George Stoney was a filmmaker and PEG pioneer and although he rejected the title he is known as the “father of public access television”.
Written and prepared by Amy Davies, ACM-NE Board Member
Stoney began making films in the 1940’s for the Southern Educational Film Production. It was important to Stoney that his films had a point of view, an agenda. He saw filmmaking as a tool for social change not necessarily as an artistic outlet. In the documentary “Happy Collaborator”, Stoney bristles at the idea of a film being made about him without telling a broader story. “I feel that it’s my job as a filmmaker to have enough respect for the audience to give them something that has a view of society that will strengthen what they do know and maybe tell them something they didn’t know at the same time.”, Stoney said.
Stoney later began to teach people to use video as a means to tell their own stories and in the early 1970’s he founded Alternate Media Center at Tisch School of the Arts with Red Burns laying the groundwork for PEG Access. He remained a emeritus professor until his death on July 12, 2012 at the age of 96.
In a 1986 interview Stoney talked about the importance of media access to a democratic society.
“Democracy is a very fragile thing. I don’t know why we assume when a dictatorial country turns democratic that its going to survive easily. It needs nurturing because it is so much easier for a few people to dominate many people than for many people to govern themselves. We’re just beginning to learn how this is done. In this country we’re finding that it’s the constant battle between the few that who can control the means of communication and the many that have the votes but are lulled into passivity by watching television and listening to radio and being inactive. Access is one way of getting us all to speak about public affairs, to take part in public affairs. My own view is that we want to use access to get people to watch television less and get involved in their public affairs more.”
You can watch Happy Collaborator at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50El8Q9EXPg
And learn more about the beginnings of Community Media by watching Everyone’s Channel at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz-Ks143jUE