John William Higgins, Ph.D.
Higgins, John W. 1994. "Tracing the Vision: A Study of Community Volunteer Producers, Public Access Cable Television, and Empowerment." Dissertation. Ohio State U. Ann Arbor: UMI. 9517017.
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This study investigates long-standing claims from the public access cable television arena that video production skills learned in community television facilities lead to a media literacy and media demystification, which can result in empowerment. As defined, empowerment is an awareness of self, others, and society, with action taken to change power relationships within these spheres. Empowerment within a video production context is defined from the literatures of public access, critical pedagogy, media education, and critical media pedagogy. Aspects of freedom of speech are delineated from traditional and critical interpretations of the First Amendment.
The study is an interpretive, qualitative investigation of volunteer community producers at a public access cable television facility; Dervin's Sense-Making informs the study methodology. Data collection uses in-depth, open-ended, structured focus group and individual interviews; informants were selected through purposive maximum variation sampling techniques. Data analysis involves both deductive and inductive approaches.
Major findings include: media literacy is an outcome for all respondents, and has value in promoting analytic and critical thinking skills; media demystification is a consequence for most participants. Other findings include: new awarenesses of self and of others are outcomes for many respondents; producers develop specific tactics to overcome deep ideological and personal divisions within the access facility; producers construct freedom of speech more as an individual right rather than a social good; producers construct a notion of audience that is personal and active; societal change within the public access experience is best understood as a process involving a dialectic between the individual and the collectivity.
The findings argue against critical pedagogist Paulo Freire's overemphasis on action in the societal realm as the highest level of empowerment. Rather, empowerment builds from the personal and extends outward to include others and society. The essence of social change includes a dialectical relationship between the individual and the collective.
While its impact is not as direct as some proponents argue, public access provides a foundation which encourages individuals and groups to believe they can make a difference on the broader society, and to take actions to address structural inequities within the society.
DISSERTATION
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University
By
John William Higgins, B.A., M.A.
* * * * *
The Ohio State University
1994
Dissertation Committee:
Brenda Dervin, Adviser, Professor, Dept. of Communication
Stephen Acker, Associate Professor, Dept. of Communication
Thomas McCain, Professor, Dept. of Communication
Copyright by
John William Higgins
1994
Available from UMI, 300 N.Zeeb Rd.; Ann Arbor, MI 48106.
800/521-0600.
Order number: 9517017
and my brother,
Bob,
who helped me learn the meaning of courage
ii
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Brenda Dervin for her guidance and insights; my association with her allowed me to glimpse where the eagles truly soar. My thanks go to the other members of my committee, Dr. Stephen Acker, who allowed me to experiment with video pedagogy in the classroom, and Dr. Thomas McCain, for his ideas and constant encouragement.
Thanks also to the members of the Thursday "rap" group, whose insights helped me to see this project more critically: Kate Clark, Sam Fassbinder, Chris Rajendram, and Vickie Shields, and those members who also helped facilitate the group interviews: Rich DiCenzo, Rob Huesca, Jamie Newmyer, and Pete Strimer. Thanks to Jaspreet Sikand, who also helped with the group interviews.
I am grateful for the assistance provided by the ACTV staff, particularly Carl Kucharski, Suzanne Patzer, and Laurie Cirivello. My sincere appreciation goes to the ACTV community volunteers whose efforts made this project possible: Susan Bader, Bob Ballinger, Marshall Barnes, Mary Beth Benish, Darlene Cheek, Khari Enaharo, James Hagans, Stephen Leonard, Nadine Lewis, Bob Moysan, Deborah Newton, Kevin Noesner, Carole Rosing, Jerri Shafer, Dan Shellenbarger, Dan Stewart, Kurt Stone, Pete Strimer, Duduca Taborda, Galin Thomas, James Thomas, Dave Thurston, Harlan Tuttle, Mattie Wakefield, Chris Wellington, Paul Whiteside, Eric Wilson, and Randy Zacks.
I would like to thank Jim Campbell for his technical assistance, my colleagues in the School of Telecommunications at Ohio University for their support, and the staff of the Columbus Metropolitan Library for their aid with interview facilities.
A great many friends helped me at crucial moments in this project; I am particularly grateful for the support and encouragement provided by Mary Louise Johnston, David Sholle, Marie Sweeney, friends at the Yoga Center, and the members of Akademic Distortion.
