Community Video Report (Spring 1974)

14:local cable news City of Baltimore offers ‘master plan’ The Office of Telecommunications for the City of Baltimore, established by the Mayor upon recommendation of a citizens’ committee, has developed what they are calling ‘“‘a master plan’’ for their inquiry into cable TV for the city. The plan, which is being presented to groups around the city, was explained to the Maryland Citizens Coalition for Cable Communications at their May monthly meeting by OT Director Marvin Rimmerman. It includes the following phases: public awareness, technical state-of-the-art, economic feasibility, needs assessment, demonstration projects, public policy questions, and recommendations to the city government. Several of these phases are underway at present, including a public awareness canpaign that will produce materials for distribution, slide and live presentations to citizens’ groups. The Office expects to finish all phases by July, 1975. ‘Expected soon is the final report of the economic feasibility study undertaken by Johns Hopkins University’s Metro Center with funds from the National Science Foundation. Dr. Catherine Lyall, project director, has indicated some parts of the report may be: at odds with the city’s Office of Telecommunications. Details, however, are currently being ironed out. The report, in addition to studying the financial feasibility of cable for the city, looks at some utilization of CATV, particularly educational and municipal services. CATV held practical in Montgomery Co. The second of three reports by Montgomery County’s $40,000 consultant, Malarky, Taylor, was released last month, concluding that CATV is viable for the Washington suburban county, the nation’s richest. The most ‘‘inno (HEALTH, from p. 5) University, described the diet of television programming they provide their patients through the day. They use channels on the same master antenna system that brings regular broadcast T.V. to the patients’ rooms. While this puts them in direct competition with network programs, they have found an audience. They repeat certain programs over and over during the week so that while at one point they might lose out to ‘‘Secret Storm” they might beat out “I Love Lucy” later in the day. A key element in all this is staff follow-up and viewer encouragement. Upon checking into the hospital, patients are informed of the video service. Staff are aware of the programming and many are prepared to answer questions that the programming might bring out. One clear point that I gathered from the discussion is that the big push for patient education is coming much more from nurses and para-professionals than from the doctors. This would seem logical since these are the folks who often spend more time with the patient. Another clear point was the need for evaluation of health communications processes. Saul Jacobs: of Southerland Learning Associates discussed the exhaustive pre-production process they launch before undertaking any filming. Currently they are producing a series of programs designed to get kids to take on health responsibility. They ate interviewing kids, teachers, parents, administrators, doctors, nurses, etc. A pre-distribution pilot will then be shown and evaluated as to its effect on the student’s habits. If more work is needed more production will be undertaken. It is obvious from viewing many materials that many producers are functioning in a vacuum without this type of feedback. Often times producers grab a hot issue, like drug abuse, and start cranking out films. Institutional vative”’ recommendation concerns a point-topoint “special services network’’ for the county that would operate separately from the home subscriber CATV system. The primary concern of this study is economic feasibility. Malarky, Taylor claims that its research indicates that a CATV system in Montgomery Co. could attain one-third of the homes passed as subscribers at a rate of $7/month. This would extend service to about 90% of the ‘‘wireable area” of the county. Services offered over the projected 30-channel system would be the standard mix of over-theair signals, required access channels, local origination, and ‘‘automated” channels. No special services are described. The question of ownership is deemed not to be as crucial by MTA as “penetration levels and capital requirements.’’ Thus, either public or private ownership would be acceptable. Public ownership is, however, “‘considered more favorable economically.” The final Montgomery County report was due after our deadline. We will devote a major’ article in the next issue of CVR to cable development in Montgomery County. Arlington postpones video test projects The Arlington County Board has postponed consideration of three videotape projects designed to test possible municipal service utilization of the upcoming cable TV system until its first July meeting. The projects, recommended by the interdepartmental CATV Task Force of the County government, involve the County Library and _ other agencies. The primary reason for the delay is uncertainty concerning the Federal Communication Commission approval of Arlington’s franchise agreement with ARTEC, Inc., which has been pending for a year now. ARTEC claims that the needed certificate of compliance is forthcoming shortly. The County’s Program Advisory Board continues to hold public information meetings about CATV in Arlington. media buyers likewise buy all kinds of things without really knowing what their effect will be. Several years ago, I led some drug abuse workshops at high schools and junior high schools. At one, the teacher insisted showing one such film to the students, who laughed their way through it, pointing out the inaccurracies. Most students were much more familiar with the material than the producers. Dayton Area Health Network In contrast to producing in a vacuum, the Dayton-Miami consortium of colleges is planning to plug into the local cable systems with Continuing Health Education courses. They have received a grant from the Office of Education to develop programming for “‘nontraditional learners.” The consortium, in cooperation with the area health department, has put together a citizen task force to help identify both the learners to be served and the needs to be met. This task force is made up of both laypersons and health workers, who jointly decide on program content. One of the first things brought up was the fact that learning through CATV could be dehumanizing. Thus, rethinking was done and a new plan is being devised which will combine an hour of CATV programming with two hours of either interactive or tutorial learning. The first program that has been completed is a mini course on vital signs. Unfortunately, since talking with Martin Evers of the consortium and people at the health department, half of the cable system in Xenia, where the program was to begin, was destroyed by tornadoes. Hopefully, the program will begin again when the more immediate problems are dealt with. Without careful consideration and citizen input, investment in health communications could easily be a waste of money. Microwave, computers, and cable are not miracle machines. It is still human beings that control them. If people feel that they are being dehumanized by technology, their alienation Metro Cable Roundup Educating Washington about cable TV City Councilwoman Antoinette Ford and members of the Executive Committee of the CATV Education Task Force for D.C. are in the process of “shopping around” a $24,748 proposal that would fund a four-month community education process concerning the issue of CATV in Washington. Task Force Chairman