FOMACS Launches New Web Site

FOMACS web site Launched in March 2007, The Forum on Migration and Communications (FOMACS) is a collaborative public media project, producing film, photographic, digital storytelling, radio, animation and print stories on the topic of immigration and integration in Ireland, with the aim of reaching and engaging diverse audiences. Our central objective is to amplify voices and personal stories previously sensationalised or marginalised in dominant media representations of immigration. The ambition of FOMACS is to document the challenging pathways and social, cultural and political networks laid down by migrant workers, asylum seekers, refugees and their families. Offering a unique human-interest angle on the issue of immigration, we work with teams of media and cultural producers, NGO advocates, researchers, educators and community activists to highlight personal/collective stories surrounding key thematics, including ‘Family Reunification’ and ‘Irregular/Undocumented’ migration. In schools, workplaces, the family home, on the local GAA field and soccer pitch, or in places of religious worship, to name just a few, we listen carefully to community perspectives and pay close attention to voices silenced or not fully heard. FOMACS builds on international initiatives, where media production not only provides the foundation and critical glue for social justice campaigns but also is framed by a community outreach approach. We believe that media alone cannot transform public policy, but it can influence change, create social awareness and make more accessible the language of public policy. Significantly, well-told media stories can render real the relationship between public policy and people’s everyday lives. One of our practical aims is to design and maintain a ‘living archive’ of migration into Ireland, making digitally accessible the ongoing work of FOMACS to a diverse set of constituencies and interested publics. Projects are disseminated through partnerships with the Irish media, and internationally through our website, exhibitions, film festivals, toolkits and educational outreach materials. Our website is designed for you to engage in more detail with our many projects. These include: documentary and animation films, photographic and oral histories, digital storytelling, radio and print syndication, educational and outreach publications and media spokesperson workshops. In addition, you’ll find information on FOMACS’ ongoing public projects: film series, roundtables, lectures, symposia, and workshops in our events archive. Visit the newly-launched FOMACS web site.