Media Blueprint for London 2012
A proposal by
Professor Andy Miah, PhD
University of the West of Scotland

[v1.0, 2010.07.16]

[please comment on the outline, so you can inform the next version]
1. Context

1.1 In 2009, the IOC indicated its intention to develop a new strategy for its role in a time of radical media change. London 2012 will be the first Summer Games to be informed by this new approach to promoting the value of social media

1.2 The London 2012 Games coincide with the scheduled targets set by the Digital Britain report & Race Online 2012, indicating a new era of potential media engagement. This provides an opportunity to re-think the new media infrastructure within the United Kingdom.

1.3 The Games represent the largest media event in the world, with broadcasters from over 200 countries covering what happens.

1.4 I envisage the Games as a media festival rather than a media event, where the media are enabled to report much more than just the sports competition. The Cultural Olympiad should be at the heart of this festival of ideas.

1.5 Olympic & Paralympic media centres have the opportunity to shift from being spaces of information and mediation, to becoming factories for creativity, collaboration, and engagement, which can amplify the Olympic mission.

1.6 The London 2012 Media Landscape will include 13,000 broadcast journalists, 7,000 print journalists, who will cover sport. There will be an additional 12,000+ non-accredited professional journalists who will want cover all non-sport content. However, the largest population of reporters will be citizens, over 60,000,000 with camera phones wanting to report their Games.

1.7 If the Olympic movement can expand media participation without jeopardizing its financial base, then it can more adequately fulfil its role as a progressive social movement.

1.8 Olympic cybercitizens are already taking ownership of reporting their Games and they will need a structure for their participation in 2012.

1.9 In this context, the London 2012 Games can be a moment for realizing a new media legacy for the United Kingdom, built on the idea of citizen media reporting and the recognition that the Games are more than just sports competitions. They are social movements with high humanitarian and cultural aspirations.

1.10 To achieve a broader media participatory culture, it is necessary to develop an extended media network for Games time reporting, which builds on the strategic development of non-accredited media centres at previous Games, linking them to citizen media projects.

1.11 Such a network would be founded on principles of ‘open media’ and will facilitate community legacies and build stories about London, the Nations and the Regions that reach an international audience. It will focus on reporting all non-sporting legacy stories, locating culture and art at the heart of its practice. Its work will transcend national boundaries in ways that no other Games has achieved before, by promoting peer-to-peer conversations.
2. A Nationwide Independent Media Backbone

Reaching out to all regions, with hubs in Glasgow, Manchester, London

2.1 This apolitical dream space will bring into force the full commitment of Olympic ideology to promote social change for the good of humanity. These values accord with the philosophy of Olympism.

2.2 Funding is in place to develop the initial scoping for these infrastructures, by identifying partners and commitments from institutions who would host and stage reporters. Principally, this will involve staging an event for potential partners and contributors at the Abandon Normal Devices digital media Festival on October 4, 2010.

2.3 We will focus discussions on operational challenges, collaboration logistics and infrastructure aiming to bring representation from the IOC and LOCOG and the potential UK partners.

2.4 The media who work in such centres should have a local interest but an aspiration that is based on global values or the desire to build opportunities to share globally. Transcending national boundaries is the biggest task. We’re not yet global, despite digital culture
3. Goals

3.1 Augment the Olympic media narrative towards portraying broader dimensions of the philosophy of Olympism

3.2 Create public engagement around Games time

3.3 Promote community legacy for the nations and regions
4. Research Led

4.1 The centres will function as real-time experiments, providing focal points for understanding the social media community and its interface with mass media.

4.2 Coming to terms with the politics of the citizen journalist will greatly assist future event hosts, like Glasgow 2014, Sochi 2014, Rio 2016 and World Cup 2018

4.3 The International Olympic Committee can focus its conversation with citizen media around these hubs
5. Values

5.1 Through the Olympic & Paralympic Games, we want to create space for intercultural dialogue and collaboration.

5.2 We value the Olympiad as a time to address issues of critical social importance for Britain.

5.3 We will support communities to tell their Olympic & Paralympic stories and work with professional journalists to meet their needs.

