Arnel
August 04th, 2008.
It’s a bureacratic piece of silliness. I work with a non-profit television station… Public Access. Been doing it for close to 9 years now. All these years, public access stations across the nation were set up as a resource for local residents to produce their own television shows. The conditions, programing is non-commercial. So basically a lot of people get to make originial, innovative, and yes - amateur television shows. For the most part, production value was low, but conceptually, it’s cutting edge and heavy on self-discipline and learning by your own mistakes.
It’s a real, tangible place where individuals can be creative, expressive, vent, complain, inspire motivate and share their take on the world. It’s so affordable and abundant with potential that the poor, marginalized, invisible, and outcast can publicly display and exercise their free speech through an incredibly powerful platform… television. It’s one of the aspects of American culture that defines us. It’s not as wide-reaching as the internet, but it pioneered activists, artists, journalists, civic leaders, community personalities, and local icons found nowhere else. It’s a cheap representation of the people around us, but it’s a representation and a community center, nonetheless.
Recently, the authority controlling the future of television has shifted. Now; local government (city government) has lost the control of how operational money is distributed to local access channels. This means government channels that show how your city government works, the channel that airs programming through schools, the public access channel that lets neighbors, seniors, non-profits, vain performers, socially conscious activists, seniors, students, children, and congregations of faith-bound spiritualists are going to loose that platform.
I’m worried about my job. It pays the bills, it feeds me, it’s the place where I meet my peers and learn to deal with clinically maladjusted, conspiracy theorists, kinky exhibitionists, and forward thinkers that make my home worth looking at. I work in a place where mediocrity is not a norm. I work in a place where I know every person by name. I invest my talent and spend my patience in an environment which so often feels like a thankless bombardment of criticism and sub-standard gratitude. I believe in a forum where a person with no practical experience with multi-media technology can learn how to use a television station, staff, and peers, to make something that major networks can’t begin to duplicate.
It’s honest. It’s not perfect. Shows may not be completely polished. Programing may not be the same caliber of entertainment worth $10 and a bucket of popcorn, but it’s made by my neighbors. It’s a close proximity to our unique imaginations. It’s a grab bag of challenges, success, frustration, fame, and the potential of finding controversy and dismissal will always be there. But we can all say this… we did it.
You may not like what you see on tv, but for the next few months, there is a place in San Francisco where you can make your own. In a matter of weeks, that option my not be there.
www.accessf.org
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