Community Journalism

Media Mobilizing Project has covered the stories and movements of poor and working people across Philadelphia. This map brings that video work together in one place to create a view from above showing the closure of Northeastern Hospital, the organized efforts of taxi drivers for fair working conditions, the Temple Nurses strike, and more.

Created by Philly Student Union member Greg J-D.

The videos collected here are a part of building community driven journalism, so that the various groups in Philadelphia working for social change can promote and spread consciousness about their struggle and eventually develop better living conditions here in the city and beyond. 

The New America Foundation's Media Policy Initiative just issued a report on the media ecosystem in Philadelphia. Through the report they explore the work of MMP and the future of journalism in the city. Full report available at the NAF blog.

By: Joshua Breitbart

"Infection in our Health Care System," an hour-long investigation by Media Mobilizing Project (MMP) into the local impacts of the healthcare crisis, premiered May 18 on PhillyCAM, the new public access cable station serving the people of Philadelphia.

The show is the first episode of MMPTV and it bears both the grandeur and flaws of any new ambitious undertaking. For an issue that has dropped off the media radar since passage of federal health care reform, however, the report adds new perspectives and elevates the public discussion.

 
From 1950 to 2003, Pennsylvania lost more than 50% of its manufacturing jobs. That’s more than 1 million jobs—more than any other state in the country. The service and medical industries have replaced some of these jobs, but we still feel the impact. And we continue to lose more.
 
By Rachael Spotts and Mitch Troutman
 
EDITORS NOTE: Originally published at PA From Below. Read the beginning of the article after the more link or the full article at their site.

WE, the Temple workers are standing strong in our efforts to show temple that we are to be respected and valued for what we do everyday. It is a tough battle but still one definately worth fighting.
 
Editors Note: Carolyn is a GI technician at Temple Hospital. She participated in a media training class MMP put on with the United Way last fall. She is a member and leader of the Pennsylvania Association of School Nurses and Practitioners (PASNAP) currently on the picket line.
 

In January of 2010, the Poverty Initiatve, a group based in New York that aims to reignite Dr. Martin Luther King's Poor People's Campaign, visited Philadelphia for an immersion tour. The tour highlighted the history of the struggles of poor people in this city. Willie Baptist and Liz Theoharis, of the Poverty Initiative,  shared stories about the struggle of the homeless in 1995 and 1996.

Driving the American Dream is an exploration into the role and effect lawmakers and state regulators play in the lives of Philadelphia’s taxi drivers. This short film reveals the very real and lived experiences of poor and working drivers that struggle each day to provide for their families. In the face of health risks without disability insurance, drivers are economically forced to work even when sick, preventing service  the riding public deserves.

What if we drew a map that shows metro areas across the US with job gains and losses since the height of the economy in 2004? TIP Strategies did just that, creating a striking animation of the ballooning job losses marked by the crash of the financial markets in November 2008.