Information Society Watch

November 2006, Lars Johansson, ICT Update

This article introduces a collaborative media project in the Niger Delta that aims to enable local farming and fishing communities to broadcast their voices to the rest of the world. Using participatory video, mobile-to-web messaging and online video sharing, the project provides some tools for grassroots community activists to set the terms for dialogue with the oil companies that have polluted their environment and thus threaten their livelihoods. The article focuses on the participatory aspects of these projects, from local autonomy in directing and editing video footage to reporting and onsite testimony about new oil spills. Local communities employ these ICTs to directly involve themselves in both national and international discourse about the environment and the economy of the Niger Delta, as well as in a 'communications loop' between themselves, media and oil industry stakeholders around the world. Using a strategic mix of ICTs, the project mobilises a grassroots network of environmental action to make a real local and global impact.

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