Community media consciously adopt participatory decision-making structures and practices that promote a sense of belonging to and responsibility toward an organisation and its relationship with the wider community. For individuals community media cultivate a more deliberate approach to participation in public life, nurture social networks within and between communities and potentially encourage innovative ways to think about democracy.
It is not the intention of this paper to undertake extensive theoretical analysis of the community media sector.
These are well worth considering and are discussed in the sections below. In a practical sense, community media empowers communities or groups by enabling dissemination of their ideas to a much larger audience.
In this role, community media challenges the status quo nature of mainstream media by providing a space where citizens can encounter, debate or experience alternative viewpoints and lifestyles.
This is in stark contrast to the mainstream where voices of the elite have the power to set the agenda. Similarly, Nick Couldry from the London School of Economics asserts that community media is a weapon of the weak. They see community media as placing power to challenge the dominant ideologies characteristic of mainstream media—despite the fact that that power may be minimal—in the hands of local citizens. There are a number of stark illustrations of how community media contribute to the empowerment of communities.
For women in rural communities in developing countries, for example, community radio is able to provide a variety of health information—about breastfeeding, nutrition and the causes and possible solutions to health problems.
It can also inform people about their legal rights and provide programming which fosters self-respect and self-reliance. The commercial media appear:.
Numerous examples of offerings that promote aspects of the overall national Australian culture are cited in one Griffith University study. Through its representation of—and active engagement with—many cultures, community radio has established itself as an important component in the Australian cultural landscape. Their role in local communities is becoming increasingly important. The creation of local content facilitates the maintenance and representation of cultural tastes, pursuits and knowledge not catered for by other media.
The creation of Australian content and support for local artists is a key cultural role performed by community radio. As a Turkish focus group noted to the researchers, community radio helps to integrate people into Australian life:.
Radio 2XX FM, which broadcasts in the Canberra region, is one example of the types of stations that deliver programs of interest to a number of groups. Similarly, community radio is important in reflecting and maintaining Indigenous and other cultures. Umeewarra Radio Umeewarra FM promotes reconciliation through the sharing of cultural information and breaking down barriers.
Providing local services has been an acknowledged objective of broadcasting regulation in Australia. In a study undertaken for the federal government argued in fact that from the beginning of Australian broadcasting the aim of serving local interest had been an integral part of planning and licensing decisions.
The study maintained that authorities wanted to see radio and television ownership and programming controlled at the local level and that they wanted programming which catered for the particular needs and interests of communities within the service areas of radio and television stations.
In there was an expectation embedded in the provisions of the Broadcasting Services Act BSA that radio broadcasting programming should cater for the particular needs and interests of the communities in which stations were situated and that local radio should deal with matters of local significance.
Despite this expectation, by it appeared that this tradition of commitment to localism had begun to diminish in regional areas. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications, Transport and the Arts inquiry into regional radio the Local Voices inquiry of concluded at that time that a combination of technological, economic and regulatory developments in the commercial broadcasting industry had led to a situation where many local radio voices had been replaced by an increasing number of networked, pre-recorded, automated and syndicated programs.
The Government has since imposed local content obligations on commercial radio, but arguably the effect of these has been gradually diminished as successive legislation has reduced those requirements to a minimum.
Indeed, some stakeholders have claimed each piece of legislation has worked in favour of operators rather than audiences. One community broadcaster even disputes that the ABC truly provides local content:. Moreover, as the cartoon below suggests, it is not only academics who see community radio in terms of empowerment and a source of cultural maintenance and local information, community radio consistently sees these aims as integral to its existence.
Print-based community media has been in existence for a long time, and its roles, such as keeping communities informed and contributing to the maintenance of identity among immigrant groups, have long been acknowledged.
A study by Janowitz in , for example, concluded that levels of community integration and involvement were related to the attention communities paid to local newspapers. One author cites a recent example of this press as the Canadian publication Street feat: the voice of the poor, which challenges stereotypical representations of poor and unemployed people.
