Finding and Funding Voices - the inner city experience
(pictured Peter Lewis - Senior Lecturer in Community Media)
A one-day international colloquium on community media
The Graduate Centre, London Metropolitan University
166-220 Holloway Road, London N7 8DB.
9.00 am - 5.30 pm, Monday September 17th, 2007
Community media can provide opportunities for social groups excluded
or misrepresented in the mainstream to come in from the margins and
give voice to their cultures and concerns. In inner cities across
Europe there are many examples of young people, migrants, minority
ethnic communities (for example), using media which they own and control,
and of local authorities including media in their plans for urban
regeneration. Giving 'a voice to the voiceless' requires supportive
policies and funding from a range of departments in central and local
government, not just ministries of media or culture. In the UK the
community media sector is at a critical moment as plans for the digital
switch-over threaten to exclude community TV and the expanding community
radio sector has to make do with an inadequate central fund. In some
UK regions and nations the sector's needs are recognised with complementary
funding, but London lacks any overall plan.
The colloquium will bring together community media practitioners and
academics from the UK and abroad, London-based funders and policy-makers,
and representatives of London communities to examine local issues.
The event marks the launch of London Metropolitan University's Community
Media Research Unit, based in the Department of Applied Social Sciences
which has recently appointed two lecturers with special responsibility
for developing community media courses within the university and in
the North and East London communities where the university is located
The provisional programme includes: an opening plenary Setting The Scene with panelists Steve Buckley (President
of AMARC, World
Association of Community Broadcasters), Caroline Mitchell (Principal
Lecturer in Radio, University of Sunderland), Pieter de Wit (Executive Director, OLON, Dutch Federation
of Local Public Broadcasters), Patrice Berger (French Radio Research
Network, GRER, and
community broadcaster), Phil Korbel (Director, Radio
Regen, Manchester) and the London-based community media consultant
Donald McTernan.
In the second half of the morning five workshops will discus Success
stories - examples of good practice in Austria, France,
The Netherlands, Scotland, Wales, and London.
In the afternoon another series of workshops will be Looking
to the Future, meeting needs where 'London voices' will
be encouraged to articulate their needs and make suggestions for future
action in the areas of Training, Policy, funding, research,
and technology to assist programme-sharing.
At a final plenary What is to be done? a
response to what has been said will be made by a panel of policy-makers.
The event is free of charge but early registration is advised as places
are limited. Click
here to download the registration form to be sent back to Salvatore
Scifo at s.scifo@londonmet.ac.uk
