Labour and New Media (edited)

Just to follow up on yesterday's article... here's what the edited version looks like...

Labour and New Media - Made for each other

You’ve probably heard or read news stories about Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and blogging, but did you know these can be powerful tools for Unions, too? Face-to-face meetings, newsletters and notice boards will always have their place in union communications, but there is a growing demand in the labour movement to embrace the new media.

New media, also called Web 2.0 or user-contributed media, is immediate and can reach many people at once. CUPE 391 (Vancouver Public Library workers) recently got a lot of mileage out of their bargaining blog (http://www.cupe391.ca/blog2/). While they built the blog for their members after their employer shut down their internal e-mail system, it soon became clear that reporters were checking it for breaking information. Other locals are posting campaign videos on YouTube, reaching out to new members on social networking giant Facebook, and collecting photos of rallies, strikes, and community action on Flickr.

In response to member needs, CUPE has reworked the Advanced Communications course, “Making it Sing,” to include new media and to help guide CUPE activists in the best ways to integrate new media into their own campaigns and communications strategies.