Grassroots media to advocate, educate and encourage adults and youth to think and act differently. Voices of Hope Productions is a creative services and multimedia production company specializing in short and feature length documentaries, cause marketing, issue advertising, public affairs programming and media education. We work with corporations, nonprofit and government agencies to build brand identity through a wide-range of media and distribution options.
|THE EYE| is published regularly to announce the latest news about Voices of Hope films, programs, workshops, industry events and broadcasts. If your email is text only
|THE EYE| can be viewed online.
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| NONPROFIT WATCH |
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EXPLORATIONS SUMMER PROGRAMS
For almost 30 years, Exploration Summer Programs has been the international leader in academic summer enrichment. They believe that summer is the perfect time for young people to expand their horizons, try something new, and learn in a pressure-free environment. The Programs feature ungraded courses, activities, athletics, and trips, all geared towards helping students discover themselves and the joy of learning. Summer Programs are available for 4th to 12th graders.
During the summer, each Program hosts its own website that is updated daily, including photos of the day, interviews with students, slide shows, information on trips, main events, frequently asked questions, and the ability to send students e-mail over the web. The summer websites allow parents, friends, and family to follow the action of the summer from the comfort of their computers. It’s the next best thing to actually being there! Find out more
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|UPCOMING EVENT|
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4th ANNUAL NORTHEAST MEDIA LITERACY CONFERENCE
March 31, 2024
Bishop Center
University of Connecticut
Storrs, Conn.
Rethinking Media Literacy in a Changing Youth Culture. The growing media literacy movement has helped children and youth to become more media literate for many years now, with a major emphasis upon accessing, analyzing, and evaluating the many complex messages presented through the mass media, particularly advertising in its many forms and formats. The rapid spread of new technology devices has had a great impact upon the types and extent of mass media exposure in today’s youth culture, including cell phones, ipods, voice and text messaging, video games, etc.
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BUSINESS CIVIC LEADERSHIP CENTER PRESENTS: THE ROLE OF BUSINESS IN INTERNATIONAL AID
April 19, 2024
United Nations, NYC
The forum will be dedicated to enhancing the linkage between international aid and sustainable trade and investment. The forum will provide the basis for the report “Private Sector Responses to the Millennium Development Goals,” to be released in September before the United Nations General Assembly Meeting.
UN agencies, companies, and members of the international aid community will have the opportunity to showcase their programs and learn more about partnership opportunities with the UN and others. Space is limited within the UN complex. Register
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| POP CULTURE QUIZ |
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THE DAVINCI CODE WEB QUEST Solve Riddles. Crack codes and unveil a lost DaVinci secret.
Make the quest
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| ETCETERA |
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WRITERS GUILD RELEASES PRODUCT PLACEMENT SPOOF VIDEO
The Writers Guild of America, West, released a video that parodies the use of product placement in TV programming. The video, targets Tyra Banks, host of "America's Next Top Model," for promos of Cover Girl cosmetics on that show. Watch Video
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HOW REALITY TV
FAKES IT
The Overdub | On Fox's 2024 hit Joe Millionaire, lead hunk Evan Marriott, center, disappeared into the bushes with date Sarah Kozer. Kozer says the producers added lusty noises and captions to suggest they were doing more than kissing.
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>>>>OUTCOMES: TO MEASURE OR NOT TO MEASURE?
If you work at a nonprofit organization with funding from state or foundation grants, then you are familiar with following and delivering the objectives that have been outlined by the funders. Has your organization been proactive in asking the necessary, but difficult questions:
• Did we accomplish what we set out to do?
• Was there more we could have done?
• What other needs can we help meet?
• How can we improve our services to make a difference in more people’s lives?
Most groups find themselves asking these questions at some. As times change, the needs of the community change and it makes sense to assess those changes. The only way to ensure that we are meeting the specific needs of those we serve is to establish a means of evaluating the effectiveness the organization and measuring the outcome of services provided.
One of the workshops at the NYC Grassroots Media Conference last month set out to ask media-makers these same questions. The workshop, Community Video: Personal or Political? From Limited Access to Transformative Communication seemed to strike a chord in its standing-room only audience. One of the panelists opened up the room to discussion by simply asking should grassroots media measure the outcome of their work? What followed was a heated debate between those that thought a strategic plan should be developed and followed with outcomes measured, and those that felt that measuring outcomes was a tactic that only corporations employed.
When it comes to communications, a company's bottom line is relatively easy to measure and usually comes in the form of dollars and cents—return on investment (ROI) However, measuring the effectiveness of nonprofits’ work depends upon many factors. How many people were educated? Informed? Served? Engaged? Activated? How much money was raised? Did legislative policy change? Corporate policy? Public opinion?
