Covering the 50th anniversary events

How did the Auroville media cover the 50th anniversary events?

Fabienne: The first project was to create a website where the media could follow the programme of events via a calendar, get general information and download images.

Regarding video, Auroville Radio covered an aspect of everything that was happening. Outreach Media, working with Doris and Francis, a volunteer from Chile, Valentina, and also independent filmmakers, like Serena, provided longer overviews of events. Manohar was also covering events for the Auroville website.

We didn’t want there to be duplication, so we had meetings to work out who was doing what. This worked very well.

For the written material, we, together with members of the Working Committee, the Auroville website team and a representative of the Visitors’ Center, had communication strategy meetings with Lakshay, who has a lot of experience in designing campaigns. He helped us to become clear about the message that we wanted to convey to the outside in our respective field of work. However, when the Foundation asked us to place articles in the Indian press to introduce Auroville and the 50th celebrations, it took us by surprise because this is something we never do. We took up the task because of special circumstances and time constraints but we felt this should be avoided in the future.

We created a press kit specifically for the 50th. celebrations that were sent out to the newspapers and magazines in India and to every country where we had contact. It was translated into Tamil and French. The press kit was in three parts: a general overview, more detail about different activities, then facts and figures.

Interestingly, the way we presented Auroville didn’t work for France: we had to rewrite the whole thing with the help of a French journalist.

Was there much coverage by national and international media?

Fabienne: Nationally, there was an increase in interest for Auroville when they knew the Prime Minister was coming. There were a number of articles in local editions of newspapers, mainly in The Hindu, but also in Marathi and Hindi newspapers in other states of India. In Chennai, The Hindu Business Line magazine presented and analyzed Auroville in a very interesting way.

In addition, the local studio of Doordarshan, the government-owned broadcaster, offered us five minutes a day for one month at a peak broadcasting time to show Auroville videos.

Doris: I had to collect high quality video from our film-makers, covering different aspects of Auroville, to make into these five minute videos. Potentially this was a great platform for presenting Auroville. However, many people couldn’t see them because it was only available on cable and few people are on cable these days.

Fabienne: But a Doordarshan film crew from Delhi did come and they made a much longer film on Auroville. This has been aired nationally and the Aurovilians who have seen it say it is good. We are waiting to receive a copy.

We have also had international radio and filming crews and journalists coming to cover Auroville. These included media from France, Switzerland, Spain, Holland, the U.S., Thailand and Estonia. In fact, we didn’t respond to requests from a number of television channels because we knew we would never have been able to cope.

Were these media primarily interested in the 50th celebrations?

Fabienne: Yes, but through different angles. The French and Swiss were more interested in the green aspect of Auroville. In these countries, spirituality is a difficult topic to approach, so they play for safety by concentrating upon something upon which everybody can agree, like saving the world.

How positive has the coverage been?

Fabienne: Quite good in India. In Europe, we have had good coverage in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland, although a rather ‘tabloidy’ article was published in Spain. We have not seen the T.V. films from Switzerland or France yet, but the French programme is going to be aired on prime time television in the near future.

Fred Chebron was also involved in two short documentaries about Auroville with Arte Channel (Franco-German channel) and Discovery channel in French (Voyage). He was the director for both and the producer for the latter.

Overall, we have been covered well in both the Indian and international media. At least in India, knowledge about Auroville has increased tremendously because of these efforts and the Prime Minister’s visit. And there have already been some results. People want to donate for the land, and this week we had two people asking how they can participate in Auroville.

The other way information about Auroville was disseminated was through exhibitions and conferences. How successful were these?

Serena: The overall attendance at the Delhi exhibition in November was poor, in spite of it being well publicised in the newspapers. The people who came were interested to speak to the Aurovilians and see Auroville products but it is difficult to get many people in Delhi to attend such events and the location was not easily accessible. Another feedback we received was that we should have invited more young people and students: the first day we focussed upon the diplomats. In fact, on the final day when we moved the exhibition to the Delhi branch of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram many more young people came and the energy was incredible.

Fabienne: The idea behind the Delhi exhibition was to reach diplomats so that we could invite them for the celebration on the 28th February. We also planned to move the exhibition to different places in India, but without the finance we could not do it then. We may still do this when the government grant for general expenses comes in.

Serena: There was also a major conference in Auroville called The Bridge which was designed to create collaborations between Aurovilians and outside researchers on topics important for Auroville’s growth. This involved presenting them with an overview of Auroville activities. It was very well received by the visiting participants and there will be ongoing collaborations.

What were the biggest satisfactions from covering the events?

Doris: It was exhausting at times – for example, we had three rehearsals to prepare for the visit of the Prime Minister to the Matrimandir, and then everything changed at the last minute – but overall the way all the teams worked together was great. And the final product was fantastic.

Serena: There had been many efforts before among our media people to collaborate but with the 50th it all happened organically, and we will continue to work together. At the moment, Valentina is putting all the footage together to make a collage video.

Valentina: It will be mainly images to capture the atmosphere of these days. We are planning two videos: one using material shot by the ‘professionals’ and another one made by the people for the people.

Fabienne: There were huge challenges at times, like problems with the cash flow and covering all the different events, but everybody worked so hard and so well together. And, in the process, we have made very good connections with the Indian press, with Doordarshan and some foreign media. Our weak point in the past has been our poor links with the local Tamil press but with the help of Sivakumar, who posted information in Tamil on social media and contacted all the Tamil press to come for the 28th, this has been remedied.

All this will help us communicate about Auroville much more effectively in the future, both in India and abroad.