There has not been much attention paid in Australia to press which functions outside the mainstream. These publications have included the Radical, established in , Australia's first regular socialist newspaper, and the Industrial Workers of the World publication, Direct Action, which opposed working class involvement in World War I.
A study by academic Susan Forde in identified 28 alternative press publications in Australia. Commercial and public service, or national radio broadcasting began in Australia in the s. Australia's social, political and cultural landscape began to change and people wanted the Australian media, in turn, to reflect these changes. Many specialist groups, including ethnic and Indigenous communities, political activists, students, academics and classical music consumers, began to lobby for their own radio broadcasting licences.
An Australian Broadcasting Control Board inquiry into broadcasting services generally, which commenced in , and which was later expanded to include consideration of proposals to introduce FM radio, addressed the issue of public broadcasting, as it was then labelled. The reason cited in the Explanatory Memorandum to the BSA for this change was that the name better reflected the community based nature of the services.
Rather it was the previous conservative McMahon Coalition government and Postmaster-General Alan Hulme that embraced the idea, and they did so largely because introducing public broadcasting was cheaper than expanding the ABC. It fell to the Whitlam government to develop the concept and licence the first stations since it won power before its political opponents could put the idea into practice. The Whitlam Government introduced the first experimental community broadcasting licences in Australia in September These went to classical music groups in Sydney and Melbourne and to the first community station to commence broadcasting, station 5UV now known as Radio Adelaide at the University of Adelaide.
In these community broadcasters formed the Public Broadcasting Association of Australia PBAA , a body through which they could more formally approach government. There was considerable opposition to the establishment of the community broadcasting sector, particularly from commercial radio interests. One argument used by the commercial sector was that there was insufficient broadcasting spectrum available to accommodate more radio stations.
It was a different story for community television, which, while its origins can be traced to the establishment of video production equipment and training centres in the s, still took some time to begin operation.
Other test broadcasts followed the transmissions and the first community television began broadcasting in Melbourne. In a Parliamentary inquiry sixth channel inquiry into what should be done with broadcasting spectrum that had been notionally reserved for educational television—the so-called sixth channel—recommended that the spectrum should be allocated temporarily to community television until a decision was made following a further review in In May the Government withdrew the permission to allow community broadcasters to use the sixth channel that was for all new services—existing services were allowed to continue while it contemplated how the channel would be used in conjunction with the introduction of digital television.
The development of digital technology has delivered a new world of possibilities for broadcasters. Digital radio and television provides audiences with better sound, better pictures and innovative new features.
Importantly, digital technology more efficiently uses broadcasting spectrum, thereby freeing up large portions for other uses, such as mobile telecommunications and mobile television. The process of conversion to digital operation has been expensive, however.
Governments and commercial and public service national broadcasters have long acknowledged this, but accepted that direct and indirect advantages to be gained from the conversion from analogue broadcasting would eventually outweigh the costs. In March , the Minister for Communications, Richard Alston, promised digital radio would be available to Australians by , but it was not until March that legislation was passed to implement a framework for digital radio services.
The first digital radio services were introduced in areas where they were most likely to be commercially viable—Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Switch-on for the services occurred in May and June From the advocacy body, the CBAA, began to lobby the Government for funding to assist the community radio sector to weather the digital transition process. In a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Information Technology and the Arts Environment, Information Technology and the Arts Committee inquiry into the digital radio legislation, the CBAA raised a number of concerns about how the legislative framework for transition to digital would affect community broadcasting.
However, the Government did not respond to this petition before a deadline which required the community stations to enter into the new management arrangements.
The —09 Budget provided some assistance for digital conversion, however. Grants assisted in establishing the Digital Radio Project in and digital radio services for metropolitan-wide community radio stations in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Community digital radio services were launched nationally by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy, in May It argued that unless the Government committed additional funding, the sector would be forced to reduce services.
Initial legislation for conversion of television services in Australia to digital transmission was introduced by the Howard Government in and a period of simulcast of analogue and digital telecasts began in the five major mainland capitals on 1 January Transition funding was also provided to regional commercial television broadcasters, largely in the form of licence fee rebates.