To my family, particularly Marian, Will, Bob, Peggy, Mike, and Sue, my thanks for your love, faith, support, and understanding--they were crucial to the completion of this project.
iii
April 23, 1952 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Born -- Sao Paulo, Brazil
1974 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B.A., University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio
1982 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M.A., Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
Higgins, John W. 1993. "Beyond the Night of the Broadcast Clones: Visions of Empowerment, Media Literacy, and Demystification." Community Television Review 16.3 (May/June): 17-19.
Higgins, John W. 1991. "Video Pedagogy as Political Activity." Journal of Film and Video 43.3 (Fall): 18-29. Refereed.
Higgins, John W. 1991. "Night of the Living Clones: The Politics of Video Training." Community Television Review 14.3 (August): 9-12. Invited.
Dervin, Brenda, Tony Osborne, Priya Jaikumar-Mahey, Robert Huesca, and John Higgins. 1993. "Toward a Communication Theory of Dialogue." Media Development 2: 54-61.
Major Field: Communication
Studies in: Critical Theory/Cultural Studies
Critical theory and cultural studies emphasize the
context
which led the researcher to focus on the questions addressed in a
body of work. Accordingly, here I will address the major
elements which direct my personal interest in this research
topic.
In the summer of 1969, I was 17 years old and travelled
alone through Mexico, assisted and encouraged by my parents, Will
and Marian, and grandmother, Lucille. I attended a language
school in Cuernavaca, where I learned Spanish. This school was
like none other I had experienced; I noticed an exciting current,
a vibrant spirit to the place that I had not witnessed before in
an educational setting. There was a concern for individual
spiritual growth linked to broader issues of social justice that
were quite uplifting to a naive 17 year old North American.
The school was Centro Intercultural de Documentacion
(CIDOC), established by education reformer Ivan Illich. Thirteen
years later, I discovered I had attended school that summer of
1969 in a place considered the hotbed of critical pedagogy as
espoused by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, and liberation
theology from the grassroots of the Catholic Church. These
movements focused on life-long education for personal awareness
for the purpose of social change, values which I deeply
internalized that summer long ago, and which became evident to me
only years later. They continue to guide my educational
principles and personal values.
In 1973, I was bored with college classes in
functionalist
approaches to broadcasting, and linked up with other students who
had begun to galvanize around a then recently-published book:
_Guerrilla Television_. This book has since been appropriately
dubbed, "the bible of the alternative video movement." It
radicalized our notions of what electronic media might be, and
the functions it might serve. We carried these ideas into our
professional "careers."
The following year (1974), I began work in commercial
radio;
commercial broadcast television followed three years later.
Throughout my association with commercial broadcasting I
maintained my personal sanity and love of grassroots media by
volunteering time and energy at community radio station WYSO in
Yellow Springs, Ohio. An association with public access cable
television grew out of my relationship with community radio; my
interest in scholarly research in these areas drew me back to
graduate studies.
In 1991 I attended a conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, that
attempted to bring together two groups with interests in
community media: scholars and practitioners. Between breaks, a
friend from the public access sector pulled out a meticulously
folded piece of paper and asked me to choose "Pee Wee's Magic
Word of the Day." ("Pee Wee's Magic Word" was a feature of a
popular children's television program; when the word was
mentioned throughout the show, all people and objects went wild.)
I chose a section of the folded paper; it lifted to
reveal
the word "hegemony." When I chose another, the word "pedagogy"
was revealed. We laughed uproariously--the scholarly
presentations _had_ been rather stuffy and pretentious, from the
practitioner perspective. Nonetheless, the conference was
relatively successful in bringing together scholars and
practitioners interested in promoting the ideals of grassroots,
community-based, democratic media.
This is the context within which I approach this project.
This study draws from my experiences as a media practitioner as
well as my scholarly training as a professional skeptic. It is
my intention that the findings address questions of relevance to
both scholars and practitioners alike, to lead us to a better
understanding of community-based, grassroots, electronic media.
Table of Contents
Table / Page Number (in published manuscript)
Overall (Cognition + Action) / 159
Cognition Only / 159
Action Only / 159
Overall (Cognition + Action) / 168
Cognition Only / 168
Action Only / 168
Overall (Cognition + Action) / 177
Cognition Only / 177
Action Only / 177
List of Figures
Figure/ Page Number (in published manuscript)
(Cognition + Action) / 160
Domains of Empowerment / 163
Areas of Focus / 164
Overall (Cognition + Action) / 169
Cognition Only / 170
Action Only / 171
Domains of Empowerment / 172
Areas of Focus / 172
Overall (Cognition + Action) / 178
Cognition Only / 179
Action Only / 180
Domains of Empowerment / 181
Areas of Focus / 182
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