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Film captures journalists' efforts in Detroit
August 4, 2011
Arriving in Detroit during the summer of 2010, Hanson Hosein and Scott Macklin, MCDM program leaders, knew there was a story to tell, but had “no idea to the depth of some of the things that were happening,” Macklin said. It was only during their time at the Journalism That Matters conference that they realized the importance of the events they were witnessing, which they brought to light in their short film, "Detroit Uprising."
The JTM conference, “Create or Die,” brought together journalists from all around the country — most of whom had taken on the job of telling stories as freelancers after suffering from news-industry cutbacks in recent years. The goal of the organization is to keep journalism alive, in all forms, and be a support system for journalists at every stage of their careers.
Before coming to the conference, Macklin and Hosein learned from JTM members of Time Magazine’s attempt to tell stories of Detroit’s citizens who have come together in support of one another, despite the economic downturn that has engulfed the city.
Time’s “Assignment Detroit” was intended to be a yearlong project during which journalists would live and work in the city, making connections with community members, and getting their stories of perseverance out in the open. It was to be a community blog; a medium for the voice of the people of Detroit.
Time Magazine bought a house for their journalists in which they would live and work with the community members but, instead of digging deep, Macklin said, Time took on the project as they would any other story in the queue — what was documented by Time was an outsider’s view of a decimated city, not the uprising of a community from the perspective of its citizens.
“This is still talk-down. You’re just doing Time Magazine, which you typically do, but you’re doing it in the guise of calling it a community blog, but it’s not a community blog,” Macklin said.
In response to what critics called a failed project, the idea of taking hold of one’s own stories began swirling at the JTM conference. Juanita Anderson and Karen Dybis, members of JTM, initiated a petition to, “transform Time Inc.’s Assignment Detroit into a multiplatform, community-centered vision whose mission is to re-imagine the image of Detroit,” according to the JTM website. Detroit storytellers wanted Time Magazine to donate the house and the brand to them so they could transform “Assignment Detroit” into the community blog that it was meant to be.
“What the conference said is, ‘OK, you’ve established this — let’s now try to turn this around because this is not community-centric, ground-up, people-driven reporting,’” Macklin said. “If the house is already there, why don’t you hand it over to the very people who want to tell their stories, who have the ability, the acumen, and the connections to tell their stories?”
Time Magazine wasn’t keen on this idea. Instead, once the “Assignment Detroit” project had concluded, the house was sold. The proceeds of the sale were donated to local Detroit nonprofit youth organizations, but Time Inc. did not give anything toward the development of the community blog that JTM wanted to move forward with.
Although the ending of "Detroit Uprising" may not have a fairy-tale outcome, Hosein and Macklin said they came away from their experience accomplishing their goal. Macklin said, “We were looking for a story having to do with evolution or revolution or devolution of journalism as we know it.”
Bringing to light a community-centric story about activists taking charge of their own stories was what they had hoped to do, and in that process they created their own community-centric story as they engaged with the citizens of Detroit and allowed those people to share their own perspectives.
Journalism That Matters continues to bring together storytellers, despite the sour outcome of Time Magazine’s "Assignment Detroit." Hosein and Macklin hope to continue to build upon the relationships they established and possibly return for more collaboration in the future.
Macklin said, “What we found in Detroit, I think, are some very inspiring examples of what it means to be living in a community, and to recognize that we are each other’s best resources if we are going to move forward, given the challenges we are faced with in the 21st century.”
