Throughout civil society we hear the same proclamation: Journalism is dead.

Armed with wider access to Internet technologies and the increasing availability of low-cost digital technologies, everyday people have the power to become self-publishers.  Crowd sourcing, civic journalism, citizen journalism, smart mobs, and blogging are mounting substantial challenges to the traditional bulwarks of news and entertainment media.

Some herald the changes as the dawn of new era of media democratization and see media access as a fundamental component of human rights. Some warn we are witnessing the fall of informed analysis, veritable information, and civil debate. Others claim both sides are missing the point: millions of people are still without access the Internet, not to mention the basic necessities of life.

While none of these perspectives perhaps get the story entirely right, the rise of citizen journalism requires that people not only have the means of communication at their fingertips, but also that they have the skills to produce and distribute their content effectively.  EngageMedia, the recipient of the first Global Social Change Film Festival & Institute (GSCFFI) Innovator Award, is dedicated to exactly that: bridging the gap between social justice movements, independent publishing, technological skills, and distribution channels.

With offices in Australia and Indonesia, EngageMedia is at the forefront of the social justice, environmental, and new media movements in the Asia Pacific. Challenging the dominance of traditional, mainstream media that marginalize the message and work of social movements, Engage Media aims to help activists effectively produce and distribute content related to climate change, gender equality, poverty, globalization, social justice, indigenous rights, diasporas, alternative energy, and animal rights, to name of few.

Working with independent filmmakers, video activists, technologists, campaigners, and social movements, EngageMedia creates wider audiences for movement messages through the creation of a peer network of video makers, educators, and screening organizations.  The distribution network consists of EngageMedia.org, an online video sharing site, Plumi, a free and open source video sharing platform, and Transmission, a global network of media activists developing online video distribution tools.

GSCFFI is proud to honor EngageMedia for their ground-breaking work in empowering social movements and activists in the Asia Pacific.  EngageMedia is charting a new course by providing the skills and resources necessary for turning social justice and environmental messages into effective, widely distributed video packages that not only use new media technologies, but maximize their communicative power.

In the midst of the crisis in journalism and the rise of new digital technologies, EngageMedia fosters a space where open source digital technologies, technical production training, and social and environmental justice movements converge, demonstrating that social change media democratization might just be the new face of journalism.

In addition to EngageMedia, Nia Dinata, Indonesia born filmmaker, producer, director, and screenplay writer, will be honored at the GSCFI in Ubud, Bali April 13-17 2011.  In addition to her own film work Dinata, an amazingly diverse and socially conscious, award-winning filmmaker, works to support aspiring and independent throughout Indonesia.