It added that this could be withdrawn unless access to digital spectrum was confirmed for the future. But no certainty about the future for community television had been realised when the Howard Government lost office in in By March , the Rudd Government had promised that community television would not be overlooked in the migration to digital, but like its predecessor, the Labor Government was reluctant to provide funding. Following the —10 Budget, the Coalition joined with operators to demand that Labor provide certainty about funding for the sector.
The Minister noted in a speech to a community television forum that relying on government handouts and chasing government funding was not the way to achieve sustainability for the sector; it had to find that from within the community it served. That is, to what extent does any government support compromise its independence and what amount of government support is acceptable?
Further, what is more important—to opt for compromise to ensure survival—or is independence paramount? In November , Minister Conroy announced that the Labor Government remained committed to ensuring community television had a permanent spectrum allocation for digital broadcasting. In further state government funding was promised which it was hoped would keep the station solvent until it could gain digital capability.
According to Gannon, despite lobbying that government for four years it had not granted the digital licence which Gannon believed was needed to counter the loss of audience and sponsors since digital broadcasting had commenced on national and commercial television.
Minister Conroy replied by urging the Government of Western Australia to continue support for Access Despite this assurance, the state government funding offer and a further funding promise from a Perth businessman were withdrawn, and on 6 August Access 31 closed. On 27 September , ACMA called for expressions of interest in providing a trial community-based television service in Perth for two years. ACMA received four applications, all of high quality according to the regulator.
The temporary licence was awarded to West TV Ltd, however, to provide an analogue service on a temporary license for two years. In when the Government agreed to provide funding for community stations to simulcast their services Minister Conroy also approved the grant of a digital licence to West TV.
The station commenced digital-only broadcasting in April Currently, the community broadcasting sector in Australia has more media outlets than either the commercial or public service broadcast media sectors. Nearly stations also operate under temporary community broadcasting licences see information on licensing in the relevant section below.
Most licenced community radio stations service regional, rural and remote areas see diagram below. Audience figures for community television are imprecise. The Melbourne and Queensland stations cite audiences of , and , plus respectively. Perth cites an OzTam audited audience of 80, per day and Sydney claims a cumulative audience of 1.
In , the Australian reported a cumulative monthly reach of approximately 3. The community radio sector has an estimated monthly national radio audience reach of more than nine million.
Over People like to hear local news and local information and music from local artists; they like to hear local personalities and local opinions. See the figure below which provides more information. A large percentage of community stations are operated entirely by volunteers. From the perspective that community media are media of the people, the fact that volunteers comprise the majority of staff, implies that they are also of the people.
This can be problematic, however. The CBAA reported in 20O7 that the lack of paid staff made it difficult for 45 per cent of community stations to concentrate on fundraising and development. They considered that having a paid station manager at least to control day-to-day operations gave their unpaid committee members time to concentrate on ensuring that an overall community focus is maintained.
CBAA administers a dispute resolution process which attempts to mediate various problems and ACMA addresses dispute and other governance problems through its licence renewal process. However, the cost of training has been difficult to meet for stations on tight budgets. This was provided to establish a national community broadcasting training fund and was subject to certain conditions. These were:. Community broadcasting is regulated under the BSA and community radio and television codes of practice.
Licences for community broadcasters can only be granted to companies which are assessed as representing community interests and which have been formed in Australia or an external territory of Australia. Long-term community broadcasting licences are granted for a period of five years on the basis of the comparative merit of applicants in accordance with criteria set out in section 84 of the BSA.
These include the nature and diversity of other broadcasting services including national broadcasting services available within a licence area and the capacity of a licence applicant to provide a proposed service. Where broadcasting spectrum is available, temporary community broadcasting licences can be granted to applicants considered by ACMA to be suitable persons. Temporary licences can be awarded for periods of up to 12 months.
Temporary licences do not entitle holders to exclusive use of a frequency and if there are two or more applicants for temporary licences they are expected to share the frequency. Today, Australian commercial free-to-air television spans multiple delivery platforms including linear broadcast channels, BVOD catch-up and live streaming services, podcasts and more — giving Australians great content whenever they want it, wherever they are and on whatever device they want to use.
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