This podcast is form a forum run by the Australian Centre for Democracy and Justice in 2007 with Peter Lane form Chanel 31 as our guest speaker. It looks at the current state of community media in Australia, the challenges it faces and the place it needs to have in the mediascape. This especially relevant given the recent changes to media ownership laws as well as the coming of the digital spectrum.

Community Media is the space where a huge diversity of voices can be heard. The arena where community represents itself and has a genuine impact. For a just and democratic society, communities must control their own destiny. Community media can play an active role in this empowering of communities through engagement, interaction, exposure to new ideas and by providing a space for discussion and debates about local issues. Community media provides a space for the grassroots to speak and contribute in the increasingly economically rationalised media.

This podcast is a recording from a 2007 forum that the Australian Centre for Democracy and Justice hosted with Ellie Rennie.

Globally, media industries are conglomerating and rationalising operations for economic efficiency much to the detriment of the consumer and citizen, creating an oligopoly and reducing the number of voices herd. But the fight is not over. All over the world, community media is experiencing resurgence. Driven by Information and Communication Technologies that ease difficulty of use and cost are making it easier to make media leading to a boom in citizen-generated media. The question is “can it last?”