. People can also call them.”
There were two significant criticisms of the old Public Access system here in Long Beach. The first was that there was very little effort to build audience. The 2nd was that it was very difficult for new content creators to gain access to the program because people were ‘grandfathered’ in, and time slots were always full. I asked Antonio if these issues are being addressed.
“Audience will always be the challenge,” Antonio admitted. “Part of the solution will be in promotion and expanding the distribution options of the programming. Today, you have online access as well as social media that will help get both the word out and the programming out. Think of Youtube for Long Beach. And now with Social Media, there are more options.
“As for the second issue, we will need to make sure the rules allow for realistic access for everyone. I’m one of those that believe in ‘first come first served, but no one should have indefinite blocks of time for ever. With the expansion of distribution via online and social media, there’s no reason to have one person control a specific time block. So I’m going to continue to be an advocate for that. The important role here is that people have access to capability to produce; access to equipment, training, production support, and distribution.
“The new media landscape democratizes Public Access even more, and I hope to join others in ensuring that happens. There are more people who ‘get it’ and are willing to put their money where this issue is.”
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To learn more about VoiceWaves, visit voicewaves.org.
To learn more about the Long Beach Community Action Partnership, visit LBCAP.org.