When the world around us shut down in March 2020, Somerville Media Center made a hard pivot and made every single one of its programs virtual.
Everyone’s lives very suddenly became digital in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, and SMC jumped in to help.
To keep our community informed, we hosted dozens of shows with school officials, city councilors and state legislators. We hosted news roundups and business updates. We gave you panels on food security, the sudden changes in the arts community and discussions of upcoming legislation. We even gave you virtual festivals and coverage of Black Lives Matter rallies.
As spring turned to summer, we helped schools put on their virtual graduation programs. We facilitated teen movie nights, maker nights and games on Discord, the social platform most popular among teens.
Most impressively, we provided online “SomerCamp” to hundreds – that’s right, hundreds – of school-aged Somerville kids, at no cost to their families. With a web of community partners and teen staffers, SMC taught media literacy, podcasting, storytelling, editing and showcased shows and short programs on its YouTube channel.
For those creating from home, we offered virtual workshops, teaching SMC adults and youth members how to create websites, how to record and edit podcasts at home, how to use programs to create graphics and how to use social media. Of course, we had how-to videos on how to do at home what we had previously created in a studio.
The danger isn’t over, and we’re still actively doing our part keeping our members and our community informed and safe. SCATV continues to cablecast and livestream on somervillemedia.org. Boston Free Radio continues to broadcast worldwide and our in-house and partner produced podcasts continue to play and be featured on our website. Our in-house and member-produced programs continue to play and be featured on our website. Contactless equipment reservations are now easy for members, and very limited in-studio time is available.
Somerville Media Center will be bringing you more in 2021. We have a new executive director, we’re building more programs for youth and adults, and we’re very excited to plan for a day when we’re no longer dealing with a pandemic. But for now, we’d love to hear from you.
- Join Somerville Media Center — see what a membership gets you.
- Support Somerville Media Center.
- Share your SMC story. Are you a current or former member? Our executive director would love to hear from you.
