Blog Action Day: Social Media and Poverty

As a part of Blog Action Day 2008, bloggers around the world are being asked to think and write about poverty. It's a problem that many of our member nonprofits are fighting every day, and technology has given us some powerful new weapons. Specifically, I'm going to look at ways in which nonprofits can use video as a tool for education and advocacy.

When I first moved to California from South Dakota, I was startled to learn that Columbus Day is still celebrated. I was a child when my state adopted Native American Day, and I'd naïvely assumed that the rest of the country had followed suit. I often find it difficult to describe to friends and colleagues the poverty that I saw in Pine Ridge and other Native American reservations. Statistics can be ignored and, tragically, many people have become jaded by stories of questionable organizations breaking their promises. I recently found this video from, of all places, Al Jazeera. It begins to capture some of the things I saw growing up.

Video is a powerful way for organizations not only to tell their own stories, but to tell the stories of the people that they serve. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how an NGO in Guatemala was bypassing traditional means of asking for aid and instead spreading its message through online video. This new approach to nonprofit outreach is exciting because it serves many different purposes. Online video can encourage people to get involved with your nonprofit by giving or volunteering, but it can also directly benefit your mission by demystifying the people you serve.

I've recently become a big fan of the Media That Matters Film Festival, a project of the nonprofit Arts Engine. Media That Matters presents excellent documentaries about pressing issues and contextualizes the films with broader discussions and ways for viewers to get involved. For example, take a look at The Rules of the Game, a film about reservation gaming. The film may not change your opinion about this complex and controversial issue, but it will put a human face on all sides of the story. And regardless of where you stand on the question of gaming, the resources and additional information provided by Media That Matters can help you get involved with organizations championing Native American equality.

In 2006, Time famously named "You" the Person of the Year, citing citizen journalism and social media as the most important developments of the year. This January, columnist James Poniewozik wrote a satirical letter to You, suggesting that You had dropped the ball and handed media back over to Them. He might have been right in a way, but only because citizen reporting can go only so far without the accompanying advocacy and services provided by nonprofits and libraries. That's why I get very excited about nonprofits like Ushahidi and First Nations Development Institute. These organizations use sophisticated technologies to report on problems befalling the people they serve, but they intuitively understand that education should be accompanied by a concrete invitation to get involved. With the technology of social media and new ideas about media's role in a nonprofit's mission, 2008 could be the year of Us.

For more ideas and insights about using video to tell your nonprofit's stories, check out A Crash Course in Digital Filmmaking and Share Your Nonprofit's Videos with the World. Many more resources are available at We Are Media's Storytelling module.

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Discuss This in Our Forums

What are the best ways to educate people about the work you do and empower them to get involved? What are your favorite examples of nonprofits using technology to tell their stories? Share your thoughts in this Emerging Technologies forum discussion.