5.4 We want to expand media privileges to concerned citizens.

5.5 We promote responsible and fair journalism in an open media culture, where content is shared and power distributed.

5.6 We will respect the right of groups to express their political views and support different voices in being heard
6. Need

6.1 The Olympic & Paralympic media are focused on sports almost exclusively during Games time, but this can and should encompass broader legacy stories.

6.2 Digital media has given rise to a proliferation of citizen journalists who want to report the Games.

6.3 Legacies for the Nations and Regions, along with London’s story need other media centres to have space to explain what the Games have meant to them.

6.4 These centres raise a number of questions. Who should fund them? How should they relate to the Olympic & Paralympic infrastructure more broadly? Can they even exist given their desire to build into the intellectual property of the Olympic & Paralympic Games?”
7. How this fits with the nations’ aspirations for London 2012

7.1 The bid promise from London 2012 was to create a national Games, but we would be the only media centres to tell those stories.

7.2 We celebrate Olympic & Paralympic values by promoting the broad ideology of the Olympic & Paralympic Games as a social movement.

7.3 We are a not-for-profit infrastructure, fostering educational practice and public engagement with the Games.

7.4 Through our network, we will constitute the largest network of social media producers throughout the UK and reinvigorate the core media partners of the Games.

7.5 Our content will reach international networks that other media will not reach.

7.6 Our journalists will produce the largest volume of Olympic content and influence trending topics on social media platform, crating the largest Olympic and Paralympic archive of any Games.
8. Why accredited Olympic media will need us

8.1 Media organizations in the UK will traverse the country around Games time, requiring facilities and stories we can provide, particularly around the torch relay.

8.2 To fully report on the London 2012 Games, it will be necessary to see what is happening in the Nations and Regions.

8.3 The Olympic Games is a social movement, not a sporting event. What happens in the country will become its central legacy

8.3.1 CASE STUDY: For example, NBC is setting up a media space around Birmingham City University, as the USA team will be based here. The local community media can interface with this. For example, NBC is setting up a media space around Birmingham City University, as the USA team will be based here. The local community media can interface with this. As well, the CitizensEye in Leicester will create a community media centre that will operate around Games time. Team GB will be in Loughborough. Creating an infrastructure to bring about media change could markedly change how the Olympics works

8.4 While the proposal should aspire to build a network that includes all nations and regions, it will be useful to begin with a hub of centres based on known interests. Glasgow, Manchester & London presents a backbone for the network.

8.5 These centres will draw stories from each other to communicate what has been happening and what is happening during Games time. However, events should also build on global networks, particularly previous Games experience to develop the idea of a cultural legacy that extends beyond London. Satellite centres will provide programmatic content during the Games.
9. What was achieved at previous Games: Vancouver 2010

9.1 True North Media house accredits a 5 yr old as a journalist and an Olympic mascot.

9.2 W2 is the first independent media centre to work with an Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games.

9.3 VANOC appoints a number of young people to be its official citizen journalism team during the Games
10. What will these media hubs look like?

10.1 The influence of any specific media centre will be restricted by its funding, its technology and its community, but primarily the latter. Hub centres can be high-tech facilities with large venue space, but all should aspire to similar networked facilities to maximize participation. We all should be able to plug into each others’ space at any time to deliver audio, visual and interaction.

10.2 Imagine
• High technology facilities
• Networked Infrastructure
• Community Generated Content
• International Media Attention
• Lasting Media Legacy
11. Opportunity

11.1 As part of the initial scoping, we will identify primary partner vehicles, which may be digital media centres around the UK that could have the capacity to deliver a media centre during Games time. However, communities should also be evaluated on their networked potential ie. How prolific are they online. Amplifying their content will be our biggest asset to achieve our goals.

11.2 With 2 years before the Games, this is the time to establish permissions and funding. However, this is still a relatively short amount of time to build partnerships with larger organizations, those who may decide to allocate their programme budget to such a project. This may be the primary route towards ensuring the proposal is realized.

