Giving A Voice To The Voiceless
People's Production House is transforming low-income and immigrant workers into hard-hitting citizen journalists thanks to the power of radio.
- PPH is run and staffed by journalists and community organizers from historically excluded communities. Our projects are unique as we bring together two of the best American traditions: community organizing and independent media creation, to build a community of media organizers: media literate youth and workers who can create and demand a media that functions in their interests.
- PPH has three major projects: the Digital Expansion Initiative, which promotes meaningful access to the Internet; the Community News Production Institute (CNPI), which trains low wage and immigrant workers as radio journalists; and Radio Rootz, which teaches radio journalism and media literacy to high school and middle school students.
People's Production House's CNPI reporters include street vendors who have documented their struggles in New York City.
- There are more than 10,000 street vendors in New York City — hot dog vendors, flower vendors, book vendors, street artists, and many others. They are small businesspeople struggling to make ends meet. Most are immigrants and people of color. They work long hours under harsh conditions, asking for nothing more than a chance to sell their goods on the public sidewalk.
- Bilal is a Hurricane Katrina evacuee who moved to New York City after his home was destroyed in the storm. Bilal now works with the Huricane Katrina Survivors Coalition and is an original member of CNPI. Bilal has filed stories for a national audience concerning the plight of immigrant street vendors and has participated and produced stories looking at Katrina evacuees living in New York City.
The organisation teamed up with the Street Vendors Project to produce an audio documentary that was featured by Australian mainstream media.
- Vendors make the streets of the Big Apple pulse as they sell anything from cut price CDs, to t-shirts or tamales. Some vendors are trying to just get by; others are hoping this is the start of something big. Ex-pat Aussie producer Deepa Fernandes is now at home in the depths of New York City, and she brings us this lively journey into daily life from the perspective of two unlikely guides.
- The Street Vendor Project is a membership-based project with more than 750 active vendor members who are working together to create a vendors’ movement for permanent change. We reach out to vendors in the streets and storage garages and teach them about their legal rights and responsibilities. We hold meetings where we plan collective actions for getting our voices heard.
- The following video was shot by a vendor associated with the Street Vendor Project.
Sponsored by donations, People Production House is also providing its CNPI reporters opportunities to cover national and international stories. The program's coverage has been picked up by several outside sources.
Listen to this story here.
- Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producing country, making it one of America’s biggest crude oil suppliers. But underneath the production of oil, lies a 50-year long brutal exploitation that has destroyed the ecosystem and affected the livelihood of millions of people. Reporter Nicole Hummel traveled to West Africa, she brings us this audio collage.
- Listen to this story here.
- Do you know of any other programs putting the power of journalism in the hands of the otherwise voiceless? Tell The Stream on Facebook or Twitter.
