Community media and the hurricane

September 6th, 2005 | by aobaoill |

Over the last few days mails have started flowing on various lists about how various forms of community media can be of use in the aftermath of the hurricane. As we move from the immediate emergency, when food, shelter, transport, and security are (or should be) the focus, building various ad hoc communications media is necessary. Mass media may seem to some a rather frivolous matter, when people are still starving and dying, but they can play an important part in assisting those stuck in places like the Astrodome.
Many people will have heard, or heard of, the efforts by WWL (owned by ‘Entercom New Orleans’) and other local commercial radio stations in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. According to an interview on NPR, they actually relocated to a local Clear Channel facility, and co-ordinated the various stations belonging to both Clear Channel and Entercom. They have been able to act as an essential information source, and to combat mis-information and rumours.
Since there was no LPFM station in New Orleans there was nothing that could be done immediately. The role of community stations, especially low-power ones, would in any event differ, I think, from that of large 50,000 watt stations like WWL. Now the Prometheus Radio Project and others are working to set up a low-power station in the Heuston astrodome, which would allow those in the dome to, for example, relay messages about missing relatives. Anyone who has listened to news coverage knows of the cases of parents looking for their children literally for days.

Families are putting up notices on the walls to find lost parents and children, and then crying themselves to sleep at night, as they start to let the weight of the past week bear down on them, said Hannah Sassaman, an organizer at Prometheus. This station will provide critical information for families putting their lives back together, as well as the comfort of programming made by refugees and volunteers in Houston, just for them.

A radio station is, of course, only useful if people can hear it, and part of the plan here involves acquiring 10,000 battery-powered radios for distribution to those in the dome.
Public access TV lists have also been active, with some stations making similar plans:

We’re setting up a camera(s) in the Cajundome (our largest center) so that people who choose to do so can state their names, the names of those they’re searching for and other pertinent information. We’re then gonna replay that tape over our channel which will be played into all of the evacuee centers we are capable of reaching as well as the community at large.

In the case of the public access television pieces they are also looking to use their existing networks to ‘bicycle’ tapes between stations.
Others will have seen discussions regarding wireless internet, something where both commercial and non-commercial entities (such as the local community wireless network team here in Urbana) have been active. This is obviously of use to agencies working in the area, to create a flexible LAN-style service, but might also be of use to the more general public, once power issues are addressed.
If you’re interested in helping out, Houston Indymedia is one of the core points for information on the ground in Houston, where much of the community media effort is being focused.

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