In closing, this proposal brings together the primary instigators of independent Olympic & Paralympic media centres and creative, artistic practice from the last 10 years of the Olympic & Paralympic Games. With the right support, it has the potential to tell the full story of the London 2012 Games
Stay in touch, join:

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/media2012

About the Author
Professor Miah is Chair of Ethics and Emerging Technologies at the University of the West of Scotland, a Fellow at the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology and part of the Programming Committee for the Abandon Normal Devices Festival, an ‘inspired by 2012’ event, funded by the Legacy Trust.

Professor Miah is an Olympic scholar and writer, having undertaken research into Olympic media at every summer and winter Olympic Games since Sydney 2000, at which he has also worked as a journalist. He has been a visiting Professor at the International Olympic Academy, a Visiting Scholar at the International Olympic Committee museum in Lausanne and teaches Olympic Studies at the University of the West of Scotland, supervising PhD students whose work focuses on Olympic media. While at the Vancouver 2010 Games, he wrote for The Huffington Post, facilitated cultural collaborations between London 2012 and Vancouver 2010 and was on the steering committee for the creation of two independent media centres. He also writes for the Guardian. He is currently completing a book called ‘A Digital Olympics’ for The MIT Press.

@andymiah
email@andymiah.net
+44 (0) 757 898 4147

Following the model of BCMC the village of Whistler, one of the main hosts of the Olympic outdoor competitions, has put together a similar centre catering for the media in town interested in following stories out the beaten Olympic track: the Whistler Media House. Located in the vicinity of the Whistler Medal Plaza and the shrine dedicated to the fallen Georgian athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili, the house provides free wifi, production spaces, a media theatre as well a connection point with other Whistler organizations. In fact, sources indicate that VANOC accredited media usually located in the Press Centre just walking minutes away from the Whistler Media House, make daily their way to the press conferences held at the here to meet athletes and their families. Unlike in Vancouver, where the BCMC operates independently from the other media houses such as W2 or True North Media House, in Whistler the media house brings all these stakeholders together. It is here where the Blackcomb Media Hub first communicates about its support to journalists with mountain access, rental equipment and mountain specific information. However, in order to get free or discounted access to the mountain journalists need to prove their interest in mountain related stories.

The Resort Municipality of Whistler is also present at the Whistler Media House their booth highlighting a wide range of activities in the area from tourism to culture. In fact, the Whistler Media House together with their partners offers a comprehensive list of online and digital resources, exceeding 1TB of data, for journalists ranging from photos to raw b-rolls and even story ideas. Similar information is provided by BCMC and can be accessed via the centre’s searchable archives as well as in its links and resources area of the website.

For those interested, here is a list of digital resources for the Winter Games. Part of the information comes from data compiled by the Resort Municipality of Whistler and part from our own research. Most sites require users to register.

• Whistler Media House
• British Columbia International Media Centre
• 2010 Winter Games Secretariat Resort Municipality of Whistler (data password protected)
• Tourism Whistler (request access privileges)
• Whistler Blackcomb (all media indexed and named for identification)
• Olympic Torch Relay

For BC, Vancouver, Canada related resources please check:

• Tourism BC
• Canadian Tourism Commission (data password protected)
• City of Vancouver (no registration required; FTP download)
• Tourism Vancouver

City officials are using the Winter Olympics as a platform to show the world they are leading the way with green

energy. Throughout the city, pavilions have been set up to promote and educate people about environmental issues. Live City Vancouver in Yaletown is one example of this initiative. This is where the Vancouver House is located, showcasing ‘Vancouver Green Capital’, an economic development programme which highlights the work of local entrepreneurs and community leaders.

The Pavilion itself, supported by the Games’ official sponsors, is an example of the City’s commitment to sustainability. It is built from recycled material such as old wood beams from a North Vancouver high school and salvaged works of art from local designers. There is an interactive table where visitors can leave their eco messages for everyone to view.

Also in the Live City Vancouver, next to the Vancouver House, is the Panasonic Pavilion where people can submit their own ideas about how the company should tackle environmental issues.

“We want to contribute as much as possible to the sustainable games. Panasonic have set a target to become the number one eco-friendly company in the electrical industry”, said Yoko Nakamizu, Panasonic’s Olympic Public Relations Manager.

