A Free Event is being held at the Ordsall Community Cafe on Wednesday 6 October from 5pm to 7pm to explain how Manchester Community Reporters works as well as giving people the chance to try out some equipment and techniques that reporters can use.

Free Basic Skills Assessment
Create a Personal Website and send text, pictures, videos and audio to it!!!
Would you like to improve your Basic English, Grammar or Computer Skills?
Would you like to try Digital photography, MP3 recording or Blogging?

Come along and see what we have to offer:

* Basic Skills
* Blogging
* Word Processing
* Digital Photography
* Video Recording & Editing and Audio
* Create your own Stories and Publicity Online
* Join a Media Club to help you Produce Content

For more information please contact: Graeme Bates
Telephone: 0161 230 1430
Email: graeme@mcin.net

6 December 2006, 5pm-7pm
172 Tatton Street, Ordsall M5 3PS

We are holding an event to introduce the people of North Manchester to the Community Reporters project.

The event will be on 1 December 2006 from 10:00am until 1:00pm

People will get the chance to try out some of the equipment and techniques that reporters can use.

Create a Personal Website and send text, pictures, videos and audio to it !!!
Would you like to improve your Basic English, Grammar or Computer Skills?
Would you like to try Digital photography, MP3 recording or Blogging?

Then come along and see what we have to offer:

* Basic Skills
* Blogging
* Word Processing
* Digital Photography
* Video Recording & Editing and Audio
* Create your own Stories and Publicity Online
* Join a Media Club to help you Produce Content

For more information contact Graeme at MCIN on 0161 230 1430 or email info@mcin.net

We will be holding two workshops this week.  One tomorrow (2 November) for the Whitemoss Club for Young People and one on Friday (3 November) at Trinity Church.  We will also be holding a workshop on Tuesday next week at Manchester Foyer.

If you are interested in attending future workshops please contact Graeme on 0161 230 1430 or email him at graeme@mcin.net

On Tuesday 27^th and Wednesday 28^th June MCIN (Manchester Community Information Network) organised a visit for two groups of Community Reporters to the BBC in Manchester to look behind the scenes at North West Tonight, the BBC flagship local news programme.

Over the two evenings these included three Deaf people from Trafford Deaf Users Group, three Deaf people from Bury Library’s Hearing Impairment Unit, three from Chatterbox, three from Cheetham Hill and three from the North Manchester “Production Crew”.

A BSL interpreter was on hand on both evenings to ensure that the Deaf people could fully participate in the visit as there were opportunities to ask questions and talk about project throughout visit.

The groups were met at BBC reception by Jim Clarke, News Editor of North West Tonight. They then went up to the BBC canteen and over coffee and tea Jim gave a bit of history of the BBC in Manchester, future plans and his role.

After a question and answer session the tour began. Visitors saw behind the scenes, including the news room and the control room. Most exciting of all was being able to sit in the studio whilst the programme went out live with some of the group listening in to the on floor direction through headphones.

After the show had gone out the groups met North West Tonight presenter Gordon Burns who explained what goes out behind his desk, including checking the running order for the show and how he worked the autocue.

The groups also had a chance to meet Diane Oxberry weather presenter.

The visit to the BBC was an inspiration. A number of Community reporters are going to put their experiences online using photos, audio and text whilst others inspired to create and complete their video projects.

Keep checking or subscribe to the site for latest updates.

At the end of September we are planning to launch the community reporters and associated community websites that house the content and, more importantly, showcase people’s work.

Exciting news - we have managed to arrange behind the scenes visits for our new community reporters on 27 and 28 June.

And we hope to arrange a second round of visits towards the end of September.

We had a great day at the Waterloo Centre on Wednesday 26th April, where 12 potential reporters got their first taste of M-CR workshops. They must have liked it - they all signed up for more!

Jim Clarke, news editor of Northwest Tonight (the BBC’s evening local news programme), spoke about how his organisation is looking for new ideas and talent. He answered questions about what kind of issues the BBC might be willing to look at if Cheetham reporters came up with them (for example if they have knowledge about local crime). He declined to answer the question “How much do you get paid?”

At this ‘Intro Session’ everyone had a taste of blogging, audio recording and video production. Next step is for them to go more into each of these areas in three forthcoming days. Then they’ll be unleashed on the public to go and get stories…

Grove Village in Ardwick are the latest group to join the reporters. There’ll be an event on Wednesday 19 April from 5 to 7, where people will get together to start the ball rolling. The venue is St Luke’s Church. Any Grove Village residents are welcome to come along and find out what it’s all about. Contact Kate Dutton at Harvest Housing to find out more. She’s on 07725 765 190 or Kate.Dutton@harvesthousing.org.uk

We went along to Cheetham Jobs Fair yesterday and were blown away by the interest in MCR. Over 25 people put their name down for the MCR intro course. It will take place at the end of April or May, in a Cheetham venue yet to be decided. If you are one of those who put your name down we’ll be in touch soon with full details.