„WHERE ARE THE MOTHERFUCKING MILF´S AT?”, my co-journalist, my co-druggy, co-party, co-crazy shouts. “SSST, we’re undercover.” Deadly look shoots through my zebralined specs. “We’re on a mission, blend in with the crowd bitch.” The crowd- drab, grey, mindless. Good luck trying to blend in when you look like you skipped on the loony to be here.
No problemo for us though. Never underestimate the confidence that shines of crazy. And crazy we are. And on a mission we are: to find the Motherfucking MILFS. Let’s shoot some hot middle-aged momma’s!
“Ooooh, check the drool coming out of that granny.” We stalk our prey. My co-journalist pulls out a 50 mm and aims.. SCORE. The magnificent creature is ours, the euphoria sets in. We take deep breaths filled with fat fair air. Whoops and high-fives fly through the air.
Next is the luring technique. I saunter around and casually plant myself next to an old bitch. “Goodday ma’am. Great weather isn’t it?”, I say while the grey sky laughs behind our backs. All I get is a non-commital nod. I try a different technique. “Do you do Jane Fonda? You look so fit”. Ha, the trap springs. She smiles frantically; she looooves Jane Fonda. SCORE. Takes us three seconds to photograph Miss Fit From Fonda in all her sexy aerobic moves.
The loud music, the flashy lights, the huge prizes, everything screams for our attention, but we’re chicks on a mission. Decidedly we check all the toilets to find vomit, preferably the voluptuous type with chunky goodness. “What kind of fuckin excuse for a fair is this? No puke?? Can’t believe it!” Stress leads to sixpack leads to inspiration and in no time we got it: fake your way to the truth.
We came, we saw, we conquered. With pride we review the pics- puke as fake as a high-school orgasm. Fake as the fair, from the high-sky carousel seen as a little world filled with playthings for us little ones to forget our little dreams.
At least the MILF’s were real.
LS on the R-Rated photo reportage undertaken with C-mo.
Journalism and the role of mass media were in the past two centuries defined by the dichotomy of production and consumption. The publication of the news by an elite few, meant for solitary consumption in living rooms, trains and libraries around the world encouraged a culture of passive receptivity.
We wish to bridge this dichotomy with a form of participatory journalism capable of empowering audiences formerly limited to predefined roles of either producers or consumers.
Participatory journalism by definition encourages circular patterns of production and consumption, nurturing itself through a perpetuation of its own production. Like a never-ending construction project, participatory journalism platforms intend to be forever enshrouded in scaffolding, constant works in progress.
The process of publishing does not stop with the first publication. The initial message is rather a stone thrown into water, creating waves of reactions, responses and reflections.
If 19thand 20thcentury journalism is defined as reflection of society’s conversation with itself, participatory journalism is the logical widening of that conversation.
The willing participants in this conversation accept that their words and intentions will be modified and constantly reinterpreted by other willing participants.
The motivations of participatory journalism platforms are not related to monetary gain. Its intentions include the stimulation of a diverse discussion. It intends to be provocative and not passively receptive.
It acknowledges itself as stakeholder media (rather than news media) and does not apologize for having a point of view.
A platform for participatory journalism should foster offline meetings as well as online discussions. We see the physical space of participatory journalism as the gatherings around a fire, where people talk to each other and are interested in each other’s stories.
Editors and moderators of participatory journalism forums should promote a self-regulating culture of reflection, avoiding censorship wherever possible. Rules that govern the platform should be forever in flux and reflect as much tolerance as possible, but not bow to acts of hate speech or incitement to violence.
We cannot and should not know, where this process is going to lead or end, but the very process itself is the product. In the way that a cow moves its food from one stomach to another, we aim to continually “re-digest” information, views and opinions in an ever-enriching process of production. This manifesto is produced in a participatory manner in a physical space, expanded by participation and by commenting in the virtual space.
On Saturday, May 15th, we gathered at the Artspace Rondeel in Maastricht for our event entitled "Creating Waves" and produced the following stuff for you viewing pleasure.
The driving force behind “Creating Waves” was the wish to expand the number of voices that create Maas-media's message as well as the ears that are receptive to it. In order for the maas-mediamorphosis to take place, we wanted to establish a face to face connection that we deem necessary for the formation of an engaged community.
As a theme of the event, the reflection on our role in participatory media best fit our focus. The participants split into think tanks and task forces in order to explore it from different angles. One think tank developed a conceptual elaboration of the topic: a manifesto produced in both written and visual format. Another task force, Maas-media's gonzo journalists, discovered participatory media in practice. This implied the storyteller's immersion into the plot he creates as he experiences reality, as Hunter S. Thompson did in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”. Again, the story was told through different media, both text and images.
At the end of the day, a collective spirit had emerged, turning us into members of an evolving community made of different voices. Yet, we do not see this community as exclusive, rather as an ever-changing collective open to all engaged world citizens. Therefore, in a constant complementarity of the virtual and the physical, Maas-media aims at being the hub which connects multiple localities around the globe.
Finally, we hope that this sparked thoughts, criticism, enthusiasm. Feel free to share and enact participatory journalism!
