In response to the recent Gov 2.0 event in Los Angeles, Mark Drapeau wrote, "Does the Public Currently Need to Know What Gov 2.0 Is?" Drapeau's points about jargon and the traditional idea that the public is the unwitting beneficiary of policy and behavior change are well made, but raise a larger question: What happens when the public, through strategic use of social media, becomes the driving force behind change in Gov 2.0 instead of waiting for change to occur? This post highlights a great example of that model.
Gov 2.0 x Reality TV: Brick City
By Josh Asen
If you haven't already seen the new Sundance channel reality/doc series, "Brick City" (Sundays at 9PM EST), then you haven't experienced one of the best examples of the use of new media to create better, more transparent governance, or what is now popularly referred to as 'Gov 2.0'. President Obama, in his "Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government", explains:
My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.Over months of shooting and 5 hour-long episodes, Mayor Cory Booker of Newark (@CoryBooker on Twitter, another great example of Booker's commitment to Gov 2.0) opens up his office, his city, and his own life to the Emmy-deserving cameras of Marc Levin and Mark Benjamin ("The Last Party", "The Blues"). And not only Booker, the energetic, Ivy league-educated, community organizer (remind you of anyone?) 1st term mayor, who defeated longtime incumbent Sharpe James (see Oscar-nominated doc "Street Fight"), and has made it his mission to rebrand Newark as a city on the rise. But also the Police Director, who is fighting not only the gangs on the street but his political opponents within the Department; a former gang-member turned women's activist, who is pregnant with her second child (by her boyfriend from the rival gang) and also facing multiple years in prison for an assault in 2004; the principal of one of the city's underfunded public high-schools, who is trying to put pressure on the school board to make good on their promise of a new school building; even the governor, former Goldman Sachs CEO Jon Corzine, makes a few cameos.
So, how does this all add up to a case study of effective use of Gov 2.0 strategies? It's all in the way each character uses the power of the camera to connect with the virtual community that has grown around the show, from its fans, watching live, streaming clips, commenting, tweeting, retweeting, and in other ways multiplying the impact of the show's content and various change-agenda; the way those characters use the show as part of a multi-platform social media campaign to promote their individual causes. This allows Cory Booker to be tweeting about Newark's "achievements" as they unfold on the screen and in the online forums and episode guides. It allows ex-gangmember Jayda to promote her peer group, Nine Strong Women, and provide professional video content to its website. It allows Central Highschool Principal Ras Baraka to make an impassioned speech to his students about the abnormalcy of gang violence and have it reach audiences across the state and country, even the world (see below).
Please notice the posting by a Youtube member (unaffiliated with the school or the show) of Facebook and Twitter links for "OurBrickCity" and "CoryBooker", as well as the positive comments from actual students and supporters of Principal Baraka. I would call that a very effective partnership between Education, Media, and Government, and the public to rally wide support behind a change-initiative. It's transparent, it's open, it's participatory, it's collaborative, and it aims to build trust between partners. In fact, the Producers Guild of America recently hosted a panel to discuss "Brick City" as a 'New Media Marketing Case Study'.
But more than just the effectiveness of increasing visibility for the show and, ostensibly, support for the various causes that it champions, "Brick City" introduces a whole new way to (literally) look at governance: as a fully transparent, interactive, publicly-accountable system of leadership.
Here's a little promo reel. Many more clips at the Sundance site.
About Joshua Asen, Co-Founder/CEO, Hip Hop Diplomacy
After graduating from Brown University, Joshua made the first of several trips across the Atlantic to promote Hip Hop abroad. This first crossing was on behalf of storied Hip Hop label, Rocafella Records, for whom he created the label's first international promotions campaign in Paris. Later, Joshua ventured further south to Morocco, earning a Fulbright grant to study Hip Hop in an Arab/Muslim context. Joshua immediately expanded his project into a documentary film and became the first American to interview the leading Hip Hop groups in Morocco. Responding to their need for more performance opportunities, Joshua began developing plans for the country’s first Hip Hop festival, which he convinced the American Embassy and the Coca-Cola Company to co-sponsor. The 3-city concert tour was attended by over 36,000 young Moroccans and reached thousands more, across the globe, in screenings of the eponymous documentary film (www.ilovehiphopinmorocco.com).
Joshua has since gone on to produce independent films and video content, and continues to develop the Hip Hop Diplomacy brand, encompassing a number of cultural diplomacy and youth outreach campaigns, with varied public- and private-sector partners, as well as an online journal of global Hip Hop and geopolitics, www.hiphopdiplomacy.org.
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