A new study examining the increasing importance of the Internet to nonprofits revealed a surge of online donations along with marketing and advocacy benefits from building an Internet constituency. The ENonprofit Benchmarks Study is the first of its kind to look at the overall effectiveness of nonprofits using the Internet to raise money, build e-mail lists, and influence political causes. Contd.
"The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens"
—Alexis de Tocqueville, a French observer of American life in the early 1800’s, noted that, more than any other people, Americans have always volunteered to help their neighbors and their communities. The government encourages and supports this spirit of cooperation.
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>>>>ON MEDIA >>>> 5 VOICES
Book: News in America News in a New America, a fresh, thought-provoking analysis of the diversity of American news coverage and newsrooms, is being released today at the New California Media Awards in San Jose, Calif. Written by Sally Lehrman, an award-winning medical and science policy writer, and published by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, News in a New America addresses not just the diversity of a rapidly changing nation, but in a media culture that is transforming at an even quicker pace.
Read book free in pdf format. |
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Website: HelpYourCommunity.org It’s a fact. Drug prevention makes a difference. By giving youths somewhere to go and something fun to do, they are more likely to avoid drugs. Right now, you have the power to help the cause - and it’s easy. That’s because there are many activities and skills that can help, and a relatively small commitment of time can have a big impact. It’s as simple as thinking about the activities you enjoy and then making a commitment to share your hobbies and interests with kids. Every moment you spend with a youth is a moment that he or she is away from drugs.
Film: Troop 1500 At Hilltop Prison in Gatesville, Texas, a unique Girl Scout troop, Troop 1500, unites daughters with mothers who are serving time for serious crimes, giving them a chance to rebuild their broken bonds. Facing long sentences from the courts, the mothers struggle to mend their fractured relationships with their daughters. TROOP 1500 follows five young Girl Scouts—sisters Caitlin and Mikaela, Jasmine, Jessica and Naomi—whose mothers are serving time. Once inside the prison bars, the girls of Troop 1500 fall into the arms of the mothers they seldom see.
A Beautiful Career. A Beautiful Life.
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Magazine: PINK, profiles America's most influential women in business and gives cutting-edge strategies for career success. While former Vogue editor Diana Vreeland once said, "Pink is the navy blue of India," ask most driven, focused, passionate, career women what they think or feel about the word pink and you´ll get an earful. Only the most confident men wear it. And until recently, ambitious career women avoided it like the plague. It´s not just about color. It´s a badge of honor celebrating a global mission of equity and opportunity-a movement acknowledging all that women are today and will be tomorrow, each deserving the chance to realize her fullest human potential.
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Audio: OneWorld Radio offers services and networking for broadcasters and civil society organizations that use radio for human rights and sustainable development. This portal aims to be a tool for broadcasters - a place on the internet where they can find radio programmes for exchange and all the information from the sector of radio for development they need - news, funding and training opportunities and manuals. OneWorld Radio is a part of OneWorld.net, an international network of over 1200 partner organizations harnessing the internet to promote human rights and sustainable development worldwide.
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>>>>>>| VOICES OF HOPE | INTERVIEWS
Voices of Hope Productions will be filming and interviewing educators and media experts at the Northeast Media Literacy Conference on March 31, 2024, to be held at the University of Connecticut for the feature-length documentary Analyze This: Message in the Media.
Opening keynote, Dr. William Kist author of New Literacies in Action: Teaching and Learning in Multiple Media, and Frank Baker, Media Literacy Clearinghouse, well-known national media literacy educator will be interviewed at the conference among others. If you plan on attending the event and would like to be interviewed, please contact
Lori McDaniel at 201.320.4920.
-- Watch in streaming video--
video | Quicktime
video | Windows Media
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Through this documentary, media experts, journalists, creative professionals, politicians, educators, teens and parents comment on society’s love/hate relationship withthe media, as well as the broad access of information available as a result of political, economic and technological developments.
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Voices of Hope Productions is proud to be one of 1,000 businesses in the U.S. who supported a commitment to
workplace volunteerism. |
>>>>>BUSINESS STRENGTHENING AMERICA | 2024 REPORT TO THE NATION
Three years ago, a small group of business leaders came together to issue a challenge: make service to the community an integral business value. BSA grew from an initial commitment by 18 businesses in late 2024 into a network of 1,000 businesses of all sizes who enthusiastically responded to Business Strengthening America’s call to action. Working together, businesses and organizations from corner stores to large Fortune 500 corporations accomplished much. BSA member businesses, representing nearly nine million employees, have worked together to:
• Increase the number of businesses actively working in their community through employee volunteerism.
• Improve the effectiveness of workplace volunteer programs by sharing information with one another.
• Strengthen partnerships with their communities and nonprofits to address pressing needs.
