THE CONCEPT
Shared communication is the possibility to participate in a media initiative or collective media action, especially in the work of free and/or journalistic coverage of events of social interest, through the exchange of efforts and contents among media and individuals involved in non-corporate or non-commercial communication. It resists the neoliberal logic of controlled management of communication by counterposing solidarity exchange to the competitive practices of the market and by addressing issues of journalistic, social, cultural or political interest without the commercial bias of the mass media.
The concept is applied in various forms by organised initiatives within the World Social Forum universe, like Ciranda (international and bringing together diverse media), the Radio Forum (alternative and community radios), the TV Forum (audiovisual media), Minga (Mutirão Informativo dos Movimentos Sociais, in Latin America) and Flamme D’Afrique (production of digital and printed magazines by journalists in Africa).
One of the themes on the agenda for participants in shared communication initiatives is the possibility of joint or interlinked actions to strengthen the networked action of alternative media and to raise the profile of the communication of the World Social Forum.
Contributions to a public policy
The first International Seminar of Shared Communication, held in January 2009 in Belém, as part of the programme of the first World Forum of Free Media, presented recommendations for the communication of the World Social Forum as well as subsidies for the movement for the democratisation of communication.
One of the contributions, in December 2009, was the approval in Brazil, by the National Communication Conference, for the shared communication initiatives to be understood as strands of public media and as such supported by a public communication system in Brazil.
The conference presented proposals for a national communication policy in the country as well as contributions towards a rethinking of the communciation models that are currently hegemonic in the world. Among these were the understanding of communication as a human right and the social right to opt for community, popular, free and shared media.