Community Engagement is Public Communications
Meet Markiel Simpson
Community advocate working to introduce a Canadian Black history curriculum in BC.
Markiel is a building manager at BC housing, involved with BC Community Alliance (non-profit dedicated to dismantling systemic racism), a member of the world economic forum Vancouver hub, and lower mainland rep for BC NDP’s Indigenous and Black People of Colour Committee, and President of BC NDP Electoral District of Burnaby North.
Interview with Markiel (Miller & Simpson, 2021)
Tips from Markiel:
- Relationships can grow from social media that lead to conversations (how can we get involved, what we can do, etc.).
- Use your head, not the suggestions of other people
- Take an objective view – i.e. identify what are the levers of power, the people involved, how change can be implemented
- Not every message needs to be positioned equally because the audience is always changing – so not an achievable objective.
- Identify different niches on social media, and get allies and other people to amplify your message in your niche
- Converse with people across the country, not only locally
- Share language – call to action – amplify specific messaging
- Share strategic tips that have helped you individually along the way
- Use social media to build out your base
- Identify leaders in the community that are advocating, and amplify those voices and share in their effort – send off your own tweets and join in
- Work hard, and get involved in making change!
- Don’t need to be a CEO or lawyer to make positive change in the community – even volunteering for an hour can make a difference
- Do what you can to get involved and make a change
3 social media influences Markiel has been influenced by and encourages looking into:
- Local: Stephanie Allen, Kinder Morgan, Land Back, Future Project Development
- National: Matthew Green (Hamilton Senator)
- International: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (aka AOC)
What are the benefits of a diverse and inclusive PLN in social media sharing that understands where you are coming from with messaging that impacts the community?
As mentioned in previous blog posts, the benefits of PLNs stemming from an understanding of the community and its issues and a drive to improve it, are diverse. Clark and Aufderheide (2011) argue that multiplatform, open, and digital public media are essential to democratic public life, and are supported both for and by the public to educate, inform and mobilize users (p. 56). They refer to this as public media 2.0. In the transition from public media broadcasting to the Internet to social media, the masses have expanded from consumers to the centre of the media and producers as well.
Clarke and Aufherheide (2011) state that people can unite through diverse, multiplatform projects; they come in as participants and leave as members of the public after being affected by an issue and learning how to resolve it. They state that these projects are platforms for people to meet, learn, exchange information, discuss solutions, and possibly take action. Leaders for public media must first understand two needs: content and coordination. From Clark and Aufderheide (2011) – the core functions of a coordinating body (and media 2.0) may include:
- keeping democracies democratic
- providing essential accountability in a healthy society
- forming around issues, problems, and opportunities that lead to improvement
- providing an accessible and reliable platform for public interaction,
- providing a toolset for public participation,
- setting standards and metrics to assess public engagement,
- developing a recommendation engine to identify and point to high-quality media,
- committing staff at local and national levels primarily to building public engagement with media and to partnerships to make it happen,
- tracking emerging technologies and platforms to assess and secure their
potential for public media 2.0. - public media and democratic governance are mutually reinforcing – echoing some ideas in the interview with Markiel Simpson
- engaging stakeholders around issues on projects that are accessible to and representative of the applicable population
- offering a location for engagement
References
Clark, J., & Aufderheide, P. (2011). A new vision for public media: Open, Dynamic, and Participatory. In S.C. Jansen, J. Pooley, & L. Taub-Pervizpour (Eds.), Media and Social Justice (pp. 55-67). Palgrave Macmillan New York. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.1057/9780230119796
Miller, J., & Simpson, M. (2021). EDCI – 338 Markiel Simpson. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsoDHGaXNNs&ab_channel=MILLER
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