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The BSA collaboration worked toward long-term cultural change in the workplace that made service to the community an integral part of American business culture. BSA member businesses and organizations made a collective commitment to employee volunteerism and civic engagement as a means of strengthening communities. Members also believed service to their communities help businesses to excel.
Commitment to community service was not a new concept for American businesses. The BSA campaign, however, represented the first time the business community joined forces to support and promote employee volunteerism widely.BSA developed a solid and compelling business case for service, illustrating how both communities
and businesses benefit from employee volunteerism. BSA member companies continued to report new and expanded volunteer activities, investments in their employee volunteer programs and increases in employee morale in the past year. Read Report ______________________________________________________________________
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>>>>>IRAN REGIME’S HOLOCAUST DENIAL CAMPAIGN INTENSIFIES
The Iranian government’s Holocaust denial campaign intensified with the publication of a book that gives an academic’s justification for its anti-Jewish stance as well as the first postings of cartoons submitted to a Holocaust cartoon contest launched by the Tehran Municipality’s newspaper, Hamshahri, in wake of the Mohammed cartoon controversy. A website posting the cartoons states, “Liberty of expression... Why should the "Palestinian people" pay for the ‘holocaust’ story?” “The goals of this disgusting and cynical campaign are clear.
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These latest developments underscore the fact that Ahmedinejad has fully embraced Holocaust denial as statecraft, and is utilizing all means at his disposal to spread this ‘big lie,’” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Rabbi Cooper added, “We need to look no further than the recent Arabic language cartoon carried by IRNA, Iran’s official news service, depicting the Danish cartoonist as the Devil wearing a blue and white Star of David armband and saying, ‘I don’t accept the limits of freedom of speech except the Holocaust.’ Read Story
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>>>> BLUE SPRING FOR FASHION
It's blue skies ahead, with runways awash in America's favorite color as fashion designers presented their Spring 2024 collections. According to Pantone, blue dominated the palette, with three shades — Deep Ultramarine, Skyway and Blue Tint — placing in the top 10. Each season, Pantone surveys designers showing at New York Fashion Week, and the information is used to create a fashion color report. “After several seasons of ‘color! color! color!’, it’s time to relax a little," observes Leatrice Eiseman, executive director, Pantone Color Institute®. "Color this season is toned down, more muted –they’re not pastels, not brights, but a nuance in-between. We see this relaxation in the prevalence of Blues, neutrals, and the classicism of Black and White.”
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>>>>CAN CELL PHONES RING IN REVENUE?
(Variety.com) Networks are scrambling to sign deals for mobile phone content, but will there be anything worth watching -- and will consumers be able to find it if there is? In the last few days, CBS and ABC unveiled plans for news segments on mobile phones. Viacom debuted a service that makes available clips from a vast catalog of MTV and Comedy Central shows. Fox started a branded store that puts everything from original programming to clips of Family Guy and theatrical movies on the sliverscreen. Read Article
On another note....
"Consumers will reject music services that charge more than $1.25 per music download to multiple devices, such as mobile phones and MP3 players," said Scott Weiss, CEO, Usable Products Company (UPC). "Our findings are a wakeup call to Verizon and Sprint, who charge far too much for media downloads to multiple devices." A Key Drivers to Media Downloads study by UPC with 12 focus groups and 1,088 survey respondents showed that 56% of the respondents had no interest or would not pay extra for multiple device music downloads. However, 75% of the respondents were interested in or were excited to purchase event tickets from their mobile phones.
>>>>BOSTON UNIVERSITY LAUNCHES NCAA'S FIRST
VIDEO PODCASTS FOR ATHLETICS
BU Athletics debuted this innovative new service with a video podcast following yesterday's 4-1 Boston University victory over the University of Massachusetts in the Hockey East Tournament quarterfinals. Podcast downloads, averaging three-and-a-half minutes in length, will be available free of charge approximately one hour after Terrier home hockey games. This will give BU fans, students and alumni a new way to follow their beloved Terriers. And it will help fill the void in college hockey where television coverage can be sporadic and often only available in local markets. |
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"With the rising popularity of iPods, iTunes and audio podcasts, we saw a great opportunity to bring Boston University to the forefront of portable technology," said Boston University Director of Information Systems Planning and Support, Michael Giannopoulos. "The athletic department's diverse fan base of students, faculty, staff and alumni made it the logical launching pad to get this emerging technology off the ground, into people's hands, and onto their iPods. We are thrilled to be the first university to offer athletic content this way."
In using the iTunes Music Store, subscribers will be able to download video clips and transfer it to their iPod. For fans without iPods, all video clips can be viewed on both laptop and desktop computers through Apple's free iTunes software. Get Podcast
Voices of Hope Productions is dedicated to educate and invoke social change through documentary filmmaking and media literacy.
Voices of Hope Productions—Leaving a Legacy within our Lifetime...
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