In the same space, Coca-Cola is also present. Claiming to be the Games’ greenest sponsor, their pavilion opens with a display of their drink bottles through the decades introducing their newest design which is made from 30% recycled material. Similarly, the Coca-Cola staff’s uniform is made entirely from recycled material, the jackets being made from 25 reconditioned cola bottles. There is also an interactive room, which includes a display explaining the recycling process and a polar bear mosaic made of pledges by Canadians on how they live sustainably.

To coincide with the Olympic Games, Coca-Cola also launched an aboriginal art bottle program designed to give First Nation communities in Canada the opportunity to showcase their artwork to the world. Six art-bottles are on display in the pavilion and a further nine are scattered throughout the city. After the Games the bottles will be auctioned online. “All proceeds will go to the aboriginal youth legacy fund which is part of a group of programs designed to continue after the games” according to Mandy Denning, Coca-Cola’s spokesperson.

Vancouver officials hope that their Winter Olympics will be remembered not only for their sporting achievements but also for successfully promoting green initiatives.

Rachael McAlister and Erin Linton are Broadcast Journalism Post Graduate students at the University of the West of Scotland and are contributing to Culture @ the Olympics during their time in Vancouver.

Citizen journalism is nothing new to our world of available technology. It has become second nature for people to capture their experience, events or news in their environments on their phones, cameras or computers. We live in a world were journalism is an action and all of citizens have stepped forth into that call to action.

However, this is the first Olympic Games of its kind were the real stories that are happening are not necessarily the ones that are showcased by the sponsor holding media companies. The internet with its free social platforms of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Wordpress and Tumblr have cascaded into the landscape from which fans are acquiring their in-real-time coverage of culture, events and community of the Olympic Games.

Static Photography has been out in Vancouver covering the very broad spectrum of events that are occurring in the city upon the official arrival of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. From the opening ceremony, to press conferences, to torch relays and event demonstrations, Kris Krüg has been covering these events and capturing fans and media covering these same events for themselves.

Photographic Recap of Citizen Journalism that is present at the Olympic Games:

Citizen journalists John Biehler and Dave Olson hold up the media accreditation badge for the True North Media House. TNMH is an independent media house for the Vancouver Winter Olympics and provides media accreditation to citizen journalists of all types.

Another independent media house that has arisen during the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games if the W2 Woodwards Media + Culture House. This independent media house, located in the DTES, is providing space for many Vancouver media outlets like the Tyee and CBC. It is also providing space to organizations, like the Legal Observers, that are providing community services during the month of February.

Rebecca Bollwitt, aka Miss604, is a podcaster, blogger and all around social media maven. She has been actively covering the Vancouver Winter Olympics for her ver popular Vancouver community site.

There is only one official media accreditation for the Vancouver Winter Olympics, but since there are many more media organizations that are covering the games that just the official one, other forms of accreditation have formed. Robert Scales who runs the site VancouverAccess is holding up his British Columbia International Media Centre media accreditation badge.

Often times as citizen journalists, our main vantage point is through the lens or view finder of our camera. We see the world as it is captured in documentation. Here is an HDR shot of the a 2010 Cultural Olympiad media installation called ‘Fire with Fire’ by Isabelle Hoyeur. This installation is live at the w2 Woodwards Media + Culture House for the entire duration of the games.

There are many people who actively involved in citizen journalism and can recognize their actions as such. The real revolution is happening within the everyday community members, fans, and general public who are recording their lives in digital documentation and then sharing it on the internet for their friends, family or the world to see.

For the past year and half, Andrew Lavigne has been documenting the story of social media as it plays into the preparation of the Vancouver Winter Olympics and the city of Vancouver as whole. Produced by Jon Ornoy and titled ‘With Glowing Hearts’, this documentary tells the digital evolution of many stories including W2 Woodward’s, True North Media House and Fearless City.

The gentlemen was a participant of an anti-olympic rally that convened at the Vancouver Art Gallery on the same day as the Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. There were many cameras at the rally, with everyone wanting to document their direct experience with the massive gathering.

