Hello. I am Joe Anybody. I use the name Joe Anybody because I wanted to illustrate that I am just a regular guy like “anybody” else. I was just an average “Joe.” When I coined that name it was because I was setting out to start gathering news stories that interested me and I needed a name for my Web site. That settled, I entered in to the big media corporate jungle. I was a small time average guy. I was just a joe anybody. Thus it all begins in November 2006. I become a self-taught do-it-yourself blogger – a Web site-owner/independent journalist, with no training or special skills.
It was about six months later that I would buy a cheap $100 videocamera and start to actively put videos on the Internet. The video camera has changed my life and the way I report on the peace and justice movement. It also changed how I take part in peace activities. I was excited to use my camera as a tool to promote peace and help bring justice and document the peace movement. With my camera I knew I had a powerful opportunity to “report” and since no one else was there to do it, I could “do it my way.” I saw that I could make an impact on society, using the lens and tape to describe and record what I was seeing firsthand.
When I am filming, I know that what I am capturing will be shared with many people from all walks of life. When I am filming, I know that not only will the speakers, performers, activists, and those directly involved will want to see the video or share it, but that there will be many others as well.
There will be those who didn’t know it was happening, those who live too far away to be at the event, those who can’t get out, those who had to work or stay at home with children or family members, not to mention those who can’t make it to these events due to many reasons including health, work, or just plain naivete. Knowing that the corporate media doesn’t cover a lot of the peace events and all the excellent “informing speeches” that are happening in our community, I saw my opportunity to do something that can impact the movement and help promote peace. The lack of sincerity and lack of importance concerning coverage of the anti-war movement goes many times unnoticed or reported, which, in turn, opened my door to get up and outside and turn on my camera. The fact that the Big News Stations were not reporting upset me enough to do it myself.
The first and foremost for doing this line of work is that one needs the passion and concern to “be the media” and to “get the information to others in the community.”
I am very concerned about all the topics I film. I am dedicated and feel the responsibility to report fairly and accurately and with diligence and fortitude. To cover these events, I need to be ready, prepared with all my equipment charged and ready to be used with extras of everything.
When it concerns street protesting, I now carry goggles, eye wash, and a scarf for covering my mouth. Just in case things getting pepper-ugly, I will be ready to keep filming what is going on in spite of the persuasion to flee when the spray is flying around.
Unrelated to protesting, I just recently filmed a case in which the police were questioning two men downtown that I felt should be documented. The stopping of these two men seemed out of context and it worried me enough to get my camera out, step away from the action and start filming.
In this recent episode where I filmed the police stopping two men on a sidewalk, the situation turned on me, and I became the focus and “the criminal.” While I will be pleading not guilty and firmly believe that I was not committing any crime, there is a bigger issue at stake here. Am I a criminal for filming the police in a public street?
I was documenting openly in public. I was the media at work, but the police think I am criminal for doing what I did. I now need to defend myself against Oregon Statute 165.540.
The media is under attack. Police accountability is being shunned from the press by intimidation tactics.
This kind of aggression against the media is stifling and very worrisome. It discourages journalists and complicates the honest peace and justice oversight that is needed for safe transparent policing in a community. The police shouldn’t be hiding behind black masks, no name tags, and criminalizing the press for trying to keep them accountable. As the level in suspect deaths involved in police matters is rising, so are the loss of civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms. Freedom of the press, as in the First Amendment; Freedom from being searched for no reason, as in the Fourth Amendment; freedom to travel, freedom to speak, and freedom to report what I see on the streets. The freedom to record or discuss what sworn officers are doing in my hometown, in my city, is now being framed as “interfering with police business.”
By stepping up, by planning to be the media, and while taking on the responsibility, I feel the power of truth. I see how the pen is mightier than the sword. I know there could be dangers, but I worry more of danger when reporters are scared to talk for fear of retribution. I encourage others to meet me on the streets with cameras and dedication. I encourage the citizens to do what the corporate media refuse to do. I personally feel like we cannot rely on the corporate media to get the information to us in an honest straight manner, therefore we must become the media ourselves.
I put many hours in “on the set,” so to speak. I spend many hours after the events are finished, editing and going over the tapes. I work long hours to put together something that has a message. Editing out all the unnecessary parts, such as views of the sidewalk or sky, etc. I work to make the message clear and understandable, but the process is tedious. Once it is there on the Web, I then need to somehow tell the viewers or find the viewers or somehow share the finished product. You might say that this part is marketing or promoting. It’s a lot of work but after a while is one step after the next and it becomes a “process” and becomes second nature to do.
Lots of energy is used, but I believe it is making a big difference! The records are now preserved — thanks to my film and the others who are doing this work — for the community at large. The message is preserved. The legal documentation is now recorded. Funny how the legal aspects get much more respect when a film I make is available to prove what happened when and where. My videos have helped in numerous situations where the facts were later proven in the courtroom based on what I captured in the street, compared with those who didn’t film and rely on their memory or a fabricated version. Now that is what I call independent media justice.
Filming for peace and justice is rewarding, exciting and a learning experience. I have been overjoyed, and moved to tears. I have been thanked, threatened, hugged and pepper-sprayed. I now have about 300 videos on the Internet and feel like I am making a difference and bringing lots of information to my fellow citizens in the community. I feel positive and hopeful. I feel like any joe anybody can be a resource. I strive to be a trusted viable outlet for peace and justice information in this town. I am one guy with a video camera and I am set out to change the world.
I found a story and the corporate media is nowhere around. I am an independent videographer out on the streets. Do ya wanna join me ?