Curt White, other members of the Committee, and Ms. Ford, have set up meetings with representatives of several foundations and organizations that might be interested in supporting the work, which is preliminary to City Council hearings and the ordinance-franchising process. Although Ms. Ford, as head of the committee for Economic Development of the Council, has supported the Education Task Force, official endorsement by the full Council is pending. Project Accountability Will Cable TV come to Anacostia? If so, who will control, produce and finance it? These were questions Anacostians asked Curtis White at a recent workshop conducted by Project Accountability, an Anacostia-based videotaping project. White, head of a citywide task force on Cable in D.C., heard Anacostians express concern about Cable: costs, slick programming that doesn’t touch the survival interests of people, and the job market that cable would or wouldn’t create. The workshop was initiated by Project Accountability staff as another thrust of its effort to ‘demystify’ the media for the community and open the door for more community-produced TV programs. Publicable conference “Cable for Action 1974” is the title of the third annual Publicable national conference, scheduled for June 9-11 at Mt. Vernon College in Washington. will derail the program, no matter what the intentions. There is no replacement for human contact and involvement. The hope is that technology will free more time for health providers to spend with patients. Several new studies are now coming out detailing work being done in the areas of health and telecommunications applications, some with good discussions of the human issues involved. National Center for Health Education As reported last issue, somewhere in the works is the developing National Center for Health Education. Progress on the structuring and location are still unresolved. We’ve heard that some folks within the health administration want it to be in Washington, and others, under the Disease Control Center in Atlanta. It’s hard to say who is involved at this point and who will make the decision. In his health message to Congress the President asked for the establishment of the Center, but I didn’t see a specific funding allocation in the budget. He also aske“ that an office be set up within H.E.W. to coordinate all ‘currently | existing health education programs.” It was brought to my attention by an aide on Capitol Hill that “‘existing” is a nice way to say “‘no new programs.” Activated Patient Video Available We are currently finishing up a video tape on the Activated Patient Program being conducted by Dr. Sehnert through the Georgetown University Health Maintenance program. The course has now received major press notice in Newsweek and Parade magazines. The videotape is designed to give a glimpse of one of the classes with a few interviews. One of the nice things depicted is the fact that folks taking the course have taken their stethascopes and blood pressure devices home so that they could test their neighbors for hypertension, and the twenty or so students found ten cases. The one thing that is Publicable is a ‘‘nonprofit consortium to stimulate public interest and awareness in cable television developments.”’ This year’s event features a schedule of panels on major national issues in cable, as well as progress onthe local level by churches, schools, libraries, public and municipal access groups. Some 80 ‘‘experts’’ have been slated for participation, including representatives from federal agencies, foundation-funded Washington cable bureaucracies, foundations, and other establishment types concerned with cable policy. Some screening of videotapes is also planned. Pre-Registration deadline was May 26. However, local people interested in attending can call 202-381-6644 or 833-4108 for details. The cost is $30/members, $35/non-members, $15/students. Housing and meals are extra. WCVC promotes local programs to FCC The Washington Community Video Center has submitted comments to the FCC concerning their proposed rulemaking in the matter of requiring CATV systems to originate programming. The 10-page comment recommends that | the Commission, in addition to the current rules governing the channel space for “‘public access channels,”’ should require al] CATV systems in the U.S. to “either devote a percentage of their gross revenues (probably 5%) to the establishment of a community television facility that will actively promote, explain, and help prepare the public to use the public access channel’’ as an alternative to the CATV systems own local origination. WCVC makes the point that local origination and public access are often one and the same thing—locally. produced programming, and that the key issue is finding a way to build an economic base for such community-produced television. Full comments are available on request from WCVC for $.50 and a stamped, selfaddressed envelope. clear from the program is that health consumers do want information and can handle and use information in large doses. (The course is 32 hours, spread out over a 17 week period). Further Resources Perspectives on Interactive Health Services by Joe Nocerino, Mitre Corporation, McLean, Va. This is a good introduction to the applications of complicated technology to basic problems. It emphasizes the interaction between health provider and health client. There is a short discussion of a program called “Project AMOS” which is a computer-assisted diagnostic tool that lends itself easily to cable and microwave technology. Serving Local Needs with Telecommunications by William Lucas and Robert K. Yin available from the Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, Ca. 90406. This report deals almost exclusively with social service delivery via telecommunications. It does something which has not been done before which is to compare the differences between an urban and semi-rural situation. Using Sommerville, Mass., as one location, a suburban situation is discussed. The report deals with the characteristics of the population, cable system and municipal planning and then describes the health needs and then the design for communication research to be done within the sysem. In the second part of the report, Loudoun County, Va., is discussed. This is an area which does not lend itself to the development of CATV because of the distance between population centers, and the good reception of over-the-air TV signals. Here services are discussed which might use phone lines and microwave. It is a thoughtful study. Guide to Audio-Visual Aids for Spanish Speaking DHEW No. (HSA) 7430 Public inquiries Section, Health Services Administration, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Md. 20852. Association-Sterling Films, CRM educational division, 10011 Camino del Mar, Del Mar, Ca. 92014. We have just previewed several of their films on both health and the behavioral sciences. Films we saw were excellent both in terms of technical production quality and information. Their films on heart attack combined strong dramatic material with research supporting evidence on the causes and cures for heart disease. One possible use for the films would be to feature them on a Cable T.V. system while setting up special hypertension testing centers at the same time. The films are a good community resource and should be purchased by libraries and health agencies so that they might become more available to the public. Telemedicine: Current Experience 250 pages, Report on current experience and thinking in interactive T.V. for provision of health care. Write Alternate Media Center, 144 Bleeker Street, N.Y., N.Y. 10012.