In the same light that a protestor might want to capture their experience in a retrospective format, the opposite side, the police department, utilizes the same tactic to work against the protestors. Whether it is for visual documentation for a later catalogue or a later examination, the police department are acting in part of citizen journalists and creating media for their own community.

Often times like a silent third party, the citizen journalist can be caught in the line of cross-fire in such events as demonstrations and protests. The symbiotic relationship of the police, protestors, and photographers can be a dance of fierce neutrality. Here Michael Tippet of NowPublic and our studio manager at Static Photography, Danielle Sipple, are seen in the middle of a large demonstration.

Our first response, during any kind of tragedy, is to immediately share this knowledge with the ones we know. Our instant accessibility to sharing via our cell phones is a valuable resource. Here the public is shown immediately sharing the news of the anti-Olympic demonstrations that caused property damage in downtown Vancouver.

The Olympic Resistance Network held a press conference a mere days before the beginning of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Geared towards making a massive statement to the press about their actions during the games, both traditional and citizen journalists were there to cover this monumental event.

The 3rd Annual Poverty Olympics took place in Vancouver, to bring light to the many social and economic travesties that are present in Vancouver, even as a present-day host city. Here is a community member filming the satirical event as a testament to the needed voice that this events provide.

The Legal Observers are a group of citizen witnesses to act as public eyes to the ongoings of the street-level events during the Olympic Games, mostly when police presence is involved. There are two groups of Legal Observers present at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games: Legal Observers from the Lawyers Guild and Legal Observers from the Vancouver community. The main priorities of these observers are to record data during events, badge numbers, arrests, violence and anything else that could need a witness testimony.

Chris Wheeler is a great example of a citizen journalist making the most fun out if an experience. Geared up as the ‘2010 Torch Reporter‘, Wheeler followed the Olympic Torch around its journey throughout Canada, documenting his whole  experience on video. Not only did he follow the Torch along its vast Canadian route, Wheeler also coupled the documentation with a travel-style viewpoint of the many facets of Canada and the adventures to be had.

Everyone has the ability to capture their own experience through film or photos, even when there is a strife tension between the two subjects. Here is a protestor making a visual testament to the police visibility that was seen during the Olympic demonstrations. Citizen journalism has a presence everywhere in Vancouver.

Citizen journalism is an action. By the simple means of documenting our world around, whether with our fancy cameras or our always handy cell phones, we are actively participating in sharing our experience with the world. It is not really how is happening but that it is happening all the time. We are journalists and the world is full of our news.

Web editor of Culture @ the Olympics (blogger and PhD student) Jennifer Jones was featured in a short video by Vancouver City Hall which was captured during the opening celebrations of W2 Media and Culture House. The series documents stories from Vancouver – from the people who live and visit the city. For more information (and more stories), visit Vancouver City Hall’s channel on youtube.

Our Editorial Assistants, Ana ADI and Jennifer Jones, were live on CKNW on Tuesday, February 16, talking about their coverage of the Olympics so far. They joined Jill Bennett’s International Media Panel with, her other guests, John Crumpacker of San Francisco Chronicle and Florian Zut of Swiss National Television. During the one-hour show the four journalists discussed their coverage of the Games, culture at the Olympics and the relation and differences between traditional media and citizen journalists.

You can listen to the show here.

Vancouver is filled with energy now that 2010 Winter Olympic Games has officially started. The last week has been filled with the excited fervor of the last month and anticipation of the upcoming weeks. Here is a photographic look into the last week of adventure and celebrations, before the officially opening of the Games in Vancouver.

The Olympic torch was carried downhill on the Blackcomb mountain by world champion and olympiad Steve Podborski. Steve won a bronze medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Currently he is part of the VANOC and works within International Relations.

Premier Gordon Campbell seemingly is Canada’s number one fan. Campbell has travelled around Canada for the entire length of the torch relay. Here he is handing out coveted British Columbia Olympic pins to fans at the Whistler Torch Celebration.

Vancouver is part of the Coast Salish territories and has a Four Host First Nation welcoming committee as part of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. Willie Lewis, dressed in a traditional Aborginal outfit, was part of the Whistler Torch Relay Celebration.

