The sway of media on culture provides a broad pltform of self-exploration. Lot of initiatives has been taken up globally to upsurge the role of media in promoting intercultural understanding.

Reel Intercultural Dialogue Project
Reel Intercultural Dialogue Project had been launched by UNESCO and the International Association of Film and Television Schools (Centre International de Liaison des Ecoles de Cinéma et de Télévision - CILECT) in the year 2003. Reel Intercultural Dialogue initiative: “a youthful take on humanity and conflict - projecting the need for peace”. In April 2004, a series of five short fiction films were released through Internet and in a form of DVD under this initiative and the films have been directed to national and international media and secondary schools worldwide.

These films produced by young students at cinema and television schools in Burkina Faso, India, Israel, Mexico and Romania, aim to increase intercultural understanding. The films present glimpses of conflict between communities and cultures, and also alternatives to cultural domination. 

Aboriginal media project
Since May 2003, the Victoria (Canada)-based Pacific Peoples’ Partnership (PPP) engaged in a communication-based project is an effort to challenge Canadians to move beyond their stereotypical assumptions of the South Pacific as island paradise.This Aboriginal Media Project, funded by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Primates World Relief and Development Fund, Anglican Church of Canada, United Church of Canada, and the B.C. Gaming Commission involves face-to-face dialogue to bridge the cultural gap, which are then shared through electronic and print media. Through articles, comic strips, and documentaries for radio and television, team members shared their experience in an effort to support intercultural dialogue and understanding. 

Under this project, three Canadian journalists within the Aboriginal media and a PPP staff person were sent to Fiji and Vanuatu, to explore the common experiences of colonization among indigenous peoples of Canada and the South Pacific. The PPP website shares the journalists’ stories with a global audience. The website carries a diary of the trip, and a series of story illustrations called “Red Flags Red Skin” about Fijian gold miners.

Showcasing Kutch craft
India is home to a plethora of diversified and skilled handicraft workers – but undiscovered and untold. One endeavour towards narrating such budding tales is the Ahmedabad based SEWA, the Self Employment Workers Association, a trade union registered in 1972 for poor, self-employed and unorganised women workers.

One of such story where SEWA brought alive an unheeded acitivity is that of the Kutch women handicraft workers. Located in the northern part of Gujarat, India, the ethnic community of the region specialises in different forms of textile-based handicrafts.

Although, the craft from Kutch have acquired a prominent place both nationally and internationally, the craftswomen have never been the beneficiaries, a large chunk of the sales revenue ended up in the pockets of the exploitative traders.

Thanks to SEWA which not only organised the craftswomen into the Kutch Crafts Association under the Government scheme called Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), but also hosts a Website ‘kutchcraft.org’.

The site today acts as the direct marketing outlet for around 4,000 women artisans with direct access to the market and helps them get sustained work and income.

Boosting Banascraft
SEWA also showcased to the world the skills of women artisans of Banaskantha a village in Gujarat’s north western desert district by hosting the Website ‘banascraft.org’ on its homepage. The site today is the direct marketing outlet for around 10,000 artisans. Building on their traditional skills and rich reservoir the site displays local materials is Gaji, Mashroo, Bandhani(tie-dye) and vegetable block prints which are handspun, woven dyed and printed, shawls etc.

Sewa video
The association of 2,50,000 self employed women, connects its village members to the outside world through ‘Video SEWA’. An honest and direct way of conveying its women’s hope, struggle and achievements to policy makers, planners, legislators, politicians and others.

Video SEWA not only is a tool for showcasing hidden traditional industry talents but also a medium for learning, education and development. It has appointed a team of 8 full – time video camera persons and producers, and another 20 part time members to produce videotapes on a wide range of issues. More than 200 tapes have been produced. Many are sold. And at almost every SEWA meeting and training, videos are replayed.