A LIMERICK-based social enterprise is working to encourage people from diverse backgrounds to consider a career in the media sector.
Gorm Media was founded by Mamobo Ogoro while undertaking her PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Limerick, looking at second generation migrants and their representation in the media.
Using her studies as the basis for Gorm, Mamobo founded the enterprise with creative director Ala Buisir.
Ms Buisir spoke to the Limerick Post about Gorm’s work in the community.
“We’re a production company and a social media platform, but we also do diversity and inclusion training so there’s two parts to us. On the diversity and inclusion side, we have a team of psychologists, they give training to corporates, and then we have a media production company/platform.”
Gorm held its first show ‘This is “Them”’ in October of last year. The project aimed to give a voice to people from diverse backgrounds, including migrants, members of the Travelling community, and people with disabilities, allowing to tell their own stories in the media.
Now, Gorm has launched ‘The Wideshot’ programme to train young people from different communities in various aspects of media, including storytelling and content production.
“A lot of people who come from migrant communities, their careers are either engineering or medicine. We’re trying to change that. Especially with a lot of diversity in Ireland, we need more voices out there and we need more people to tell their own stories instead of someone else telling their story.
“It’s so important because if they don’t get their own representation – it’s not even just the migrant community, even the marginalised community – then people are going to tell their story, but they’re not going to tell the full story. Also, that story can be manipulated into whatever the media sector wants it to be,” Ms Buisir said.
The Wideshot will feature workshops with members of marginalised communities, training them in how to tell their stories using digital media, as well as interviewing techniques.
The programme is starting in Limerick with a group of refugees and asylum seekers from Doras.
Doras CEO John Lannon said that the opportunity to get involved in the media like this is a huge one for people from underrepresented communities.
“For minority and underrepresented communities, and particularly for young people whose background often excludes them, the use of digital media to explore issues of identity and belonging offers intriguing opportunities to share their perspectives,” he said.
“The level of interest in the programme from young refugees shows that there is huge interest in becoming digital storytellers, and this is something we’re very happy to see.”
Three charities will also be involved, AMAL Women’s Association which supports young Muslim girls, the Irish Traveller Movement, and the Africa Centre. Members of these groups will come together in July to produce a film.
The programme is funded by the YPCE Project Award 2023 with funding from the Arts Council of Ireland.