Static Photography had the chance to hang out in Whistler for the weekend with Chris Wheeler who had been following the torch relay through all of Canada. We had the chance to do some zip trekking with him! Our longest run was 2200 m.

The Olympic Torch had an extended route through all of Vancouver with the relay going through all of the neighborhoods in Vancouver. The Vancouver city council accompanied by Mayor Gregor Robertson welcomed the torch when it came to City Hall.

Vancouver Olympiad Lori Fung, with her gold medal, was present when the Olympic Torch came to the Vancouver City Hall. Fung was the first gold medalist awarded in the sport of Rhythmic Gymnastics during the 1984 Summer Olympics which were held in Los Angeles, CA.

Iain Black welcomed the public to the opening of the VX Forum in Vancouver, BC. Black is Minister of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development in Canada and is pictured here with Nadia Nascimento and Dave Olson of Invoke Media which is the parent company to twitter-based application Hootsuite.

This is the first Olympic Games where people are full-on involved with technology and the internet. Many fans often have out their own cameras to capture their memories themselves. With this sort of documentation present for the Vancouver Winter Olympics, some of the best Olympic news coverage will be coming from the internet!

There are many different pavilions popping up all over Vancouver with all sorts of awesome installations and displays. This is a touch screen graffitti media installation in the DigiBC part of the BC Pavilion. Here one of the creators is having fun creating some interactive art.

Mayor Gregor Robertson has been a very busy man during the preparations for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Here he is outside of the W2 Media and Culture House in the DTES. He was the speaker at the ribbon-cutting of this independent media house which opened to the public.

The beautiful Olympic Athlete Village sits on the waters’ edge of the False Creek. There was a bit of controversy when the athletes from Australia hung up their official Aussie flag, which is a copyrighted image. Despite some grievances with the IOC, Vancouver fought to keep the flag up!

Bombardier, the company who designed the Olympic Torch for the Vancouver Winter Olympics, also designed the Olympic Line, a train that runs from the Main Street Skytrain Station to Granville Island. Bombardier has given Vancouver two of their streetcars, on loan from Brussels, Belgium. The Olympic Line is a 60 day demonstration project so get a ride while you can!

Visitors have been packing into Vancouver from all over the world for the 2010 Winter Olympics. This group of women associated with Ukrainian team were photographed on their way into the Opening Ceremony on February 12th.

Another type of visitor that has been sighted in Vancouver is the increase in public security, with the influx of police from other provinces. These police officers are in fact from four different Canadian provinces!

It was very exciting to watch the crowd gather for the Opening Ceremony at the German Saxony House. The place was packed with locals and visitors for the three hour televised event. Of course, everyone went nuts when the Canadian team was ushered into BC Place.

The biggest secret of the 2010 Winter Olympics was the identity of the person who was to light the final torch in Vancouver during the official welcoming of the Games. Wayne Gretzky ended up carrying the torch from BC Place to the final outdoor giant torch at Waterfront station in a great fanfare. The night ended with a fireworks-filled sky.

All content which is generated, every image, every news story, every phone call, all official VANOC websites (including Vancouver2010.com) and every score will be broadcast to the world using a highly connected infrastructure and reinforced network designed to withstand the demands of the mega- event and its international audience.

Bell have provided a dedicated Olympic fibre network, wireless voice and data services, broadcast support support and internet portals to make sure that the content of the self-described “flawless” Games can be delivered successfully using a fully online system.

In terms of future Games, and with London 2012 in mind, I will be watching carefully to see how LOCOG’s Olympic network compares to the provisions of Bell. In turn, whilst new media interaction appears to be rife across the Vancouver Games spectrum, how will those who are not accredited and/or connected to the Olympic network fair during the Games time in terms of connectivity, data tariffs and broadband access on the move.

Free Tibet Campaign urging public figures to stay away

Owen Bowcott
Monday January 28, 2008
Guardian Unlimited

Prince Charles won’t be going to Beijing in August. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

The Prince of Wales’ decision not to attend the Beijing Olympics is being used as the launchpad for an international campaign to persuade public figures to boycott the games..