On October 11, 2009, LGBTQ activists will participate in the National Equality March (NEM) at the nation's capitol to demand one thing: full equality in all 50 states for all people.
To ensure the NEM receives extensive media coverage, the United Equality New Media (UENM) team will combine the power of blogging, podcasting, social networking and liveblogging to provide a constant stream of news updates to people who could not make the trip to Washington, DC. Born out of the desire to provide on the ground coverage of the weekend's events, the UENM chairperson Jay Morris has established a team of veteran bloggers and podcasters - dubbed iQreporters - who are committed to ensuring that those who are still at home do not miss any of the weekend's events.
"Mainstream media will be covering the National Equality March, but not getting to the heart of LGBT people. iQreport will be able to get past the surface stories and reveal the reality of discrimination against our community," says Morris.
iQreporters will utilize CoverItLive.com to liveblog NEM's premier events on the team's web site. In addition to liveblogging, iQreporters will post constant updates to the team's Twitter page and several team members will use smartphones to capture and instantly upload audio and video on both Facebook and Twitter. "The people are the true heart and soul of the march," says Morris, "and we want to capture that."
Morris and fellow team member Genia Stevens chose popular podcasting service BlogTalkRadio.com to train all iQreporters on how to effectively use various social media tools to accomplish the team's mission. Team members participated in a training call that walked them through using CoverItLive, blogging via email and capturing dynamic media that can be seamlessly added to their blog, Twitter stream and Facebook page.
To ensure that all iQreporters are in prime locations throughout the weekend and that all liveblogging events go off without a hitch, John Gagon will act as the team's central station. iQreporters will check in constantly with Gagon for assignments, location changes, schedule changes and event reminders.
The idea of using iQreporters to report the weekend's events was born out of necessity. Derek Washington, the NEM Director of Diversity Outreach, struggled with reaching a representative sampling of march attendees, and in the process was introduced to Mickey Rowe, a certified EEOC investigator. Rowe's mandate was to "create inclusion within our community as well as demand it for all LGBT people." After Rowe and his husband, Lester Leavitt, were introduced to Morris, the idea of the iQreport was born. Leavitt is a third-year student in multi-media journalism who has more than 25 years of experience in business development and marketing.
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